1. Website Evaluation
Always keep this in mind when examining a
source for accuracy:
• Authority: An accepted source of information
• Currency: Up-to-date, new
• Coverage: Informative, relevant, broad
• Objectivity: Based on facts without prejudice or bias
By Mrs. Jourdain
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2. Website Checklist
Authority - This Website Has:
__ An author or official organization* on the page.
__ The author or institution’s qualifications.**
__ Contact information such as email, phone, address.
__ Citations or links for the information on the page.
__ An educational, governmental, or organizational
ending (.edu - .gov - .org).
__ A professional look (not a personal website or blog)?
* An author is a real name (not a screen name). An example of an
official organization would be the American Red Cross, Channel 4
News, or the Boston Red Sox.
** Qualifications include job titles, education, experience, and/or
background information about the organization. Check the “About
Us” section if available.
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3. Website Checklist
Currency - This Website Has:
__ A date associated with the information on the page.
__ Recent information*
__ Links that work**
*Recent would depend on the topic that you are searching. For example,
if you study Shakespeare, the information will not need to be updated as
often as a topic such as global warming. Even a website a year old, may
be too old for this topic.
** A majority of 80% of the links should work. If not, this page hasn’t
been updated in a long time and the information could be invalid.
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4. Website Checklist
Coverage - This Website Has:
__ Information relevant to my topic.
__ Links to other credible websites.
__ Covers different aspects* of the topic.
* Different aspects means different points of view, historical
information, related issues.
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5. Website Checklist
Objectivity - This Website Has:
__ Very little, if any, advertising.
__ Advertising that isn’t linked directly to the information
on the page.
__ No biased language or first person narratives.
__ Hard facts and statistics with citations.
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6. Keyword Searching
The more keywords,
the more narrow
your results are.
Select keywords
carefully.
Don’t add words you
don’t need.
Avoid punctuation.
From: Ithaca College Library,
www.ithaca.edu/library/course/boolnot.gif
12/11/12

7. Google’s Advanced Search
Google’s Search has methods to save you time.
The easiest is to narrow by Last Updated and Site or
Domain. The domain is the ending to a website (.gov
or .edu or .org)
Directions for all internet browsers:
Type in a search, then scroll to the bottom of the page.
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8. Google’s Advanced Search
The bottom of your page looks like this. Click on:
Then, enter information in the Last Update and/or the
Site or Domain.
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9. Google’s Advanced Search
For example:
You are studying a current topic like Global Warming.
You want to make sure the information is current and
comes from a reliable source.
After typing global warming in the search box, the first
result is from Wikipedia. Anyone can edit this site and so
it is not reliable from day to day.
You are better off doing the following:
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10. Google’s Advanced Search
Under “last update” choose: past month.
Under “site or domain” choose: .gov
Note: anyone can make a page and call it a .org (organization).
These sites should be viewed as carefully as a .com (which stands
for commercial).
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11. Google’s Advanced Search
Like any other source, make sure what you find is a
quality source in terms of:
• Authority: An accepted source of information
• Currency: Up-to-date, new
• Coverage: Informative, relevant, broad
• Objectivity: Based on facts without prejudice or bias
If not, keep looking for better sites! Remember: your
report is only as good as your source material.
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