Web Site Evaluation

Quote

"The net is like a hugh, vandalized library. Someone has destroyed the catalog and removed the front matter, indexes, etc. from hundreds of thousands of books and torn and scattered what remains. ...'Surfing" is the process of sifting through this disorganized mess in the hope of coming across some useful fragments of text and images that can be related to other fragments. The net is even worse than a vandalized library because thousands of additional unorganized fragments are added daily by the myriad of cranks, sages, and persons with time on their hands who launch their unfiltered messages into cyberspace." -- Michael Gorman, 1955

When To Use the Web

Often, there is a temptation to use the web simply because it is relatively easy to use from home. Obvious questions include:

Rapid, incontrolled growth of information

Anyone can publish on the web. There are no enforced standards, quality control may be minimal, and the information is of varying quality and reliability.

Much of what we find published on the Internet is vanity publishing. In hard copy publishing, vanity publications are generally ignored because of the lack of quality control. However, some vanity or self-published works are of substantial quality and utility. Typically, self-published content needs to be greeted with more suspicion or doubt.Some information professionals are suspicious of net sites that contain considerable advertising or promotional material for an organization or company. While one would not expect a General Motors site to be objective in presenting information on new cars, it is important to note that information about products, particularly product specifications, is often an important information need for many clients.

The Internet contains a large variety of advocacy sites, including some for viewpoints that many would find hateful or disgusting. While we would not use these sites for objective information on a social or economic problem, they can be useful for those who wish to know more about a particular viewpoint.

Individuals and organizations that might find it difficult to print and publish a print document can easily place information that appears convincing on the WWW. Caveat lector--let the user beware. For example, look at Webworst. A site may look authoritative but may not be trustworthy.Information may be harmful. Donıt believe everything you read. Attractive, convincing web sites may perpetuate stereotypes, encourage inappropriate behavior or action or may the unreasonable seem reasonable. This is especially a problem with health-related sites and sites that deal with controversial political and social topics. It is particularly important to compare content and treatment of topics using a variety of sites as well as traditional hard copy sources. In traditional print sources, information and advertising content are usually separated. On the web, it may be difficult to tell where one stops and the other begins. There are many "infomercial" sites on the web.Ideally, follow the scholar's rule: "never use information tht you cannot verify."

Web sites may be categorized as:

Lack of a standard instrument

Many different evaluation forms and checklists exist. Sites that review and evaluate WWW sites use different criteria, but a few variables are mentioned repeatedly: authority, scope, currency, purpose, and accuracy. Note that there is no "single perfect indicator of reliability, truthfulness, or value. Instead, you must make an inference from a collection of clues or indicators based on the use you plan to make of the source.

Sites change rapidly

Intellectual content that was useful yesterday may be gone tomorrow. A site with marginal content may have improved content tomorrow. Normally, web site evaluation must be repeated at frequent intervals to insure that the evaluation still matches site content. Some information is relatively timeless, for example, primary source material on the Spanish-American War. Other material, cost of living in a retirement community, for example, may not be useful if it is two years old.

Cost

Some web sites are pass word protected or require the use of a credit card before useful information is provided. Many commericial information providers will provide a small amount of free information, sometimes as a teaser for their subscription or pay for site.

Navigation

Utility is often a function of how easy it is to find what you are looking for.

Design

The home page of the web site should be pleasing and easy to view.It should be aesthetically pleasing. It should have a consistency from page to page.

Performance

An attractive, potentially useful site will not be used if it performs poorly. A coherent structure is essential.

Currency and Stability

There are many neglected web sites where once useful information is now dated.

Audience

It is difficult to evaluate a web site without first considering the local audience as well as the audience envisioned by those responsible for the web site.

Content

It is the quality and utility of the intellectual content that make a web site noteworthy. Authorship is especially important. As is true with hard copy sources, well-known, reputable authors are important. The publisher is also of considerable importance. Intemperate language, exaggerated claims, lack of evidence, and anonymous sources are likely to indicate a site with questionable content.