What's the point?

Why Evaluate? Is it necessary?
Information is just information, right?

	Exhibit One
	Exhibit Two
	Exhibit Three
	Exhibit Four
	Exhibit Five

How to Evaluate

What criteria should we use? Which characteristics should we look at?

	The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, or, Why It's Important to Evaluate Web Sources by Susan E. Beck http://lib.nmsu.edu/staff/susabeck/eval.html
	Evaluating Web Resources by Jan Alexander & Marsha Tate http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webeval.htm
	Evaluating World Wide Web Information by Ann Scholz-Crane http://crab.rutgers.edu/~scholzcr/eval.html
	Government Resources on the Internet: Verification in Information by Cindy Pitchon & Genie Tyburski http://www.virtualchase.com/govdoc/verify.shtml
	Web Page Evaluation Worksheet by Dr. Nancy Everhart http://www.duke.edu/~de1/evaluate.html

Want More?

Check out Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources by Nicole Auer
       at  http://www.lib.vt.edu/research/libinst/evalbiblio.html

Watchdog Sites

Electronic Scams, Ripoffs & Quackery

Internet Fraud Watch

http://www.fraud.org/internet/inttip/inttip.htm

E-Commerce & The Internet

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm

Internet Scambusters

http://www.scambusters.org/

Quackwatch

http://www.quackwatch.com/index.html

Computer Hoaxes & Virus Myths

Computer Virus Myths

http://kumite.com/myths/

Computer Incident Advisory Capability: Internet Hoaxes

http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html

Urban Legends, Paranoia & Conspiracy

Urban Legends Reference Pages

http://www.snopes.com

Urban Legends & Folklore

http://urbanlegends.about.com/

Blackops--Encyclopedia of Conspiracy Theories

http://www.cruzio.com/~blackops/

The AFU & Urban Legends Archive

http://www.urbanlegends.com/

The Skeptical Inquirer

http://www.csicop.org/si/

Media Watchdogs

Fairness & Accuracy in the Media

http://www.fair.org

Media Research Center: Newsletters & Reports

http://www.mrc.org/specialreports/welcome.html

Recommendations

Never suspend disbelief

Always check a web page for:

Objectivity

Accuracy

Authority

Purpose

Currency

Remember the adage,

"If it looks too good to be true, it probably is..."

Don't forget to look at watchdog sites

for guidance with hoaxes, scams, potential urban legends and conspiracies

by
Susan E. Beck
Head, Humanities & Social Sciences Services Department
New Mexico State University Library