1. Evaluating Information
Internet vs. Databases
Benton Library Media Center

2. RESEARCH IS SIMPLE . . . RIGHT?
SEARCH
EVALUATE
CITE
Images: “MacBook light shift” by goobimama via Flickr, CC-licensed
“Goed Zoekveld” by Bart van Biezen via Flickr, CC-licensed
“Closeup of an opened dictionary” by zehfernando via Flickr, CC-licensed

4. SEARCHING FOR INFORMATION
bentonlibrary.org
OR
Google
Images: “New Google Favicon High Resolution” by Tiger Pixel via Flickr under a CC-license.

5. WHAT IS A DATABASE?
search engine for printed publications
scholarly journals popular magazines
newspapers other content

6. DATABASES vs THE INTERNET
academic content varied content
VS
updated daily updated irregularly
VS
peer reviewing little or no reviewing
of articles of websites
PEER REVIEW
VS
Images: “049”, “Fresh from the Still”, “question mark ?”, “What ?” , “Question
mark” via Flickr, under a CC-license.

7. EVALUATING INFORMATION
“Wrong” “Right”
Information Information

8. THE C.R.A.P TEST
CURRENCY
RELIABILITY
AUTHORITY
PURPOSE
Images: “TP” by bathroomdiva via Flickr under a CC-license.

9. CURRENCY
Is the information up-to-date?
Does the website
present new information?
Can you tell when the
information was published?
Images: “#1 New MacBook” by Mikael Miettinen via Flickr under a CC-license.
“2009-07-09 What Day Is It?” by RG of CS-taking a bit of a break via Flickr under a CC-license.

10. RELIABILITY
Is the information verifiable elsewhere?
Is the information
backed by sources?
Is the information
relevant to your topic?
Images: “IT everywhere #31” by Paul the Wine Guy via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Smack in the middle” by ogimogi via Flickr under a CC-license.

11. AUTHORITY
Is the website backed by experts?
Can you determine the
authors of the website?
Is there an organization
backing the website?
Image: “Man vs. Power” by theqspeaks via Flickr under a CC-license.

12. PURPOSE
Is the website commerical
or non-commercial?
Is there a clear bias
for a single viewpoint?
Is the information presented
objectively (when needed)?
Image: “dot com” by Thomas Hawk via Flickr under a CC-license.
“Load or unload” by Pulpolux !!! via Flickr under a CC-license.

13. CITING YOUR INFORMATION
Benton
Library
LibGuides
bentonlibrary.org