Champlain College Library - Miller Information Commons

I FOUND THIS ON THE WEB—SHOULD I USE IT? Internet sites can be helpful for research, but some sites may not be academically suitable for the kind of research your instructor requires. Before you use information from a website, consider the following:
_	AUTHORITY: Who is the author? What is their background? Check out their credentials by doing a name search in Google. Or check the online book catalog and see what you might uncover.
_	CURRENCY: Is it up to date? Are production and revision dates clearly stated? If there are links, are they up-to-date?
_	VALIDITY: Are the facts or statements sound? Can the online content be verified in another source? Compare the information you found on Google, for example, with another reputable source.
_	QUALITY: Is it well written? Are the ideas clearly presented and well organized?
For more tips on evaluating information found on the web, go to: Evaluating Information Found on the Internet (Johns Hopkins University), at http://library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/index.html Five Colleges of Ohio Tutorial, at http://www.denison.edu/collaborations/ohio5/infolit/ The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources (New Mexico State University), at http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html Cornell University Tutorial, at http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/webcrit.html
... Or contact a reference librarian at ReferenceDesk@champlain.edu or 865-6486.