The IU East library is designed to be your information center but there may be times when you can’t make it to campus.  When that happens the library’s website is the perfect place to get started on your research.  

If you can’t get what you need on our website you might need to use other websites.  Anyone can put anything on the internet so here are a few hints to make sure you get good information.  Check websites for:

• Authority – are the author and sponsor identified?  is the author qualified?  is the sponsor identified and reputable?
• Up-to-date – does the site tell when it was last updated?  was the update recent?
• Accuracy – is the information given reliable & error free?
• Bias – what is the site’s objective?  is it designed to sway opinion?  is it advertising something?
• Citations – does the site say where it got its information?

Some examples of bad sites that look good are: California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge, History of the Fisher-Price Airplane, AIDS FACTS and Coalition to Ban DHMO Dihydrogen Monoxide.  Take a look and see if you can figure out what’s wrong with them. 

Remember, if you aren’t sure you can always ask a librarian.

Don’t forget to cite your sources!

Beck, Susan. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources.  1997.  http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html

Schrock, Kathy. Kathy Schrock’s ABC’s of Web Site Evaluation. 2007. http://kathyschrock.net/abceval/