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Evaluating African Web Sites |
| Anne Pemberton and Dr. Scott Brunger |
Myth:
Everything on the Internet must be true!
Fact: Information available on the
Internet can be false!
It is very important for students to be able to evaluate
the quality of web pages. Some pages may contain false information while
others serve as an excellent source of information. Students need to
distinguish between these two categories. The following are questions that
will enable you to evaluate any web page related to tourism and travel.
AUTHORITY
 | What
agency/organization/person has created this page? |
| Is there
contact information given for the agency/oganization/author of the page
such as an e-mail address, phone number, fax number, or address? |
| Are there
any qualifications listed for the creator(s) of the page? |
| Who
sponsors this page? Notice advertisements!!! |
PURPOSE
| What is the
purpose of this page? |
| Why was
this page created? |
| Is the
purpose of the page to inform the user? |
| Is the
purpose of the page to sell a product or a service? |
| What does
the creator gain from this page? |
| What
audience is this page created for? Is it for a particular group? |
CONTENT
| Does this
page contain useful information? |
| How much
information is available? Too little? Too much? |
| Are there
excess amounts of graphs or pictures with little textual information? |
| Is this
information unique? Are you learning NEW information from this page? |
| Is there a
print source that corresponds to the page? |
| What
information is NOT given or is possibly being avoided? |
| What is
your general impression of the page? |
| Is the page
easy to follow, easy to understand? |
ACCURACY
| Are there
several spelling or grammatical errors? |
| Do the
creators list the sources they used to gather the information presented on
the page? |
| Is the
information verifiable? |
| Is the
information objective or subjective? |
CURRENCY
| Are
creation and revision dates available and easy to locate? |
| How long
has this page been accessible? |
| Is the
information presented current? |
| Are the
sources the creators cited current? |
| Is the
page completed or under construction? |
Guidelines
for Web Page Evaluation:
| Evaluating Web Resources. Widener
University: Wolfgram Memorial Library Information Gateway. http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webeval.htm |
| Evaluating Internet Resources. University
At Albany Libraries. http://www.albany.edu/library/internet/evaluate.html |
| Thinking Critically about WWW Resources - UCLA
Library http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/web/critical.htm |
A Good Place to Start
| Argus Clearinghouse. This site rates pages and describes their contents. http://www.clearinghouse.net/ |
The Good and the Bad!
The following are examples of good quality and poor
quality web sites.
|
Subject |
"Good" |
"Bad" |
|
African Life |
http://www.africana.com | |
| African News | http://www.allafrica.com | http://www.nationaudio.com/News?DailyNation/Today/ |
| African Tourism | http://www.Kenyaembassy.com/tourism.html | http://www.africanvacation.com |
| African Art | http://www.ijele.com | http://www.african-artsales.co.za |
Useful Web Sites
| Dutch/English News and Art from Africa http://www.africaserver.nl |
| International Institute for Tropical Agriculture http://www.cgiar.org/iita |
| Personal Travel Experiences in Africa http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/8106/Africa/ |
| Source of Current Statistics on African Countries http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ |
| Summer Institute of Linguistics on African Languages http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/ |
| Scholarly Journal About African News http://www.westafricareview.com |
Ways to find information at the Maryville
College Library
| Access McQuest |
| Perform a Subject
search using the term "guidebooks" |
| Perform a Subject
search using the terms "tourist trade" |
Back to Research Guides by Topic Page
Created by: Anne Pemberton
Modified by: Dr. Scott Brunger
Last Update: May 16, 2001