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This page will assist Internet users in searching for high quality information on the Internet.

To compliment the information you find on the Web, consult the research databases purchased by the Library. They cover a wide range of subjects, contain scholarly data, are easy to search, and provide either full text or bibliographic references to journal articles.

• General Search Engines
  • Tips for effective searching
• Gateways and Virtual Libraries
• Web-based tutorials
• Evaluating Web sites

Information found on the Web, much of which is useful and reliable, is not organised in a structured way, and has little quality control. To assist you, the Library provides guides to web resources in many subjects. The guides, contributed by liaison librarians, make particular reference to Irish resources.

General Search Engines

Search engines are useful for finding general facts, useful websites, information about people and organisations. For specialised information use subject Gateways and Virtual Libraries (see below). Many general search engines are indexed by computerised “spider” programmes that crawl through the Internet looking for new Web pages to add to their listings. They have millions of indexed pages, and are not organised in any formal way. As these databases are generated automatically, search results will be a mixture of authorative/reliable sources and biased/misleading sources

Examples of general search engines include: Google, Yahoo, Windows Live Search, All the Web, Excite, Altavista.

Dogpile and Search.com are good examples of metasearch engines, where your search query is sent to several search engines at one time and the results are integrated into one list.

Follow these tips for effective searching to retrieve more accurate results:

• Read the Help Screens: -each Search Engine offers different tips for effective searching.
• Use “advanced search” when offered - limit your search by language, date etc
• Use quotations marks: - To ensure more accurate results put your search term, whether a phrase, quotation, name or organisation in quotation marks.
• Use Boolean searching – for more than one keyword or subject.
  Example: “Child and development” or
  “Presidential speeches” and Robinson not MacAleese
• Combine Boolean and quotations
  Example: Speeches and Robinson and “Irish diaspora”
• Spellings - For comprehensive searching use different forms of spellings
  Example: Organization and organisation. Be careful of spellings, most search engines will only look for the literal spellings given

Remember information on the Web can change minute by minute, as it is not a static medium. Several people may have contributed to the Web page, and they are usually not peer reviewed, evaluated or checked for accuracy. Evaluating Web sites – a checklist will assist you in critically assessing the reliability and/or credibility of a web page.

Gateways and Virtual Libraries are collections of high quality resources within a particular subject area, of interest to a specified audience. Save time and effort by using one of these sites, as information has already been critically assessed, and found to be reliable and/or credibile.

These sites emphasise “quality not quantity”, and vary in size and level of specificity. The Library provides guides to web resources in a range of subjects.

To locate gateways in specific subjects, check out

• Pinakes: a subject launchpad, links to a wide range of subject gateways covering subjects from Aerospace to Veterinary Science

Examples of Gateways and Virtual Libraries

• Intute provides access to high quality internet resources for learning, teaching, and research community. Sample subjects include:

• BUBL Link covers a broad range of subjects, inc. general reference, creative arts, humanities, language, literature and culture
• Infomine links to resources in a wide range of subjects inc. Sciences, US government information, instructional resources, computing, maths, social sciences, visual and performing arts etc.
• Hero is an Internet portal for higher education and academic research in the UK.
• Vetgate (now on Intute) or Net Vet provide access to useful veterinary sites and information
• AGRIS: agricultural database, which also covers veterinary medicine.
• TOXNET - cluster of searchable databases relating to toxicology, hazardous substances and related areas.

Web based tutorials

Web based tutorials are designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information literacy and IT skills. They also link to useful subject directories and portals.
The Intute Virtual Training Suite a subject based approach to Internet skills training, includes sections on resources, search skills, evaluation and using the Internet. Tutorials take approx. 1 hour. TONIC , an online tutorial developed by Netskills, based at the University of Newcastle, includes a section on how to search the Internet effectively.

Evaluating Web pages – a checklist

The quantity and variety of information on the Internet is extensive, and looking for quality sources can be a time consuming process. Filtering through web pages of often useless, out of date, or difficult to authenticate information can be a waste of your time.

This checklist is encourages you to look critically at web pages, and to assess the validity, reliability and credibility of the information you find.

The checklist is of greatest value when assessing sites found on General Search engines, as your search may result in a mixture of authorative/reliable sources and biased/misleading sources.

As mentioned above, Subject Gateways and Virtual Libraries provide access to information that has already been critically assessed, and found to be reliable. The Library guides to web resources are contributed by subject librarians, and make particular reference to Irish resources.

Getting started

Information on the Web can change minute by minute, as it is not a static medium. Several people may have contributed to the page content. Web pages are usually not peer reviewed, evaluated or checked for accuracy.

• Note the date you access the information, as you will need to include it when citing the website.
• Note also the author; local home page; sponsor, date of creation/or revision, intended audience; and purpose of the page.

Is the information valid?

1. What is the page trying to do?
   Provide information?
   Attempt to persuade?
   Act as a reference site?
2. Does it measure what it intends to measure?
3. Are the methods used for measurement accurate for the intended purpose?
4. What is the relative value of the site in comparison to the range of information available on this topic?
   What other sources are available?
   How comprehensive is the site – are the links relevant, are the links evaluated?
5. Who are the intended audience?

Is the information reliable?

1. Is it consistent and free of errors?
2. Is it current? – when was it created, last edited, are the links up-to-date?
3. Is the quantative data, ie statistics, surveys and measurements, used fairly and accurately?
4. Is the information presented logically?
5. Are there any evaluative claims? – If so, do the judgements, whether positive/negative, support the claims?
6. Are sources for the evidence provided?
7. Is contact information for the author included in the document?

Is the information credible?

1. Who sponsored the study?
2. What was the intention of the study?
3. Could the author/sponsor have had a vested interest in the outcome of the study?
4. Who is the author, and what are his/her credentials?
5. What makes this person an expert?
6. What may be the authors’ biases?
7. Did you locate this document/author through another source or document that you can trust? i.e. Subject Gateways and Virtual Libraries
8. Is the author a corporate spokesperson?
9. What experience does the author have with this subject?
10. Who is the intended audience?
11. Is the data in this study consistent with data from similar studies?
12. Has the information on this page been transcribed? – if so, it indicates that the information is second hand.

Information for this checklist has been sourced from a range of materials including:
Harris, Robert ( 2007) Evaluating Internet Research Sources
And
Cooke, Alison (2001) A guide to finding quality information on the internet: selection and evaluation strategies. 2nd Edition. London, Library Association

Last updated: Mar 30 2009

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