INF 100 - Third Assignment


Required Readings:

Please read and memorize the checklist on evaluating web resources, found on this page from the UC Berkeley Library: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvalQuestions.html

Read the following guide to creating a strategy for searching the web, again from the UCB library.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

Choose a site on the web to evaluate according to the checklist you just memorized. Note that the sites the Berkeley page recommends for evaluation are often extremely biased. It is important to realize, however, that every website, as well as every book or article, has a particular a point of view, and that the author has certain interests and connections. Consider this when you evaluate your site. Choose a site in the area that you are planning to research for your final project. You can use any site you like. Use the strategies in the second reading (above) for finding your site.

Carefully read Chapter 3 in Introduction to Information Research, "How Information is Presented," pages 39-57.

Assignment based on the readings:

Please answer the following ten questions in the form provided. Your answers will be emailed to the instructor. Each question is worth five points.

Your name:

Your email address:

From the reading on evaluating web resources:

What are the seven basic items on the checklist for evaluating web resources?

From the reading on web searching strategy:

What is a search strategy NOT recommended by the librarians at UCB, and why? (Use your own words.)

When should you use phrase searching? Give an example.

How do you handle common synonyms or spelling variations? Give an example.

From your exercize on evaluating a web resource:

What are the URL and title of the page you evaluated?

What can you find out about the publisher of the page? What are their interests in the world? What kind of an organization are they?

Who is its intended audience of the site? (Is it for consumers, for college students, for kids, for professionals of a certain kind? Be as specific as you can.)

From the reading in An Introduction to Information Research:

Name and describe three types of access tools, in your own words.

Several specific access tools are named in the chapter. Name five specific access tools that that are not listed in the chapter. (Hint: the SJSU library website lists many.)

Explain how you can use access tools themselves to evaluate sources.

You should also have your topic chosen by the next class. Be sure to discuss it with the instructor to make sure it will work.

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Last updated June, 2000