Jackson Creek Middle School Evaluating Web Sources Authority: Who?

WHO is the Source of the Information?

• The author of the web page should be found either at the top or bottom of the main page or on a linking page.
• Background information about an author gives creditability to the author and the web site.
• An e-mail address or a postal address allows for communication with the author.

NO Author:

• If no individual author is available, the sponsor, organization, or company is used to identify the web site's authority.
• Sponsors or companies associated with the web page do not always have one individual author.
• An e-mail address or "webmaster" is not enough to give creditability to the web site.

What is the URL?

• The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the address of the web site.
• The URL can give clues as to who wrote the website.

Types of Web Pages:

• Informational- gov, edu, mil
• News- com
• Association- org, edu
• Personal- com, aol, edu (usually a ~ is associated with it).
• Commercial- com
• Educational- edu, or a 2- digit country or origin code (i.e. .uk, .au, .ca).

Pick one of these sites and see if it meets the AUTHORITY criteria.

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Mankato's Ancient Silver Disks

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Last Updated: 11/30/11
Kristina McGlaun, Librarian
Jackson Creek Middle School