Searching for Reliable Information on

the World Wide Web

Professor Elyse Rosenbaum

Mr. Adam Faust
Mr. Nathan Jack
 Outline

• Introduction
• Searching for information on the internet
• Useful websites
• Evaluating information found on the internet
• Bibliographies and footnotes

2
 “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

Cartoon by Peter Steiner. The New Yorker, July 5, 1993 issue. 3

 Internet vs. Library

• Librarians, publishers and reviewers check the

accuracy of printed materials found in public and
school libraries
• Who verifies that webpages contain truthful
material?
– Primary responsibility: the reader (you!)
– .edu and .gov websites are generally trustworthy

4
 Outline

• Introduction
• Searching for information on the internet
• Useful websites
• Evaluating information found on the internet
• Bibliographies and footnotes

5
 Search Engines for Kids
• Yahoo! Kids
• kids.yahoo.com
• Ask for Kids
• www.askforkids.com
• KidsClick!
• www.kidsclick.org
• Kids Konnect
• www.kidskonnect.com
• Only age-appropriate websites are searched, but
– The quality of the information is not evaluated
– Commercial sites will be included

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 Librarians to the Rescue
• Search engines like Google, Excite and Yahoo
do NOT evaluate the content of the webpages
they find
• Librarians are developing new search engines,
which only list websites that have been pre-
screened for content
– This is the same thing a librarian does before ordering
a print book for his/her library
• One example: Librarian’s Internet Index
– Self described as a list of “Websites you can trust”
– Funded by the state libraries of California and
Washington
– Trustworthy, but not specifically targeted to children
– http://lii.org/
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 Librarians to the Rescue, cont’d

• Librarians have also developed the Internet

Public Library
– This does have a children’s department!
– http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/
– This website is sponsored by Drexel University,
Florida State University, and the University of
Michigan

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 Search Hint

• If you want to use a general purpose search

engine, such as google, append “kids” to your
search term
– To find information on insects, search for “insects
kids”
– To find information on suspension bridges, search for
“suspension bridges kids”
• Adding the word “kids” will help the search
engine find sites that are written for young
people

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 Practice Search

• Let’s practice using one of the search engines

written for kids
• Go to kids.yahoo.com

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Search: Electricity

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Scroll Down to “WEB SEARCH RESULTS”
Click “Electricity – Electric Avenue”

12
Interesting Electricity Facts!

13
 Outline

• Introduction
• Searching for information on the internet
• Useful websites
… for obtaining information about engineering
• Evaluating information found on the internet
• Bibliographies and footnotes

14
 Fun Engineering Sites
• Discover Engineering
• www.discoverengineering.org
– Engineering Exploration Website
• NSF Classroom Resources
• www.nsf.gov/news/classroom
– Links to Engineering and other Science
Websites
• US Government Kids Site
• www.kids.gov
– Links to Engineering and other Science
Websites
• IEEE Virtual Museum
• www.ieee-virtual-museum.org
– Electical Engineering Exploration Website 15
Go To: www.discoverengineering.org
Click On The Light Bulb
Click “Cool Stuff!” on the Left Menu

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Click On The Airplane
Click ENTER
Aircraft Information!

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 Engineering Careers Information

• ASEE EngineeringK12 Center

• www.engineeringk12.org
– Information on Engineering Education and Careers
• National Academy of Engineering Website for Girls
• www.engineergirl.org
– Information on Engineering Education and Careers
• TryEngineering
• www.tryengineering.org
– Information on Engineering Education and Careers

18
 Outline

• Introduction
• Searching for information on the internet
• Useful websites
• Evaluating information found on the internet
• Bibliographies and footnotes

19
 Evaluating Internet Documents

1. Who sponsors (“publishes”) the website?

2. Who wrote (“authored”) the article?
 It is difficult for elementary school aged children to
evaluate the credentials of an author. For children,
the best strategy is to focus on the website sponsor
(#1, above).
3. When was the webpage last updated?
4. Can you verify the information in the article?

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Web Page Address: The “URL”

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 Topic #1: Website Sponsor
• Look at the URL
• The text string following “http” provides the name of
the server. This tells us what organization is
sponsoring the website.
• The last 3 letters in the server name tell us the
domain.
– More accurately, this is called the “top level domain name”
• Example: http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/insects/
– The server is www.urbanext.uiuc.edu
– The domain is “edu”
– Exercise: What organization sponsors this website? What
is its mission? Do you think it is a trustworthy source of
information? 22
 Website Sponsor, cont’d
• Domains
– edu: educational institutions, usually universities
– gov: relating to the US government, e.g., federal
agencies, the state of Illinois, the White House
– org: non-profit organization
• Be cautious of sites sponsored by advocacy
groups
– com: commercial
• Be aware: The sponsor is trying to sell something
• Exception: Personal websites with .com ISP.
These sites also warrant great caution.

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 (Top-level) Domains
• edu: Excellent sources of information.
– Universities’ mission includes community education. Information is
generally trustworthy. Website content usually undergoes peer
review.
• gov: Domain for at least 2 outstanding sources of information
– National Library of Medicine
– U.S. Census Bureau
• org: This domain is a “mixed bag”
– Professional groups (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers) sponsor excellent websites
– Political advocacy groups have strong biases and often do not
present balanced information

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 (Top-level) Domains, cont’d
• If the domain name contains 2 characters rather than 3,
the website is hosted in a foreign country
– .de (Germany)
– .uk (United Kingdom)
– .ru (Russia)
• The 2 character country code is often preceded by a
familiar 3 character domain descriptor
– org
– com
– edu
• Examples:
– http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/
• Website of the National Gallery (museum) in London
– http://www.usyd.edu.au/
• Website of the University of Sydney, Australia
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 #2: Author

• Is the person who wrote the article

knowledgeable and unbiased?
– Education
– Profession
– Opinion of other experts regarding the author’s work
• It is difficult for elementary school aged children
to evaluate an author’s credentials
– A better strategy is to stick with websites sponsored
by trustworthy organizations

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#3: Currency (and I don’t mean money)
• Information quickly becomes out of date on
subjects in cultural and technological fields
– It is VERY IMPORTANT to check when a webpage
was last updated or published
– Look at the bottom of the webpage to find this
information
• Exercise: A student wants to find webpages on
the following subjects. In which cases, is it very
important to check the date of publication?
– William Shakespeare
– Nanotechnology
– The Revolutionary War
– Supercomputers
– Popular music
– Population of Asian countries 27
 #4: Verification
• Articles published on the web should contain a
bibliography
• Facts and figures should be supported with
footnotes
• If bibliographical references are provided, the
reader can check the veracity (truthfulness) of
the information on the webpage
• Otherwise: Reader beware

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 Personal Webpages

• Reside on the server of an Internet Service

Provider (“ISP”).
– Examples: aol.com, yahoo.com, insightbb.com
• Usually have .com or .net domains
• Sometimes can be identified by the presence of
a tilde (~) in the page name
• Do not use personal webpages as sources of
information unless you have the know-how to
evaluate the author’s credentials

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 Outline

• Introduction
• Searching for information on the internet
• Useful websites
• Evaluating information found on the internet
• Bibliographies and footnotes

30
 What is a Bibliography?

• Last page or pages of report

• List of sources I used to get my information

• Gives credit to the author

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 Bibliography Format
Last name, First name. Name of book, magazine,
newspaper. City of Publishing Company: Publisher
name, year.

(Inside book, first or

second page)

Crown Publishing,
New York. February
15, 2005.

Bodanis, David. Electric Universe. New York: Crown

Publishing, 2005 32
 Example Bibliography

Allan, A., and R. Swan. Shocking. New York:

Knopf, 2005.
“Electricity." New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1997
ed.
Ford, Erin. “Power Consumption." SparkNotes. 10
Oct. 2005
        <http://www.sparknotes.com/power>.
Wyse, Randall. Personal interview. 24 July 2005.

Alphabetical order by last name or first word of title33

 What is a footnote?

• Tells where I got specific information

• Add a superscript number at the end of the
sentence1
• At the bottom of the page, list the source and page
number

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 Footnote Example

Power Usage in Utah

By Nathan Jack
.
.
.
Most of the electricity used by Utah is generated
by coal-burning power plants. More than 40 tons
of coal are burned each month in Utah.

Where should the footnote go? 35

 Footnote Example

Power Usage in Utah

By Nathan Jack
.
.
.
Most of the electricity used by Utah is generated by
coal-burning power plants. More than 40 tons of
coal are burned each month in Utah1.

1
Bob Adams, Coal Usage in the U.S. (New York:
Bottom
Publishers Company, 2006), p. 12.
of page 36
 When to use footnotes

• Numbers
– Examples: 100 tons, 50 people, $1 million
• If taken word for word out of source
– Put “in quotations”
• Pictures, graphs, charts

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 For more examples and information:

• Bibliographies:
http://www.factmonster.com/homework/t8biblio.html

• Footnotes:
http://www.factmonster.com/homework/t7footnotes.
html

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