Some librarians and other information specialists have established virtual libraries on the Web where they review, evaluate, and list reliable sources of information on the World Wide Web. We have to be able to verify information and know its source, we have to determine whether the facts are current, and we need to know why someone offered the data at all. After considering these issues, we can decide whether the information is appropriate for our purposes. Goal When we access or retrieve something on the World Wide Web we need to be able to decide whether the information is useful, reliable, or appropriate for our purposes. The URL can give clues to the authority of a source.
Tips Look for the name of the author or institution at the top or bottom of a Web page.
Go to the home page for the site that hosts the information to find out about the organization. To find further information about the institution or author use a search engine to see what related information is available on the Web. Check the top and bottom of a Web page for the date the information was last modified or updated. If no date is present you can sometimes determine when the file holding the document or item was last modified. Most Web servers are configured to send that information along to a client.