It is very easy to put information on the Internet. Almost anyone with an email address has that capability. But is that information reliable, accurate, truthful, or meaningful? Has it been researched? Or is it just someone's opinion? The following links contain information on evaluating Internet resources.

1. This Website provides materials to assist in teaching students how to evaluate the informational content of Web resources. It includes PowerPoint presentations and checklists that discuss the following:

• Advocacy Web Pages
• Business/Marketing Web Pages
• Informational Web Pages
• News Web Pages
• Personal Web Pages
• A lesson plan with links to example Web pages is included. Printed copies of the materials are permitted for educational purposes.

http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm

2. This Web page from the State University of New York at Albany library gives a checklist that addresses strategies for evaluating resources found on the Internet. The following points are considered:

• Purpose
• Source
• Content
• Style

http://library.albany.edu/internet/evaluate.html

3. "Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources," an article by Esther Grassian, UCLA College Library, includes information about evaluating:

• Content
• Source and Date
• Structure

http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/index.htm

4. This site, sponsored by the Discovery Channel School, includes a section with Website evaluation forms for elementary, middle-school, and high-school students. The site also features a number of links to other resources for Website evaluation.

http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html

5. This site contains two guides -- A Guide for Rating the Curriculum Content on Web Sites and A Guide for Rating the Design of a Web Site.

http://www.cyberbee.com/guides.html

6. This article covers Evaluating Quality on the Net.

http://www.hopetillman.com/findqual.html

7. Here are links to more sample forms for evaluating Internet resources.

http://www.pace.edu/library/instruct/webevalworksheet.htm
http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/evaluation/edeval.htm
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvalForm.pdf