Library workshop: Finding reliable websites in 2018

Image: World-Wide-Web Illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt Founder Hiking.org licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

For years, checking out the top-level domain (.com, .org, .edu...) as a shorthand way to determine the credibility of a website was standard advice. Information from .orgs, .edus, or .govs was good, the accepted wisdom went, and information from .coms was potentially unreliable.

In 2018, the web is a vastly more complicated place.

Now, anyone can register a .org website, students can publish anything from term papers to class blog posts on .edus, many respectable publications use .coms -- and there are better ways to guide users to reliable information online.

Rather than counting on shortcuts or general rules, current best practices for evaluating websites center around doing some digging to find out who produced it, where they got their information, and what the intended purpose of the information is. Identifying expertise, age of information, context, and bias are key, but not always easy to determine. We're here to help!

Join us at Holman Library for a hands-on workshop on evaluating websites in 2018 on February 15. Details are below!

Library Workshop Details 

Who: All are welcome!
What: Beyond .orgs and .edus: Finding reliable websites in 2018
When: Thurs., Feb. 15; 1:00 - 1:50 pm
Where: Holman Library, HL 213