HIST 4635 - Senior Seminar: Find Reliable Internet Sources
Finding Web Resources
Use Google Advanced Search to perform targeted searches of the Internet.
Because Google likes to keep its main search page as simple as possible, there is no quick way to access Advanced Search from the default Google page. To access Advanced Search, click on the "Settings" link on the right side of the homepage. If you plan on using Advanced Search often, you may want to bookmark the URL: http://www.google.com/advanced_search
Google Scholar provides access to scholarly articles and conference papers, many of them available online as PDF files.
If you're logged in to your MyGeorgiaSouthern account and search Google Scholar, you'll be able to access journal articles through library databases (such as JSTOR). NOTE: Do not pay to get the full text of any article. If you can't find the full text, please ask the library for help.
Domain types give insight into the type of website you are visiting. For example, only state and federal governmental sites get to end with .gov and only educational websites get to end with .edu. Anyone can make an .org, .com or .net website.
| com - commercial | org - nonprofit organization |
| edu - educational | net - community network |
| gov - government | mil - military |
The domain suffix might also give you a clue about the geographic origin of a web site, each country also has a unique domain suffix that is meant to be used for websites within the country. For example, Brazilian websites may use the ".br" domain suffix, Chinese websites may use the ".cn" suffix, and Australian websites may use the ".au" suffix.
Evaluating Web Resources
It is important to be selective and to evaluate the information you find online. The CRAAP Test is a list of questions you can ask yourself in order to determine if the information on a web site is reliable. CRAAP is an acronym for:
- Currency - Is the material current? Does it contain outdated or disproven information?
- Relevance - Is the material relevant to your question?
- Author - Who wrote the content? What are the author's qualifications?
- Accuracy - How accurate is the information? What evidence does the author use? Does the author cite sources?
- Purpose - What is the purpose of the content? Is the content objective or biased?