Guide to Online Research

Locating and Evaluating Online History Resources

Online resources offer historians access to sources and information never previously available.  As such, finding good, scholarly sources online can be extremely useful to historians.

Although there is no single starting place to find online sources, there are a couple of good places to begin:  the department’s list of primary source sites and the UMW Library’s Guide to History and American Studies.

You can also use one of the major search engines (such as Google or Yahoo) to look for material online, but be careful.  The ease with which sites are posted means that we must be skeptical of the material on them.

Thinking critically about online sources is essential.

QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT ALL PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCE WEBSITES

1. Source:  Where does it come from?
2. Authority:  Do you know if the individual/organization who placed this material on the web is reliable?  What makes you think the author/webmaster is reliable or unreliable?
3. Audience:  Who was the site created for?
   Many web sites are not created for a scholarly audience and so have different standards of citation or reliability.
4. Content: What is included in the site? Is the information broad/deep enough?
5. Accuracy: Is the information accurate?  Does it refer to respected secondary sources?  If a primary source, is it clear that the web site has reproduced the source accurately?
6. Creation/Currency:  When was the site created/last updated?  What does “update” mean?
7. Design:  Does the site link to other appropriate links and information?  Also, is it aesthetically pleasing?
8. Medium:  Does the site take advantage of the medium (of electronic technology) to enhance the source?
   [This does not mean that a site on Jamestown should have a Flash cartoon about John Smith.  Instead, is the material searchable?  Does it link to other reliable online sources?  If a primary source, does it present an image of the original document or item in addition to a transcription?  If an original source was audio (song or interview) or video, is that available?]
9. Usability:  How is the site organized?  How easy would it be for a person to find the information they seek on this site?

[Adapted from UMCP HILS guidelines.]

ASSESSING THE SOURCE AND AUTHORSHIP OF WEB SITES

There are various types of web sites:

• Organizational/institutional sites
• News sites
• Information sites
• Personal home pages
• Commercial sites

No category is inherently “better” since they serve different purposes, but figuring out which category a web site fits into may reveal something about the author’s intentions, perspectives, audience, and potential bias or problems as a scholarly resource.  As with any source, information on the author/creator is critical. Any group can give itself an official sounding name or logo, so be sure to find out more about an organization that you have not heard of before.

Domain names may provide clues as to the author (or maybe only the site host):

• .gov – for government sites
• .org – for organization sites
• .com – for commercial sites
• .net – for network sites
• .ca, .jp, .us – stand for sites in a particular country (Canada, Japan, United States)
• .edu – for education sites
  • Note: Although education sites are more likely to hold to scholarly standards, remember that many universities provide Web space to faculty and students, so personal Web pages can have “.edu” extension.

The Internet addresses (domain names) correlate to the server which is the “home base” for that Internet address.  Keep in mind that the web host–such as a university or a company such as AOL–is not responsible for content or accuracy of personal Web pages.

ULTIMATELY, IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RELIABILITY OF A PARTICULAR SITE, ASK YOUR PROFESSOR.  SHE OR HE CAN HELP YOU ASSESS ITS USEFULNESS AND ACCURACY.