 |
Tutorials
|
|
A 4 week class is offered at the Oxnard Public Library
at 251 South A Street on Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 p.m. The first Wednesday
of the month will be Introduction to Internet Explorer 5.0: Browser Basics – Getting your feet wet Surfing the Internet
, Finding What You Want on the Internet (Searching Part 1): Using Yahoo, AltaVista and the Librarian's Index to the Internet,
Finding What
You Really Want on the Internet (Searching Part 2): Boolean searching
Recognizing Hoaxes, Frauds and Misinformation on the Internet |
The BuzzWhack dictionary de-mystifies the language of the net.
Beginners Central can help you as will Yahoo's web surfers tutorial.
The library tutorials will focus on the use of the Internet
as an information resource and the wide variety of ways of accessing that
information. They will NOT cover e-mail, listservs, accessing the Internet,
web page construction, etc. For Tutorials covering these topics please
go to The
Library of Congress. This excellent site will guide you and help you
explore on the web. Go to the Spider's
Apprentice for excellent search help or try the web seaching tutorial at AskScott.
Oxnard Public Library - Fourth Wednesday
Handout
Steven Alcorta November 24, 1997
How to evaluate materials on the
web.
Does the site have an author? Is
there a way to contact them? Is there a source of information about them?
Is there information about the company?
When was the site updated? When
created? Is there information about the source of the material?
Can you verify the information through
other sources?
Watch for the ~, the ~ signifies
that an individual has probably paid for the space and the site represents
his or her opinions, research, or selection.
Companies frequently treat the Internet
as strictly a commercial medium and many web sites reflect this. Like magazines,
it is difficult to evaluate the reliability of information given about
products which may be sponsored by the producer.
The Internet Detective: an interactive tutorial on evaluating the quality of Internet resources
at http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html
Evaluating Internet Research Sources at:
http://www.vanguard.edu/rharris/evalu8it.htm
Evaluation of Information Sources at
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm
Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources at
http://www.lib.vt.edu/research/libinst/evalbiblio.html
There are viruses that can be downloaded from the web. To be prepared visit http://special.northernlight.com/compvirus/.
There are many hoaxes on the web and via e-mail, especially related to viruses
Some excellent web sites to help deal with your questions are:
Urban Legends Reference Pages at
http://www.snopes.com
and the Urban Legend Comat Kit
Anti-Virus, Hoax, Myth, Fraud,Chain Letter and Anti-Spam Sites
Internet Fraud Watch
www.vmyths.com Truth about computer virus myths and hoaxes.
The place to stop before you shop Safeshopping.org
Datafellow Hoax Warnings at
http://www.Europe.Datafellows.com/news/hoax.htm
For examples of bogus information try
visiting the following two sites: http://members.tripod.com/~catsclaw
or http://www.tass.net
The following is some excellent
further advice on evaluating materials
WARNING TRIGGERS
Signs that a Web Site may contain Misinformation
Requests or demands for money, especially credit
card numbers
Contradictions and internal inconsistencies
Author credentials that do not match subject matter
Errors: spelling, punctuation, grammar, mathematical
Appeals to emotion: flattery, fear messages: language that evokes guilt,
sympathy
Opinion markers: words such as could, might, would, believe, "I think",
"I heard", assume, etc
Logical fallacies, Oversimplification, Unstated assumptions and Unsupported
claims.
"Pass" messages: instructions to pass a communication to other
people, a common practice and cause of the spread of hoaxes.
The librarians can help you try to verify information found on the Web
through alternative sources of information, remember to use a critical
eye when viewing Internet material.
"Triggers" from Mary Ann Fitzgerald "Misinformation on the
Internet"Emergency Librarian24(3), 9-14.
Return Home
Return to Top
Please send comments and suggestions
to Webmaster at oxnardpl@yahoo.com . Created 4-27-97 Updated 10-12-01