Finding Good Sources Finding Good Sources on the Interneton the Internet

Finding Good Sources Finding Good Sources on the Interneton the Internet

If the internet were a city…

• Databases would be like Police Stations, Government Buildings, Fire Stations, etc.

• Random websites are like people’s homes. You never know who is behind the door.

What does it mean?• .org - organization • .com - company• .sch – school (used outside of US) • .k12 – most US school sites• .edu – US higher ed • .gov – US government (add country code for outside

US) • .net - network• .mil – US military • .co – Company (if paired with a country code, example “.co.uk,”)

Tips on checking sources

• It’s NOT enough to look at the URL or the layout.– http://www.martinlutherking.org/

• Find out what pages have links to it– www.altavista.com– Type “link:http://www.martinlutherking.org”– No space between the word link, the colon, and the

URL.

Tips on checking sources

• Look for the author!– Good authors: Professors within the field, published

authors, known organizations that will check for accuracy, organizations created to remember your disaster, sites created by groups of teachers, etc.

– If you can’t find an author look for “About this site” or “Frequently asked Questions” for more info.

• http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/

Tips for finding sources

• In google, do an advanced search for .edu addresses– Click on “advanced search”– Put in search criteria– Where is says “Search within Site or

Domain” type in .edu• This bring you to websites sponsored by

universities.• Watch out for “~” in the address. That means

it’s a student page or a personal page. These are NOT scholarly pages.

Full Citations• www.citationmachine.net

– Click on MLA– Click on “More Resources”– Click on the type of source

• Remember – the type refers to where YOU got it.• A newspaper article from a database should be

cited as a database.– “Work from a Subscription Service Accessed

through a Library - one or more authors”

– LIST must be alphabetical