1. Locating Reliable Sources Websites & Databases

2. Internet A lot of information Quick, easily-accessible What are the problems with finding reliable sources on the Internet?

3. Websites Check URL’s Top-Level Domain: .com, .org, .net, .mil, .gov. .edu Anyone can buy a .com, .org, .net .edu – faculty and students can have .edu pages; check to make sure site is official school site .gov doesn’t mean the information is true, but that the government or military approves of the site Wordpress.org and blogspot.com give free voice to anyone

4. Rank These http://random.blogspot.com http://www.random.gov http://www.columbia.edu/~jrandom http://www.random.com

5. Order of Reliability http://www.random.gov http://www.random.com http://www.columbia.edu/~jrandom http://random.blogspot.com

6. Finding the Author Who wrote it? One person, group Don’t trust information until you know who wrote it Check “About” section Check FAQs Are there clues to help decide reliability? www.bvswlmc.com

7. Author’s Authority Do they have any expertise? What is their experience? Education level? About author section? Google them…

8. Sponsorship Many websites have a slant, or agenda Check the bottom of the page for a sponsor’s logo Check FAQs Check affiliations of authors/editors http://factchecked.org/about/

9. Databases Reliable materials are collected in one place for research Slant, or agenda is not taken into consideration A basic database…

10. Scholarly Articles Academic Journal Peer-reviewed Many times there is an abstract Let’s look…Expanded Academic, ProQuest