6.4: Evaluate websites located in a complex search

Table of Contents

1. Evaluating websites
   1. Evaluation criteria
   2. Authority
   3. Tracing website ownership
   4. Credibility
   5. Evaluating credibility
   6. Accuracy
   7. Bias
   8. Emphasis
   9. Currency
   10. Establishing currency
   11. Currency indicators
   12. Problems in establishing currency
   13. Previous versions of a Website
   14. Clarity of presentation
   15. Presenting information clearly
   16. Use of multimedia
   17. Ease of use for visually impaired clients

Establishing currency

We can think of a few possible ways of establishing the currency of a website. Obviously they depend on finding date information. This can be explicit:

• You can check the "Last revised" date on a website. Remember though that this may only indicate the last time a change was made to a particular part of the website and that it does not imply that all the content was updated on that date.
• You can look to see how recent are the publication dates of the documents referred to on the site
• You can look out for dates quoted within text and make an estimate of currency

If there are no actual dates mentioned, you will need to look for implications of dates.

• You can look for regulations or laws mentioned in the site and find their dates of introduction.
• You can look for the names of institutions or Government departments. These do change name and can be used to give a date range.
• You can look for the names of personalities involved in the topic which can show currency.
• Finally you can simply look for reference to recent news items which will date the site's information.

Let's have a look at Currency indicators ...