- Identify the author or sponsoring agency of the web site through the generic Top Level Domain
abbreviations in its URL address code. As an example, www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews is the URL that identifies a governmental web site, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- authors that can generally be considered as safe, reliable choices include: governmental agencies, educational institutions, publicly-funded foundations,
non-profit organizations, etc.
- sponsors such as major corporations or national organizations usually provide accurate information, but users should always be cautious of promotional / public relations slants or biases.
- unknown organizations or private individuals who publish on the WWW should be viewed most critically since their reputations cannot readily be established.
- authors that can generally be considered as safe, reliable choices include: governmental agencies, educational institutions, publicly-funded foundations,
non-profit organizations, etc.
- Consult known "experts" or sources for recommendations / critical reviews of web sites.
- professors in your major can furnish excellent leads for useful web pages.
- major journals and magazines often publish regular ratings of web sites, such as Library Journal's "WEBWATCH" feature.
- individual web sites often provide information on awards received on their home page as shown in the Anne Arundel Community College web site listing.
- professors in your major can furnish excellent leads for useful web pages.
- The WWW has various "academic" and "subject specific" search engines that provide listings of quality web sites.
- Artcyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine ( www.artcyclopedia.com/ ) is a subject-specific search engine that can be used to locate quality web information.
Librarians' Internet Index (lii.org) is an annotated subject listing of librarian-selected Internet resources chosen for their usefulness.
- To find other academic and subject-specific search engines , consult the Search Engines for Quality Web Sites listing.
- In many cases, web authors have published subject specific directories or lists of web sites on a given topic. For a listing of various subject directories , use Subject Directories for Quality Web Sites .
- As a final note, all "legitimate" web sites should have certain key elements on their home page.
