evaluation

Searching the Internet

evaluating pages
saving pages
downloading files

Evaluating pages

It is important to remember that anyone can publish on the World Wide Web. This means that the quality of the information you find on the Web must be evaluated very carefully. For a journal article to be published it usually goes through some peer review before it is accepted for publication. With a book you can judge quality by the reputation of the publisher.
Who created the page?

You can tell a lot about the authenticity of a page by finding out all you can about its author.
How do you know that he/she has the knowledge to supply this information? If there is no credentials available either on the document you are viewing or via a link from that document you should try and follow this up. You could do a search for the author's name on one of the search engines 1
"Who is responsible for the page you are accessing? Is it a governmental agency or other official source? A university? A business, corporation or other commercial interest? An individual? As a rule of thumb, you can generally rely on the GOV, MIL and EDU hostnames to present accurate information. The NET, ORG and COM are more uncertain and might require additional verification." 2
When was the page created? You should be wary of information that doesn't provide any date of publication. 3
How long since it has been updated? Is it still relevant/current?

http://www.unc.edu/depts/jomc/academics/dri/idog.jpg

When the author creates a web document, he or she may allow you to save the material to your own disk. It must be remembered that although you may be able to save the web pages and components, the material is still subject to copyright laws.

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Saving pages

Saving an entire page

from the File menu select Save As
select the drive and folder to save the page to
enter a new name if necessary
click the Save button

An alternative is to save the page as a bookmark/favourite and make it available for off line viewing.

Saving some text from a page

To save some text from a page

click and drag the mouse to select the text
right mouse click on the selected test and select Copy
open a Microsoft Word document (or similar)
paste the text into the document using Ctrl + V or Paste from the Edit menu
save the Word document

Notice that you can Select All - this can select more than you anticipate.
BE CAREFUL - especially if selecting Print!

Obtaining Graphics

To save a copy of an image from a Web page:

right mouse click on the picture. You now have the options as shown to the right:

select Copy if you want to paste (Ctrl + V) the picture into Microsoft Word, Paintbrush and other programs
select Save Picture As if you to need to save the picture to your own disk for use at a later time

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Downloading Files

On occasions it may be necessary to download files. For instance, if you wish to view the HSC syllabi may require Acrobat reader. If this program is not installed on your computer (it is installed at school but perhaps not at your home) it is freely available for download via the Board Of Studies web site.

Using this as an example:

click on the link to Acrobat

This will take you to a page which ask you to indicate:

the language you require
the operating system of your computer
the closest place to download from

After indicating the answers to these questions

click the download button

(The format of the page and the questions asked varies from one site to another)

You will be "greeted" by the download dialog box as shown to the right:
It is usual to save the program to disk

click the save to disk radio button
click OK button

select where to save the file
click the Save button

wait for the download to complete (not shown)

1 http://library.curtin.edu.au/staff/personal/gwpersonal/searchtut/index.html
2 http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/lesson5.html
3 http://library.curtin.edu.au/staff/personal/gwpersonal/searchtut/index.html

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Internet Searching index page

Last updated July 2003