SUBJECT GUIDE FOR URBAN COASTS
Introduction
This presentation evaluates Web Site resources
related to Urban Coastal Research. Each site is evaluated based upon a
set of criteria suggested by Jan Alexander and Marsha Tate, Reference Librarians
at the Wolfgram Memorial Library. For a full description of their method
see The
Web as a Research Tool: Evaluation Techniques. This
guide is limited to an examination of the home pages, or first page of,
a Web presentation. A single presentation may contain numerous links to
other pages within the same site and other sites.
In the tables below there are five columns
that are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. A zero means that no information is
available for that crtiteria. See each of the criteria for an explanation
of the rating scale.
The sites are grouped into one of three sections:
University and Private Research Organizations
National and International Governmental Agencies
Miscellaneous - worthwhile sites
Criteria:
- Coverage - Are
the topics related to urban coasts? Ranges 1 = a general marine or coastal
resource site to 5 = a site devoted to a topic of urban coasts.
- Accuracy - How
reliable and free from error is the information? Are there editors and
fact checkers? 0= this accuracy information is not provided, 1 to 5 = less
to greater accuracy.
- Authority - What
are the author's qualifications for writing on this subject? 0= no authority
information provided, 1 to 4 = less to greater authority, and 5 = a copyrighted
government or research organization.
- Objectivity
- Is the information presented with a minimum of bias? This criteria ranges
from 1 = very biased to 5 = no bias detected.
- Currency - Is the
content of the information up-to-date? 0 = unknown, 1 = 12 months or more,
2 = 9 to 12 months, 3 = 6 to 9 months, 4 = 3 to 6 months, and 5 = less
than 3 months.
Created by Karen Mulcahy 5/12/97