REVIEW: Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information

[Peter Milbury <pmilbury@ERICIR.SYR.EDU>]

A review by Peter Milbury of the book:
Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information Quality on the Web
Authors: Janet Alexander and Marsha Tate

One of my favorite information literacy websites has been transformed into
a very useful book, Web Wisdom: How to Evaluate and Create Information
Quality on the Web. The authors, Janet Alexander and Marsha Tate, are
reference librarians at the Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University.
Their website was created to assist students and faculty make effective
and intelligent use of information resources that are available on the
Web. I have regularly used their website during my seminars and workshops
since it became available in 1997. I am excited to see that they now have
enlarged, updated and expanded their material into a hardback book.

More than just a print-out of their online pages, Web Wisdom is a
comprehensive, logically organized, and highly useful guide for evaluating
and creating high quality, reputable, informational Web pages. Web Wisdom
makes ample use of Web page images, evaluative criteria checklists, and
informative narrative explanations to make clear their approach and
standards. A glossary of terms is also included which will be helpful to
both newcomers and old hands alike.

The Introduction and Overview chapter includes a very sensible basis for
the need to evaluate Web pages using appropriate and specific criteria.
Many school librarians will find this explanation to be helpful when they
organize and promote their information literacy programs to teachers and
administrators.

A full chapter is then spent on addressing the challenges and unique
problems of evaluating Web resources. Another chapter is devoted to the
complex and thorny issue of advertising and sponsorship on the Web.
After this groundwork is established, the evaluative tools, along with
processes for their use are described and outlined before focusing on the
different types of Web pages and their specific evaluative needs.

One of Web Wisdom's unique aspects is its classification system into which
most websites may be placed and then evaluated, based on appropriate
criteria. Web pages may be placed into one of the following groups:
advocacy, business, informational, news, personal, and entertainment. Each
of these page types is thoroughly described and their specific evaluative
criteria are described, with well illustrated examples. The next six
chapters thoroughly cover each of these types of pages. Once one knows
what type of a page that they are evaluating, the process becomes quite
logical, easy and even fun! Web Wisdom ends with a chapter which offers
advice for those designing their own pages. This is something that many
librarians will find helpful when starting, maintaining and improving
their websites. Appendices include compilations of the checklists and
information quality questions used throughout the book, as well as an
extensive bibliography and index.

I have used Web Wisdom's online pages primarily in workshops and seminars
for educators. I did this with the idea in mind that they will be better
able to guide their students' use of the Web. I also stress that they can
use these criteria, strategies and examples to design lesson and
activities that help their students gain information literacy skills in
context.

Now that Web Wisdom is available as a complement and expansion of
Alexander and Tate's wonderful website, school library media folks have a
welcome addition to our information literacy toolbox.

Web Wisdom is published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 10
Industrial Avenue, Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262. Copyright 1999 ISBN:
0-8058-3122-3

This review is copyright 1999 by Peter Milbury, Chico, CA.


Peter Milbury, Co-owner of LM_NET          pmilbury@ericir.syr.edu
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