Why Evaluate Web Sources?
- Anyone with a little time, some knowledge and small amount of money can publish on the Internet.
- No person, persons or organization reviews the content of the Internet.
- Pages are retrieved by search engines based on the page's content, not the relevancy or quality of the page.
- Much information on the Web is not updated regularly.
How to Evaluate Web Resources
The CRAP Test* is a useful guide to evaluating Web resources. CRAAP is an acronym for the general categories of criteria that can be used to evaluate information you find on the Web. The following table outlines the CRAAP criteria.
| Currency |
The timeliness of the information. |
| Relevance/Coverage |
The depth and importance of the information. |
| Authority |
The source of the information. |
| Accuracy |
The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content. |
| Purpose |
The possible bias present in the information. |
*The CRAAP acronym and descriptions are from Meriam Library at California State University Chico. CRAAP Test from the Meriam Library website.
