Web-gate (mis-information on the Web)

From: Laura Orr (ORR@MAIL.LAW.YALE.EDU)
Date: Thu Mar 05 1998 - 08:20:45 PST


I've been following a wonderful example of listserve info exchange on
DIG_REF and thought that those of you not on DIG_REF would like to see
a summary of some of the info compiled so far (much of which has
come from law-lib folks!). (I'm following the exchange and the original
"poster" (does that make us "postees :-) will post a summary of
responses when all the messages are in.)

In response to this email message on DIG_REF:

"Dear Colleagues:

We*ve all heard it and probably have said it, *you can*t trust all the
information you find on the Web.* I*m seeking examples of erroneous,
false, or just plain wrong information found on the WWW and the
weirder the better."

The following answers have come in so far:

Check out the following site and be sure to click on the copyright link
at the bottom of the page:

http://members.aol.com/okawp/

Another excellent one is the resource evaluation site at UCLA:

http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/hoax/evlinfo.htm

Tim Nichols at Mankato State devised a credibility test at:

http://ic.mankato.mn.us/~mercutio/creat/form1.html

I located Don E. Descy's Mankato wonderland hoax page:

http://lme.mankato.msus.edu/mankato/mankato.html

Go back one click to this page for more:

http://lme.mankato.msus.edu/class/629/cred.html

.. List of inaccurate sites:

The American Smokers' Alliance
http://www.smokers.org

"Dream Technologies"
http://www.d-b.net/dti/

"Facts About Growth Hormone"
http://www.cosmicdome.com/health/

Fueul, Juatta Lyon. "The true but little-known facts about women
with AIDS, with documentation."
http://147.129.1.10/library/lib2/AIDSFACTS.html

Catherine Maloney, et al. "Feline Reactions to Bearded Men"
http://www.improb.com/airchives/cat.html

"Mankato" home page:
www.lme.mankato.msus.edu/mankato/mankato.html

"Skeptic Tank"
http://www.linkline.com/personal/frice/flist068.htm

"White House" sites:
www.whitehouse.net
www.whitehouse.com (pornographic)

2. Guides to Evaluting Internet Resources, with links to inaccurate sites:

Jane Alexander and Marsha Tate, "EVALUATING WEB PAGES: LINKS
TO EXAMPLES
OF VARIOUS CONCEPTS."
http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/examples.htm

Elliot Chabot, "Ascertaining Information Quality"
http://www.law.ab.umd.edu/marshall/workshop/index.html

Diane Kovacs, "Evaluating Internet Information"
www.kovacs.com/evaluating.html

Tyburski, Genie. "Publishers Wanted, No Experience Necessary:
Information Quality on the Web," Law Library
Resource Exchange, 24 June 1997. Online. Internet. 3 July 1997.
Available WWW:

*****************
Laura J. Orr
Reference Librarian
Lillian Goldman Library, Yale Law School
127 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8215

Phone: 203-432-7535
Fax: 203-432-9692
Email: laura.orr@yale.edu



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