Resources and Information
Steps in Developing a Report, Evaluation Guidelines
Selection Criteria: Scout Report
Authority
The Web is a peculiarly democratic medium, allowing many people to make information available to the world. We at Internet Scout support the involvement of as broad a constituency as possible, but we also try to ascertain the authority of Web site creators within the subject area. Questions we consider include:
Information maintenance
This criterion relates to content in the crucial category of whether the site is "alive"; that is, whether it is maintained/updated on a regular basis. Sites don't necessarily have to be kept up to date if they are clearly labeled as archive sites. However, if we look at a site that hasn't been touched in a year and it isn't specifically designated an archive, we are not likely to select it for inclusion.
Availability
This may seem trivial, but it is important to check links at a site randomly. If some or most of them don't work, we won't select the site for inclusion. It is crucial that the links at the site (not to mention the site itself) can be reached.
Cost
We have no set policy on this, but we take a very critical look at for-fee sites, because payment requirements tend to discriminate against many would-be users, especially those in education.
Presentation
As browser and HTML advances allow greater flexibility in the creation of Web pages, we evaluate sites on the basis of utilitarian concerns; while flashy design is not necessarily a drawback, users must be able to make effective use of the site. Questions we consider include:
