What can the Internet do for me?

How can I find relevant materials using the World Wide Web?

How can I evaluate information found on the Web?

How do I cite documents I find on the Web?

What can the Internet do for me?

The Internet offers many diverse resources to supplement what can be found in library collections. You can now easily access full text news sources, government documents, statistics, and information in multimedia formats, using this tool.
Criminal Justice/Law Internet Resources


In addition, students can often access resources such as e-mail to communicate with experts around the world in various fields.

The easiest way to utilize these resources at any hour of the day or night is through use of the World Wide Web.

How can I find relevant materials using the World Wide Web?

There are many ways to navigate through the Web. Three of the most popular methods are:


Subject Lists of Resources
One way to find materials in the Web is to consult lists of materials arranged by subject or broad category, such as the Arts or Social Sciences. These lists are then typically broken down into subheadings or subcategories and so on. A good example of this type of list is the Yahoo Directory.

Keyword Search Engines
If you wish to find a specific Web site and you do not know the URL, or want to look for documents with terms that describe your topic, you should use one of the many keyword search engines. These are different software programs that index URL’s, document titles and/or keywords from different parts of Web pages. Good examples of search engines can be found on the list of Internet Resources on the Library Website under Search Engines

Browsing through Links
You can also find useful sources through links provided in relevant documents to similar documents. By this means you can browse through related documents or meander around the Web through the use of these connections and serendipity. These links are often listed under headings such as “Internet resources” or “useful links”, etc.

How can I evaluate information found on the Web?


Unlike the materials found in traditional institutions, such as libraries, the World Wide Web contains resources that have not been selected or filtered by professionals in various fields.

Web resources can range from excellent and timely to inaccurate and out-of-date. What criteria can you use to judge what you are finding on the Web?

Evaluating the Quality of WebPages

Is it authoritative?

When using Web documents you should note the sponsor of the site. A well established institution, such as the American Society of Criminology, is an example of a site that is likely to produce authoritative information.

In addition, pages that can be accessed through links from well established sites or are recommended in respected lists such as the Scout Report are often good sources.

When was the site last updated?

Web sites can be updated by the hour or remain unchanged for years. Check the latest date of revision that is given on the page. This is especially important if the information provided is of a frequently changing nature, such as legislative information.

What is the purpose of the Web document?

A Web document may be created for widespread use by a comprehensive source like the Library of Congress or it may be intended for use by a limited number of users such as fellow students in a class assignment. In a printed source, this information is usually easy to find in the introductory pages. This information, however, can be hard to find in Web pages and may even require that you contact the sponsor of the site through e-mail or other means of communication.

How do I cite documents I find on the Web?

There has been much discussion regarding the potential violation of copyright in relation to resources made available on the World Wide Web. A listing of places on the Internet with copyright information is available through the Copyright and Fair Use by Stanford University Libraries. Information relating to multimedia and copyright can be found at the WWW Multimedia Law page. Several standards are being developed for citing Internet resources. Links to these resources can be found at Citing Electronic Resources.