Shropshire Routes to Roots

Source guide: The Internet - A Warning and Advice

The Internet and Proof-Reading

Whereas a non-fiction history book will often have gone through a series of checks and proof-reading, this often does not happen with pages on the internet. The internet is a huge resource, and there is a great deal of informative, quality and thoroughly checked information out there. There is also a great deal of information which has not been checked by others. Because almost anyone can 'publish' their work online anonymously, you have no way of knowing how qualified a person is to write about their subject.

It is important, therefore, that when using historical (or, indeed, any other sort) of information from the internet, you do the checks for yourself by asking:

• Who is publishing the work? Is it a government organisation or respected body such as the BBC, or is it an amateur individual?
• Where have they got their facts from? Is their information based on reliable evidence, or do they appear to have chosen their sources to suit their arguments?
• Does the publisher have a motive to publish something which might be misleading, inaccurate or biased? Might the writer want to assert their particular point of view over all others, for some political or personal gain?

Answer these questions, and you will go some way to answering the question you should bear in mind when studying any source: How reliable is this as a piece of evidence?. The ultimate solution is never to use one single website as the only source of information. Always get a second opinion, whether from books or other unrelated sites. Where possible, try to use quality-assured websites.

Using Quality-Assured Websites

Look for logos which show that the site conforms to high standards set by respected regulating bodies. For example, the Routes to Roots website has been designed to conform to a number of standards, such as those produced by the National Grid for Learning (opens in a new window) or by the World Wide Web Consortium (Opens in a new window). You might also look for the Curriculum Online (opens in a new window) logo.

Also, use those sites which are already known for creating quality content in the real world. For example, the BBC (opens in a new window) has produced many accurate and admired history documentaries, and much of the content of their history website is written by professional historians. Look out for well-known and respected authors who publish their works online. Established journals in which articles are reviewed and checked by peers can also be found, and their web-pages are likely to be just as reliable as their paper editions.

When you do find pages which seem to be of a high quality, look for the selected sites they have chosen to link to and follow these links, rather than doing a new search.

Using Open Source

Another interesting and novel way of getting round the problem of pages on the internet not being checked is by using open content websites. These are where anyone can view and modify information on a particular page. One good example is Wikipedia (Opens in a new window). This is a collaborative encyclopedia where anyone can set up an entry, and then the next person to read that entry can edit it if they think something needs changing. Thus the information may evolve to become more and more accurate:

As anyone can edit any article, it is of course possible for biased, out of date or incorrect information to be posted. However, because there are so many other people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, incorrect information is usually corrected quickly. Thus the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors. You are encouraged to help by correcting articles and passing on your own knowledge.

[Source: Wikipedia FAQ]

Of course this method is not foolproof. Nevertheless it is perhaps the closest the mainstream internet, on which anyone can publish their ideas, can get to a regular system of checks.