Real-world examples for evaluating web sources for accuracy
I had an experience this past weekend that highlighted to me why knowing the source is important when it comes to online information. Though I'm a librarian and I believe in quality information, I'm pretty relaxed about most of it unless I'm citing web sources in a paper or something. Otherwise, I don't spend a lot of time researching who wrote what on the web, and for the most part, have had no problems with this rather lackadaisical approach.
All this changed on Saturday, however. I went hiking with three friends in Harriman State Park. One of my friends downloaded hiking maps off the web, from what *looked* like an official state park site. We cheerfully took off for a quick 4-mile walk at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon, without food, extra clothes, water, etc.
Fast-forward 5 hours later. We are on a trail but lost, have been walking for hours, it's pitch dark, and our map is wrong.
The story ended up okay-thanks to one friend bringing a cell phone. We called 911, got in touch with a park ranger, figured out how to get to the closest parking lot with the help of some sirens and cop lights, and made it to our car about 6 hours after we'd started out on our *walk.*
It struck me at some point during this adventure that this would be a good example of why it pays to know the source of the site. I often think the examples we use, as librarians are not very effective, but I think this one might hit home a little more.
Do others have personal stories that might resonate with students about situations that were made difficult because of sites with inaccurate information?