GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WEB PAGES

·         Audience:
General public; children to senior citizens; knowledgeable layperson; scholars; anyone

·         Coverage:
Popular topics; personal information; current affairs; government information; research; scholarly information; fun and games; and more...

·         Written By:
Anyone: professional journalists; children; teenagers (high school students); members of general public; scholars and researchers; poets and writers of fiction; essayists; college students; advocates and activists; and more...

·         Timeliness:
Varies wildly: may be very current coverage or very out-of-date information, or undated.

·         Length:
Can vary greatly.

·         Content:
Anything: general discussion; editorial opinion; graphics; photographs; advertisements; statistical analysis; detailed analysis; fact; fiction; fraud; and more...

·         Slant:
Depends: May reflect the editorial bias / slant of the web page creator; may be objective or neutral; may be geared for academic or professional audiences; may be unsupported personal opinion.

WEB PAGE EXAMPLES

·         Welcome to the Whitehouse

·         Scholarly Societies Project

·         Single Nurturing (blog about single parenting)

TRY A WEB PAGE FOR:

• reviewing legislation on family issues
• finding research or other information about single parent families
• locating blogs for single parents

To locate web pages, use PBCC’s virtual library, Websites by Subject & Search Engines, or Ask A Librarian.

Adapted from UCLA Library website with permission statement as follows (retrieved 15 Feb. 2007):  “Permission is granted for unlimited non-commercial use of this exercise.”  See UCLA website at <http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/selectsource/index.htm>.