LibGuides: ENGL 127 Research Writing: Social Sciences (Schaefer): Find web sites

But is it a good website?

Evaluating Sources

How can you determine if you have a "good" web site?

Think critically! Don't just take the first result in Google! Think about the following:

Authority and Accuracy

Who publishes the website? Is this a well-known or respected institution?
Is there contact information for authors of the website content? What is their background or credentials?
Is it a commercial site (.com), a government site (.gov), an educational site (.edu), a non-profit or other organization (.org)? How does this affect the information presented?
Do other reliable sites link to this one?
Are facts, ideas or references credible and backed up by citations to the original sources?

Purpose and Objectivity

What is the purpose of this site: to sell, inform, entertain or persuade?
Who sponsors this website? What is their agenda or goal?
For what audience is this site written?
Is there an explicit or hidden bias behind the information presented?
Is there advertising on the site? Does this influence information found on the site?
Are arguments well-reasoned and supported?

Currency

Is the information on the page up-to-date?
Is the page updated regularly?
Are there dead links?

Use Google Advanced Search

Google Advanced Search

Use Google Advanced Search for power searching. Note your ability to limit to one particular domain (.gov, .edu, .org):

Google Advanced Search
Use this search to help you limit by resource, date and more. Find specific types of websites, such as those created for academic purposes (.edu) or government (.gov).

Sites for Housing Issues

Housing Discrimination and Domestic Violence
ACLU
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Homelessness - Washington
List of government resources and programs in Washington State
HUD
US Dept of Housing and Urban Development
NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
"The NAACP's mission is to ensure the political, educational, equality of minority group citizens of States and eliminate race prejudice."
Equal Rights Center/ Fair Housing
National Alliance to End Homelessness

Sites for family topics

There are hundreds of great sites dedicated to marriage and family out there! I've culled through many of them and highlighted some that I think are the best:

The Factbook: Eye-Opening Memos on Everything Family
Excellent information on topics like Family Roles and Responsibilities, Word and Play, Children, Love and Marriage, Economic Issues, Families in Crisis, and more.
Family Law Center
"Here you will find in-depth legal information on a number of common family law issues -- including divorce, marriage, child custody, child support, adoption, and much more."
National Marriage Project
A site from Rutgers University dedicated to providing "research and analysis on the state of marriage in America."
National Healthy Marriage Resource Center
"The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC) is a clearinghouse for high quality, balanced, and timely information and resources on healthy marriage."
Dual Career Couples
"Collection of writings and other resources on dual career couples in the academic field. Topics include how to approach a job search, advantages and disadvantages of applying for jobs as a couple, the difficulties of being a "trailing spouse," and more. Includes several case studies of dual career couples in the geoscience field. From the Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College."

Sites for education topics

There is much information related to education out there on the world wide web. Here are a few good sites to start with:

National Center for Education Statistics: International Activities Program
Provides "statistical data for cross-national comparisons of education."
U.S. Department of Education
Research, statistics, news, policy, and more information on education in the United States.
National Assessment of Educational Progress: The Nation's Report Card
"The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only nationally representative, continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas."
Center on Reinventing Public Education
"CRPE engages in independent research and policy analysis on a range of K-12 public education reform issues, including choice & charters, finance & productivity, teachers, urban district reform, leadership, and state & federal reform."

Sites for Mental Health Topics

Mental Health.gov
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
National Institute of Mental Health
The governmental agency NIMH is a great resource for basic information, studies, treatment overviews, and statistics on mental illnesses. It is easy to browse topics by community or search by specific mental illness.
Resources from the National Alliance on Mental Illness

Why Web Sites?

Image from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. It provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.

Why use web sites? For:

local issues, advocacy and support organizations, public issue think tanks, businesses, and groups
up-to-the-minute news and reporting
government web sites, including laws

News and News Blogs Online

Web searches return sources from a range of news publications and blogs. Be sure to assess your sources. One quick trick is to see what Wikipedia says about the source!

Center for Public Integrity
Investigative Journalism: "Public Integrity seeks to counter the corrosive effects of inequality by holding powerful interests accountable and equipping the public with knowledge to drive change. We are an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigating systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in our country.
Our reporters excel at investigating the systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in labor, housing, health care, education and access to democracy. We also expose the far reaching implications of a history of unequal power, by examining disparities in environmental and criminal justice, transportation, technology and access to financial tools.