By Debra DeRuyver, Jennifer Evans, James Melzer, and Emma Wilmer
Written & Mounted April 30, 2000
Regular visitors to history oriented Web sites include historians and
non-historians; academic and non-academic publics. Oft times, Web sites are used
as the sole source of historical information on particular topics, particularly
by K-12 and undergraduate students. Therefore, critical analysis of these sites
is of the utmost importance. We as public historians have a responsibility to
critique and evaluate these online resources, both to help improve the specific
sites under review and to raise the bar for the entire field of public history.
Site analyses provide benefits to several different groups:
- The user gains an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of a site and the
validity and reliability of the information contained therein.
- The reviewed site benefits from a constructive outside appraisal.
- Un-reviewed public history sites benefit from having models of best
practices and common pitfalls.
- Critical site analyses encourage better scholarship and more engaging
presentations of public history.
- Ultimately, the historical record is served by site analyses; site
reviews provide traces of presentations of public history on the Web
during its first decade of existence.
In order to facilitate Web site analysis and to create a uniform standard for
rating sites, PHRC has developed a rating
system for evaluating public history Web sites. Prior to using
these criteria, we recommend reading Managing Editor Debra DeRuyver's essay on
the major issues involved in evaluating Web sites for
their historical value. Additionally, users will want to visit our Web
site review section to see PHRC's evaluation criteria in action. This
section presents expert reviews of a selection of historically oriented Web
sites.
Evaluating Web Sites