Measures for evaluating electronic resources with emphasis on websites

Although information media have been transformed through the course of time, nevertheless the librarians traditionally took up the part where they made a critical and quality evaluation of information. Today the World Wide Web is considered to be one of the most important information resources as well as a medium. With the exponential growth of the internet, an immense amount of accurate and reliable information is swamped by the overload of unreliable information. This is due to the fact that unlike the print world, many items published on the internet do not undergo a peer review or editorial process. Many of the information accessible on the Net are not only wrong but may be misleading and incorrect. This is of particular concern in case of medical information. It seems therefore necessary to evaluate websites both qualitatively and critically, and assess the information contained thereof and their scope with respect to the needs of patrons. The present paper analyses and evaluates the websites and electronic resources available on the Net and offers methods and standards for assessing electronic information and selecting suitable, reliable information resources