ALA | Best Business Web Sites Selection Criteria

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Sponsored by the BRASS Education Committee

Selection Criteria

Subject categories were distributed among committee members based on subject expertise and familiarity of business Web sites in that category. Subject experts were asked to select 10-15 of the best web sites for their subject category focusing on comprehensive sites and to write brief unique annotations. Other initial selection criteria included:

Currency of content
Stability of content over a long period of time
Quality & usefulness of content
Ease of navigation

During the review of the prototype at the 2000 mid-Winter meeting, selectors mentioned additional selection criteria that included:

Web site familiarity
Dependability of content in teaching and/or answering questions at the reference desk
Preference of .edu/.gov/.org domains vs. .com
Authority of author
Web site endorsement

"Free" Web sites were important as a criteria for the inclusion on the subject pages. Fee-based Web sites were selected if they were well known and offered unique content. They are indicated as $ Fee-based on the guides.