McGILL WEB GEMS

The little Emperor and a big research aid

By Mark Shainblum

Join us as we unearth the hidden gems and secret places on the websites of McGill University and its affiliated institutions.

The McGill University Napoleon Collection
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/napoleon

Ah, where would we be without Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of post-revolutionary France, would-be conqueror of Europe and arguably the world's first modern dictator… or, depending on your point of view, a champion of science, liberator of the oppressed and codifier of the Napoleonic law. Whichever Napoleon you believe in, McGill has one of the most extensive and beautiful collections of Napoleonic books and art prints you'll find anywhere.

All Napoleon, all the time
COURTESY OF MCGILL LIBRARIES

Evaluating Internet Sources
www.mcgill.ca/library-findinfo/internet/evaluating

One of the most difficult tasks for students, scholars, journalists and other researchers who use the Internet is evaluating the quality and reliability of online sources. In a world where the Journal of Astral Projection might have a slicker website than the Journal of Astrophysics, a lot of supposedly web-savvy users get taken in by junk information. In a 2001 study published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, three test groups of American undergraduates were asked to evaluate three nearly identical on-line articles about AIDS.

Surprisingly, the students gave them all essentially the same high credibility rating, regardless of whether they were credited to a doctor specializing in HIV, the widow of an AIDS victim or a high school freshman. To help you avoid embarrassments like that in your citations, the McGill Library offers this site, linking to eleven different evaluation guides from sources like the University of Arizona, Ithaca College and Johns Hopkins University, but not the Journal of Astral Projection.