Many people, companies, groups and businesses create websites. Some of these websites are designed to market their products or services to as wide an audience as possible. Other websites are written to promote the website owner's personal views.
Sometimes it can be hard to figure out if the information your given on such a website is reliable. When you're working on an essay or project for one of course, it's very important to know which sources of information meet the academic standards set by your lecturers.
This is why the Librarians here keep curated lists of online resources, which we know provide reliable information. So, next time you have work to do, why don't you check out our lists? Or come talk to us? We'll help you figure it out.
Before you use a website as a reference for a project or essay, here's a few questions you should ask about it:
Who has created the website?
What have they written about?
Where is the website supposed to be from? Where is it supposed to be about?
When are the events supposed to have happened? Can this be proven?
How have they written the website? What kind of language have they used? What kind of images have they used?
Why have they created the website?
If you find it difficult to find reliable answers to these questions, then this website probably isn't a good academic reference.