Melissa Ballagh

English 3014

September 9, 2002

 

Website Evaluation

                    This evaluation takes a look at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, found at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html as part of the Forham [sp] University site.   To evaluate the website, the criteria of credibility, usefulness, and organization were used.

                    The main page for the Internet Medieval Sourcebook gives the websiteÕs [credibility=>credentials] [right=>directly] underneath the title.  Most of its credibility comes from an association with Fordham UniversityÕs Center for Medieval Studies.  The site author, Paul Halsall, works as a professor for the center as well as a source editor for the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies.  Halsall provides both a link for email contact and links to affiliated organizations.  [At=>Additionally, at] the bottom of the page, Halsall even includes a bibliography of the places where he got inspiration for how to set up the siteÕs sourcebook.

                    As a professor, Halsall mainly intends for the site to provide students and teachers with a variety of medieval sources [Is this an inference, or is there a statement to that effect somewhere?].  The texts range in topics that include such things [^as] Arthurian legends, economic issues, medieval Christianity, and gender roles. 

                    Most of the texts are part of the site itself.  Any links off the site go to webpages that also have scholarly affiliations.  For instance, sources for Arthurian legends come from Camelot Project, run by the University of Rochester.

                    With all the texts and subjects, one might expect to have some trouble finding things.  The Selected Sources section includes an index that breaks sources down into areas from generalized topics to narrower ones.  [This isnÕt as clear as it could be: perhaps an example?=>]The index is even [thoughtfully?] set up so that one does not have to constantly look back up to find out what heading a particular issue falls under.

                    With its helpful information and easy navigability, the Internet Medieval Sourcebook is a great place to look for texts about almost anything medieval.  The only thing a student or teacher needs to worry about is a slightly long wait for the longer texts to load.