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Review of the Web Sites for Chinese Archaeology

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Review of the Web Sites for Chinese Archaeology Introduction Review of the Web sites Modern Chinese archaeology really began in 1921 for Chinese archaeology when the Yangshao Village sites in Henan were first excavated by Johan G. Andersson, and the rest Ka-wai Fan and of the twentieth century brought extraordinary archaeological finds to light in China. Since Celine Yuen Yan Lai liberation in 1949, under the auspices of the Chinese Government, archaeological excavation has flourished in every corner of the country as a way to uncover and protect China’s rich cultural heritage. By contributing more of its unique archaeological findings and theories, and by participating in some of the more important comparative studies taking place internationally, China can take its place on the world stage of archaeological history. With such a vast territory and an abundance of The authors historical and cultural legacies, China witnesses new discoveries of archaeological ruins on a Ka-wai Fan is a Lecturer and Celine Yuen Yan Lai is a Research regular basis. It is therefore no easy task for Assistant, both at the Chinese Civilisation Center, City University archaeologists to keep abreast of the latest of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. developments, but with the increasing popularity Keywords and proliferation of the Internet, archaeologists can obtain up-to-date information from relevant Worldwide web, China, Archaeology, Classification Web sites and publish their latest research online for others to share. Web sites are simply a unique Abstract tool for disseminating and accessing information, The ability to sift through the ever-increasing amounts of and as long as caution is used, the Internet really information made available online to find quality and accurate can open up a wide world of knowledge that data is becoming more important every day. Using credibility, historically has never been available before on such accuracy, reasonableness, support, and uniqueness as criteria for a wide scale, or so easily. This article is a result of Web site evaluation, the authors analyse five Web sites in an effort to determine the value and quality of the information. This visiting and evaluating many Web sites in an effort article discusses the evaluation of Web sites dedicated to to highlight some of the most informative and Chinese archaeology, and also points to six main characters of useful for archaeologists, students, teachers, online resources for the subject area. In addition, questions are librarians and other interested people. raised concerning the extent to which online Chinese archaeological resources can advance general awareness of the field and contribute to a growing body of knowledge. The authors hope this article sheds light on some of the challenges Aims and objectives that need to be overcome when attempting to present this information to the global community. In the light of the relatively few articles highlighting Chinese archaeological Web sites and Electronic access the issues surrounding them, the purpose of the The Emerald Research Register for this journal is present paper is to discuss some of the features and available at characteristics found in these Web sites. Good Web www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister sites can provide readers with the latest The current issue and full text archive of this journal is information and also help point out trends in the available at development of Chinese archaeology, but what www.emeraldinsight.com/0001-253X.htm constitutes a good Web site? The Internet is a very important search tool for faculty members and students. Currently, many disciplines are dependent on the Internet for the Received 17 November 2003 Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives Revised 3 February 2004 Volume 56 · Number 4 · 2004 · pp. 255-264 Accepted 10 April 2004 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0001-253X The authors would like to express their thanks to DOI 10.1108/00012530410549286 Moya Mason for her help. 255 Review of the Web sites for Chinese archaeology Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives Ka-wai Fan and Celine Yuen Yan Lai Volume 56 · Number 4 · 2004 · 255-264 dissemination of information. In fact, many (5) oracle-bone inscriptions; and professors and scholars use online resources to (6) excavated documents. further their own research. However, simply using The Web sites are listed in the Appendix. Many are a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, to look in Chinese or a combination of Chinese and for information will not necessarily lead to quality English. The five English sites which were the most resources, and is more likely to provide a large comprehensive were then chosen from the list and number of unordered results to sift through. Many were analysed for their quality. Analysis was done useless items are also included in the results, and using Robert Harris’s CARS Checklist, a tool that quality cannot be assured. Susan Herring offers some general criteria for evaluating the conducted a survey on faculty satisfaction of the quality of Web sites. A summary of the CARS Internet as a research tool and pointed out that Checklist for research source evaluation follows: “although faculty members are generally satisfied . Credibility . Trustworthy source, author’s with the Web, they question the accuracy and credentials, evidence of quality control, reliability of much Web-based information and the known or respected authority, organizational sufficiency of Web resources for research” support. (Herring, 2001, p. 213). It is therefore not . Accuracy . Up to date, factual, detailed, exact, surprising that users are concerned with how to comprehensive, audience and purpose reflect evaluate the quality of online information and, in intentions of completeness and accuracy. particular, how to establish what constitutes . Reasonableness. Fair, balanced, objective, accuracy, reliability, and the overall usefulness of reasoned, no conflict of interest, absence of online resources (Harris, 1997; Alexander and fallacies or slanted tone. Tate, 1999; Kovacs, 2000). Support . Listed sources, contact information, This study will examine the following issues: available corroboration, claims supported, . How can a user know if a Web site on Chinese documentation supplied (Harris, 1997). archaeology contains reliable and accurate information? The above four criteria were used for evaluating . What should one look for in assessing the Chinese archaeological Web sites. In addition, reliability and accuracy of online information “uniqueness” was added as a qualifier, since Web relating to Chinese archaeology? sites specializing in archaeology can provide . How can quality be evaluated? unique features and information, and by doing so . What are the things to take into account when offer access to rare data and attract repeat visitors. developing a Web site for Chinese archaeological information? To summarise, this article presents an overview of Evaluating Chinese archaeological Web criteria that can be used to establish quality for sites online Chinese archaeological information, and makes recommendations for promoting Chinese At the time this article was written, using Google archaeology in a global context. In addition, an to search for Chinese archaeology resulted in attempt was made to categorize the types of online 201,000 hits, while Yahoo provided 135,000 hits, information available for Chinese archaeology. By numbers that users find overwhelming. Making highlighting what is available and presenting some use of such a large volume of material is difficult, of the tools for assessing quality, the authors hope especially when there are no overt pointers to that this article can contribute to the general quality information. Most people prefer quality to awareness of Chinese archaeological online quantity, and need to learn the skills required for resources and help to empower archaeological finding information of that kind. In this case, how users. could one sift through the Web sites and decide whether one is useful or not? Method Evaluating the “Chinese Studies WWW Virtual Library: Archaeology” Web site The authors conducted a number of Web searches (evaluation date 29 January 2004) to compile a list of sites on Chinese archaeology . Credentials of author, or authority . The level of and placed them into six categories: authority and trustworthiness of this site is (1) academic and museum Web sites; quite high because it is a part of the University (2) Sino-foreign cooperation; of Melbourne’s East Asian Collection of (3) reading groups; virtual resources, created and maintained by (4) archaeological Web sites and tourism; university librarians. 256 Review of the Web sites for Chinese archaeology Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives Ka-wai Fan and Celine Yuen Yan Lai Volume 56 · Number 4 · 2004 · 255-264 . Accuracy/currency . The site is comprehensive, . Accuracy/currency . It is not a good sign when with links to information on Chinese the homepage contains information about an architecture, archaeology, bibliographies, upcoming conference and a new bibliography, history, and arts, to name but a few. Created in both dated 2001. However, the site does 1996 and last updated late in 2003, this is a contain a great deal of excellent and detailed long-term project which is fairly up to date. information, such as a Silk Road chronology Users should always check the dates on Web and a bibliography on the Silk Road, sites for currency of information. contributed by experts in the field. Reasonableness . The information found on this . Reasonableness
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