You work in a small office of fewer than 20 employees that has no dedicated IT staff. As the resident tech expert, you are called on to deal with computer issues and tech-related decisions. Lately this has been taking up more of your time and you feel it is no longer an efficient arrangement. You speak to your boss about contracting with an IT company to oversee these needs, and she tells you to research some options.
-You find a website with some interesting information about your topic. The author is a well-known expert in the field. There is some useful data, for which the author has taken care to provide citations. There are also some promising looking links, but when you click on them they are broken. You check the last-updated date and see that it is almost a year ago. What is your evaluation of this source?
A)This source should be cited in your report, as it amply meets all 3 A's.
B)This source has some accuracy issues so it should not be cited.
C)This source is not terribly recent, but given the nature of your research it is acceptable.
D)This source fares well as to authorship and accuracy, but it is not current enough to be cited for a technology project.
E)This source is problematic regarding all 3 A's.

Question

You work in a small office of fewer than 20 employees that has no dedicated IT staff. As the resident tech expert, you are called on to deal with computer issues and tech-related decisions. Lately this has been taking up more of your time and you feel it is no longer an efficient arrangement. You speak to your boss about contracting with an IT company to oversee these needs, and she tells you to research some options. 
-You find a website with some interesting information about your topic. The author is a well-known expert in the field. There is some useful data, for which the author has taken care to provide citations. There are also some promising looking links, but when you click on them they are broken. You check the last-updated date and see that it is almost a year ago. What is your evaluation of this source?
A)This source should be cited in your report, as it amply meets all 3 A's.
B)This source has some accuracy issues so it should not be cited.
C)This source is not terribly recent, but given the nature of your research it is acceptable.
D)This source fares well as to authorship and accuracy, but it is not current enough to be cited for a technology project.
E)This source is problematic regarding all 3 A's.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

D) This is a technology project, so the material needs to be very current. Broken links are a tip-off that the page is outdated, and this is confirmed by the last-updated date. The authorship is top-notch, and citations for data indicate an accurate source.

You Work in a Small Office of Fewer Than 20