What is a Webography?
A webography (aka webliography) offers students like you a new perspective on an old
assignment classic: the annotated bibliography. Even if you have never heard the
phrase “annotated bibliography,” most (if not all) of you have certainly compiled a
bibliography (or a reference list) for a research project or paper. But you may not yet
have been asked to compile and create an annotated bibliography. So, let’s begin by
reviewing terms with which you probably are familiar:
A bibliography/reference is a list of sources (books, journals, websites,
periodicals, etc.) one has used for researching a topic. A bibliography/reference
usually just includes the bibliographic information (i.e., the author, title, publisher,
etc.).
An annotation is a summary and/or evaluation.
When we put these two terms together, then, we arrive at the following definition of
“annotated bibliography:”
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each
citation is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The
purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality
of the sources cited.
Like the classic annotated bibliography, the webography/webliography offers readers a
list of citations and accompanying annotations to source materials related to a given
topic. However, unlike the classic annotated bibliography (which can include both
library and non-library resources), the webography/webliography only includes online
resources (i.e., webpages).
Reference:
Stacks, Geoff and Erin Karper. “Annotated Bibliographies.” Online Writing Lab @
Purdue University. Purdue University. July 2001. Web. 4 May 2006.
Webography 101: A very short introduction to bibliographies on the Internet.
