September 2004	Joyce Morris, Ed.D.

 

Selecting a search tool

Categories of search tools

Boolean Searches

Interpreting Results

Evaluating Results

Citing  Electronic Resources

With more than an estimated one billion documents already available on Internet, finding relevant information can be quite tedious. The the ability to identify, select, and evaluate information is an important new skill to learn.

1. Selecting a Search Tool

If you're researching a reasonably common topic with a reasonably common theme, use a general index (a site that divides pages up into categories, like Yahoo!) before you use a general search engine (a site that indexes every word of every page it catalogs, like Alta Vista). If there's one available, use a topic-specific index before you use a general one. If you wish to search just Education sites, you might try SearchEdu.com

For a comprehensive ONLINE resource about searching check http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/major.html

2. There are essentially three categories of search tools:

Directories/Index Directories are like card catalogs. A person browsed the Internet, located and evaluated documents, and classified them. You locate information from a directory by identifying the category and then sub category until your information has been identified.

Directory search tools include:

YAHOO	http://www.yahoo.com
Galaxy	http://www.galaxy.com/

Search Engines Search engines are basically databases of Internet sites that allow you to locate information by using keyword queries. The first task in finding information using a search engine is to articulate exactly what you are looking for. Identify the words or phrases that best describe your query.

 

Meta Search Engines These are services that send out a number of queries through a number of search engines at once. You will get the most responses, although some may be duplicates, using this kind of tool.

• Sentence Searchers The newest software in search engines lets you ask whole word sentences and
searches phrases to help you identify your information.

 

Ask Jeeves

http://aj.com

Also Check out Specialty Search Engines that focus on News, people, shopping, listservs, etc. at http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/specialty.html
 
 

3. Using Boolean Search Techniques

You can create specific relationships among keywords or phrases using

" ", AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR commands in the search.

---

Symbol	Action
" ..."	Indicates exact multiple word phrases. Searches for "French Revolution" as one concept.
AND	Finds only documents containing all of the specified words. French AND Revolution finds documents with both the word French and the word Revolution.
OR	Finds documents containing at least one of the specified words or phrases. French OR Revolution finds documents containing either word, not necessarily both.
NOT (!)	Excludes documents containing the specified word or phrase. French AND Revolution NOT Cars finds documents with French and Revolution but those that refer to the newest looking Peugeot.
NEAR (~)	Finds documents containing both specified words or phrases within 10 words of each other.
Wildcard (*)	An asterisk at the end of a keyword will match any permutations of the word. For example a search of French and Rev* will find French Revolution, French Revolutionary, French Revolver, etc...

 
For a site that describes and links to many Internet search tools visit http://www.virtualfreesites.com/search.html and

to find links to regular and specialty search engines, check out Needle in a Cyberstack at http://home.mchsi.com/~albeej/
 
 

4. Interpreting Search Results
 

It is said that an ideal search finds about 50 hits. If you are finding too few, try another search engine or use broader terms. If you find too many, try narrower terms, more keywords or include your terms in quotes.

Results are returned in rank order of relevancy

Before setting off to chase down your links, read the search results.

If you're looking for some of John Dewey's writings you'd want to visit the first, not second search result.

Check the address to consider the source, look at the date to see how recent the material is and read the description to see the kind and amount of information included.

5. Online Search Tutorials
 

• University of Albany Tutorials: Excellent tutorials cover a range of topics including basic Internet use, research guides, search tools, and using Netscape Navigator.
• Internet Resources from UC Berkeley Library: Another excellent resource about Internet searching and research tools. Includes a number of downloadable PDF files for workshops on Internet Searching.
• Scout Tool, Searching The Internet , Univ. of Wisconsin: The Scout Toolkit is a useful collection of online materials compiled by the Internet Scout Project to help you "surf smarter".

Search Engine Comparison Chart: From the people at Infoseek
 

6. Evaluating Web Resources
 

• Evaluating Web Pages: A Web Quest. Online experience for students in evaluating web pages. Students work in groups to carefully examine and evaluate Web sites relating to a particular topic.
• Widener University, Wolfgram Memorial Library Information Gateway. This Web site provides guidelines for evaluating the quality of Web-based information.
• Critical Thinking and the WWW: Indiana University provides a check list of criteria to look for in evaluating the validity of a web page.
• Why we need to evaluate what we find on the Internet. From Perdue, things to consider in evaluating web pages.

7. Citing  Resources 

The University of Vermont has online guides to numerous citation formats.  

all links verified 9/21/04
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