110 likes | 404 Views
Lesson 2: Using the Internet. Topics Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Research Evaluating Online Sources Keyword Searches. Internet Research: Drawbacks. As vast as the Internet is, it has its own set of drawbacks, including: Disorganized information Unreliable information
E N D
Lesson 2: Using the Internet Topics Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Research Evaluating Online Sources Keyword Searches
Internet Research: Drawbacks As vast as the Internet is, it has its own set of drawbacks, including: • Disorganized information • Unreliable information • It’s infinite… … it’s easy to go nowhere very slowly!
Internet Research: Advantages Even with its drawbacks, the Internet does have unique advantages: • It’s a great source for topical information. • It’s easy to find specific information. • Online documents are easy to transport.
The Popular Web vs. The Specialized Web Two “Webs” exist… • The Popular Web • Contains documents indexed by popular search engines such as Google. • The Specialized Web • Is made up of huge databases difficult for the popular search engines to categorize.
Popular Search Engines • Popular search engines on the visible web : • Google: http://www.google.com/ • Yahoo!: http://www.yahoo.com/ • MSN: http://www.msn.com/ • The search coverage is done by conventional search engines
Specialized Search Engines • Specialized Search Engines and Directories in the Invisible Web: • Invisible Web Directory: http://www.invsible-web.net/ • Infomine: http://infomine.ucr.edu/ • Librarian's Internet Index: http://lii.org/ • Profusion: http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv-Web.html
How to Search the Internet • Use more than one search engine. • Use subject directories other people have put together. • Use thoughtful keywords during your search. • Boolean Searches • Use of the words AND, OR, and NOT between the search terms. • Finding Articles • EBSCO MasterFILE database indexes thousands of journals and magazines • UnCover has a database of more than 18,000 magazines and journals.
Search Languages • Controlled language searches require searching using the same words used to organize the information. • These types of searches are commonly used in subject matter indexes found in libraries. • Using a controlled language search requires familiarity with the language of the system so appropriate search terms are used.
Keyword Searches • Using correct keywords will save time and streamline the endless Internet searches • For example: • The key word Animal Rights, results in 158,000,000 hits. • The key word “Animal Rights”, results in 2,060,000 hits. • The key word “Animal Rights” ethics, results in 1,080,000 hits. • The key word “Animal Rights” ethics montanaidaho results in 59,800 hits.
Boolean Connectors • Boolean Connectors were developed more than a hundred years ago by the British logician, George Boole. • Boolean searches involve • A system using a combination of keywords that maximizes the number of relevant results • requires the use of the words AND, OR, and NOT between the search terms.