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Finding & evaluating information on the World Wide Web

Finding & evaluating information on the World Wide Web. Academic Learning Support Services Dr Eric Wong February 2005. Finding & evaluating information in the WWW. Meeting peers (5’) Introducing basic searching tips (5’+5’+10’) Understanding web search tools (15’+10’)

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Finding & evaluating information on the World Wide Web

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  1. Finding & evaluating information on the World Wide Web Academic Learning Support Services Dr Eric Wong February 2005

  2. Finding & evaluating information in the WWW • Meeting peers (5’) • Introducing basic searching tips (5’+5’+10’) • Understanding web search tools (15’+10’) • Evaluating web resources (5’+15’+10’) • Locating web resources useful to your studies (10’) • Citing web resources (10’) • Q & A (10’)

  3. Introducing basic searching tips • Use appropriate sources • Create search strategies • Refer to help pages to understand their search capabilities & the right syntax to change the scope of your search • Use specific terms rather than general terms • Scan results and evaluate each entry before activating the links • Use different types of search tools • Make use of the options provided by some search engines (e.g., Google, ProFusion) to find more relevant documents

  4. Introducing basic searching tips Use appropriate sources • Look for library-subscribed web-based resources for academic purposes • Look for free resources on the web when you can’t find information you want in library-subscribed web-based resources and for non-academic purposes

  5. Introducing basic searching tips Library-subscribed web-based resources • Listed under Electronic Resources on the Library website • Reviewed & selected by librarians for academic pursuit • Subscribed by the Library thus restricted access to authorized users

  6. Introducing basic searching tips Free resources • Not listed under Electronic Resources on the Library website • Free information of vase amount • Unfiltered information thus no quality control • May contain very updated/outdated information

  7. Introducing basic searching tips Create search strategies • General strategies • Boolean logic & proximity operation • Field searching

  8. Introducing basic searching tips Create search strategies • 3 students in a group, each studies one of the following items (5’) • General strategies • Boolean logic & proximity operation • Field searching • share your learning with the other two members (10’) Source Creating a search strategy: http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson6.shtml Boolean Searching on the Internet http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html SEARCHING WITH BOOLEAN LOGIC AND PROXIMITY OPERATORS http://www.eccc.edu/library/lesson8.html Field Searching http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson9.shtml

  9. Understanding web search tools • Subject directory • Search engine • Deep web

  10. Understanding web search tools • Examine the following web search tools (15’) • Subject directory (Group1) • Search engine (Group 2) • Deep web (Group 3) http://library.albany.edu/internet/checklist.html http://library.albany.edu/internet/deepweb.html • Share with your peers (2’- 3’) • What is it? • Any example to illustrate? • When to use it?

  11. Evaluating web resources Reasons for evaluating • Anyone can put up a Web page • about anything • for pennies • in minutes • Many pages not kept up-to-date • No quality control • most sites not “peer-reviewed” • less trustworthy than scholarly publications • no selection guidelines for search engines Source http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

  12. Evaluating web resources Basic criteria for evaluation • Accuracy • Authority • Objectivity • Currency • Coverage • Stability • User friendliness Source http://www.kepler.edu/secure/students/Writing_web.htm Another Source http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/index.html

  13. Evaluating web resources • Work through the following page to understand more about the evaluating criteria (10’) http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html • Find a website of your choice and evaluate it using these criteria (5’) • Report to the whole group the results of your discussion (2’- 3’)

  14. Locating web resources useful to your studies Source http://www.cityu.edu.hk/lib/subject/index.htm

  15. Citing web resources Citation Styles: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html

  16. More references http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/bones.shtml http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html

  17. Q & A

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