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Internet Searching:

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To share selected free animal health-related web sites and information resources ... Examples: Yahoo, NetVet/Electronic Zoo, DMoz. Subject Gateways ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Internet Searching:


1
Internet Searching
Tips and Techniques
Vicki F. Croft, Head Health Sciences Library
2
Objectives
  • To help you search the Internet more efficiently
    and effectively
  • To share selected free animal health-related web
    sites and information resources and other useful
    health and international web resources
  • To provide suggestions on ways to evaluate
    Internet sites and resources

3
Outline
  • PowerPoint Presentation
  • Hands-on Searching
  • Discussion and Questions

4
Definitions
  • Internet a global network of interconnected
    computers. Includes email, the www, etc.
  • WWW (World Wide Web) a service that includes a
    collection of documents stored on computers
    connected to the Internet. The contents are
    written in markup languages, such as html, and
    often contain hypertext links for moving from
    document to document.

5
World Wide Web (WWW)
  • Visible web that part of the web that is
    searchable by search engines
  • Invisible or deep web the non-searchable part of
    the web. It may be 2-500X as large as the visible
    web!
  • Proprietary information
  • Archival documents older materials (pre-1980s)
  • Library catalogs
  • Information/citations/articles from databases,
    etc. that cost money to access, e.g. Web of
    Science
  • Sites technically not accessible

6
Ways to Find Information from the WWW
  • Search engines, e.g. Google
  • Directories, e.g. Yahoo
  • Subject gateways, favorite sites/lists, such as
    Vet Gate
  • Specialized databases, such as PubMed, Agricola

7
Search Engines
  • Search engines are powerful Web search tools that
    enable you to trawl vast quantities of Web
    resources by keyword searching. Results are
    ranked based upon computer completed indexes of
    words from web pages.
  • Examples Google, DogPile

8
Directories
  • Large, multi-subject search tools aimed at a
    general audience and built by human editors.
  • Quality of resources is variable
  • Usually use very broad subject hierarchies that
    take a lot of browsing, with no controlled
    indexing.
  • Examples Yahoo, NetVet/Electronic Zoo, DMoz

9
Subject Gateways
  • Designed to help users locate high quality Web
    resources in a particular subject area. Provide
    access to hand selected, evaluated Web resources,
    chosen by subject specialists and information
    professionals.
  • Organized by subjects for easy browsing.
  • Examples VetGate, Free Animal Health Resources
    (Cornell)

10
Search Engines vs. Directories, Favorite Sites,
Gateways
  • Use search engines for finding more specific
    information (visible web)
  • Use directories and subject gateways for more
    general information and starting points
  • Use known web sites or specialized databases when
    the information is likely to be found at that web
    site, e.g. Pub Med
  • Remember No single search engine can capture all
    the information. More information is not always
    better.

11
Hands on Practice
  • http//wsulibs.wsu.edu/hsl/icahis5/handson.htm

12
Search Engine Strategies (Syntaxes)
(http//google.com)
  • For exact phrase, use quotes west nile virus
  • By title In title rabies bats
  • By URL urlwww.aaep.org
  • By date bubonic seattle 1907..1908
  • Exclude a word python Monty
  • By language use Preferences and select
    language(s), e.g. Zorro English
  • Combining syntaxes, e.g. in url www.aaep.org
    navicular

13
Veterinary Web Site Gateways
  • Free Animal Health Resources (Cornell)
    http//www.vet.cornell.edu/library/FreeResources.h
    tm
  • An excellent, annotated, up-to-date web site of
    free internet resources, arranged by category.
    Includes hints on searching, and evaluation of
    web sites.
  • VetGate Internet Resources for Animal Health
  • http//vetgate.ac.uk
  • UK-based, from BIOME, a free internet service
    that provides access to Internet resources in
    health and life sciences. Linked sites have
  • been selected and evaluated by
    experts.
  • Includes a nice tutorial.

14
Quick Answer Reference Sites
  • Internet Public Library http//www.ipl.org
  • Provides links to general reference, quick
    answers. Ready Reference section has good links
    to almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
    acronyms, etc. Useful if you dont know the URL.
  • Yahoo! Reference Collection http//www.yahoo.com/r
    eference
  • Google Images http//images.google.com
  • Includes over 800 million images. Can limit by
    size, format, color, domain
  • All the Web http//www.alltheweb.com
  • Images, video, and audio searching

15
Free Searchable Databases
  • PubMed http//pubmed.gov
  • Contains references with abstracts to articles in
    over 4,300 biomedical journals published
    internationally and covering all aspects of
    medicine. Includes indexing to more than 80
    veterinary journals. Updated daily. Contains
    links to some free online journals. Some
    references go back to the 1950s.
  • For a list of veterinary journals indexed in
    PubMed, go to http//www.systems.wsu.edu/bin/libd
    ocs/periodicals/VetJournalsPubMed.pdf

16
Help Guides to Searching PubMed
  • PubMed Tutorial http//www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_
    tutorial/m1001.html
  • A Web-based learning program that shows how to
    search PubMed
  • PubMed Searching Veterinary Medicine
  • http//www.lib.vt.edu/services/branches/vetmed/VM
    LS/VMLS20PubMed20brochure.pdf
  • Helpful hints for searching for veterinary
    topics in PubMed
  • PubMed Search Tags and Field Qualifiers
  • http//nnlm.gov/ner/PubMedFieldTags.doc
  • A handy chart of tags and field qualifiers.

17
Free Searchable Databases Continued
  • AGRICOLA http//www.agricola.nal.usda.gov
  • Contains approximately 3 million citations in
    agriculture and related topics from 1970 to
    present.  It is maintained by the U.S. National
    Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland.
    Best for food production animals, animal
    husbandry and feeding, as well as other aspects
    of agriculture.

18
Evaluating web sites
  • Where?
  • Why?
  • Who?
  • Current?
  • Authors credentials?
  • Reliability? Accurate?
  • http//snopes.com
  • Organized? Easy to navigate? Clear?

19
When you are looking for something and cant find
what you need
  • Is online the best place to look?
  • Should I try a directory or search engine? Which
    one(s)?
  • Who is most likely to have the answer?
  • Have I looked the right places with the right
    tools?
  • Have I overlooked some important resources?
  • Is my search too narrow? Is my search too broad?
  • Any misspellings? Have I used correct syntaxes?

20
Creating and Maintaining Your Own Favorites
  • Bookmark favorite sites in your browser, e.g.
    Internet Explorer
  • Create a list in Word with hotlinks
  • Include your websites on your libraries web page
  • Suggestion Check links, look for new sites and
    links every 6 months
  • Free automated link Software www.linklint.org
  • Open Source Perl Program
  • Includes Documentation

21
Free Software
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader www.adobe.com
  • Open Office www.openoffice.org
  • Multilingual, open access alternative to MS Word,
    Excel, Power Point
  • Firefox- open access web browser
    http//www.mozilla.org
  • Caution Take time to read the license

22
References
  • Calishan, Tara. Search Engine Garage. Upper
    Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall PTR,
    2005.
  • A book about using the Internet and search
    engines, the basic principles of internet
    searching, with examples.
  • Beyond Google Searching the Web More Effectively
    http//healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/beyondgoog
    le.html
  • Handout for a class on teaching users other
    ways to search beyond Google.

23
References
  • Search Engine Watch http//searchenginewatch.com
  • Search engine news search links by subject
    provides tips and information about searching the
    web, analysis of the search engine industry and
    help to site owners trying to improve their
    ability to be found in search engines.
  • Search Engine Showdown the Users Guide to Web
    Searching (http//searchengineshowdown.com )
  • Includes search engine directories,
    comparisons, news about search engines, etc.

24
Acknowledgements
  • The presenter gratefully acknowledges the
    assistance of the following
  • Erica van der Westhuizen, University of Pretoria
  • Sarah McCord, Washington State University
  • Joyce Franke, Washington State University
  • Susanne Whitaker, Cornell University
  • Greg Youngen, University of Illinois
  • Lenny Rhine, University of Florida
  • LEEP Program University of Illinois (UIUC)
    Graduate School of Library Science
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