How to find information on the Internet

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How to find information on the Internet
introducing the Resource Discovery Network (RDN)
http//www.rdn.ac.uk/
Slides for Teaching and Library Staff
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What is the RDN?
The RDN is a search engine of 40,000 high quality
Web resources.

• How do you know they are good quality?
• Because unlike most search engines, our
  collection is not generated automatically. We use
  subject specialists (researchers, teachers,
  librarians) to locate, select and describe the
  best Web sites in their area.
• What, actual people?
• Yes. For this reason, you will find fewer
  resources on the RDN than you would on
  conventional search engines. However, you know
  that everything you do find on the RDN will be
  reliable and high quality.
• Why do you do that?
• Because there is so much information on the
  Internet that is false and inaccurate! The RDN
  can help those in higher and further education
  find high quality Web sites to support their
  learning and teaching.

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Using the RDN

• We are going to look at three ways you can use
  the RDN
• Searching by keyword
• Browsing by RDN hub (RDN subject-specific
  gateways)
• Working through an RDN Virtual Training Suite
  tutorial

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Effective searching
There are some things you need to do about before
searching the Web using the RDN (or any other
search tool) ...

• You will need to
• think about your information needs
• plan a search strategy

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Effective searching

• You should ask yourself
• What keywords describe my topic?
• Are there any similar words that describe my
  subject?
• Do I want to find particular types of resources?
  (e.g. journals, images, e-books)

• Before you start searching the Internet you
  should have
• an idea of the sort of resources you need
• a list of relevant keywords to your topic
• some alternative keywords that may help to
  extend/restrict your search

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Introducing the RDN

• Now lets take a look at the Resource Discovery
  Network. To get started, enter http//www.rdn.ac.u
  k/ into your browser. You should see something
  like this.

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Search the RDN
To begin searching, simply enter a keyword or
phrase in the search box and click GO
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Searching the RDN
Your search results should look something like
this
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Browsing the RDN

• You can browse the resources available in the RDN
  by selecting one of the subject headings on the
  home page

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Browsing BIOME
Select the heading Life Sciences on the RDN home
page or enter http//biome.ac.uk/biome.html in
your browser
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Browsing EEVL
To browse resources in engineering, mathematics
and computing, enter http//www.eevl.ac.uk/ in
your browser
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Browsing Humbul
Select the heading Humanities on the RDN home
page or enter http//www.humbul.ac.uk/ in your
browser
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Browsing PSIgate
You can browse for resources in the physical
sciences either by selecting this heading on the
RDN home page or by typing http//www.psigate.ac.u
k/ into your browser
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Browsing SOSIG
Select the heading Social Sciences on the RDN
home page or enter http//www.sosig.ac.uk/ in
your browser
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RDN Virtual Training Suite
The RDN Virtual Training Suite teaches you how to
use the Internet more effectively via
subject-based tutorials. Forty tutorials are
currently available, with more coming along all
the time.

• Each tutorial has four sections
• TOUR take a site-seeing tour of the Internet
  for your subject
• DISCOVER how to improve your Internet search
  skills
• REVIEW learn the skills needed to critically
  evaluate Web sites
• REFLECT practical ideas for using the Internet
  to support learning and teaching

Free to those in Further and Higher Education -
no need to register...
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RDN Virtual Training Suite
To access the RDN Virtual Training Suite, type
http//www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/ into your browser.
Select one of the tutorials from the list and
start learning how to use the Internet more
effectively!
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Resource Discovery Network
http//www.rdn.ac.uk/
The Resource Discovery Network
Slides for teachers and librarians