Searching the Web

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Searching the Web

• Don Latham
• School of Information Studies

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(Very) Selective Bibliography

• Researching Online for Dummies, 2nd ed. (Basch
  Bates)
  
• Search Engines for the World Wide Web Visual
  Quickstart Guide, 3rd ed. (Glossbrenner
  Glossbrenner)
  
• The Extreme Searchers Guide to Web Search
  Engines, 2nd ed. (Hock)
  
• The Invisible Web (Sherman Price)

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Why learn to search?

• For your own satisfaction.
• For your professional edification
• To find material about teaching
• To find materials to use in class
• To teach students how to search

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Issues related to Web searching

• Theres just TOO MUCH!!!
• I know its there but I cant find it!
• Anybody can put something on the Web.
• How good is it? How reliable?
• How current is it?
• Can I find it again tomorrow?

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Two BIG issues

• How to search effectively efficiently
• Where to search

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How to search

• Do a reference interview with yourself
• What are you looking for? Be as specific as
  possible.
  
• What are some synonyms?
• What do you plan to do with the information?
• How current does the information need to be?
• Where should you start looking?

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How to search (cont.)

• Decide where to search
• Search engines meta-search engines
• Directories
• Mega-sites
• Library catalogs
• Ready reference sites
• Online databases

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How to search (cont.)

• Try these strategies
• Basic search first
• Boolean search
• Field search
• Truncation, wild card search

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Advanced searching

• Boolean search
• AND (returns both terms)
• Internet and business
• OR (returns either term)
• AIDS or HIV
• NOT (returns one term but not the other)
• Panthers not football

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Advanced searching

• Field search
• Title
• URL
• In a library catalog
• Keyword (every field)
• Author
• Title
• Subject

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Questions

• Whats the difference between a keyword search
  and a subject search?
  
• Does this matter on the Web?
• Where does this really apply?

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Advanced searching

• Truncation wild cards
• Ex child AltaVistasearch engine
• child? Dialog--database
• child! Lexis-Nexis--database
• Be careful What would cat return?

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Any questions so far?

• What is a reference interview?
• What are the three Boolean operators?
• What is truncation and why it is useful?

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Where to go to search

• Search engines
• AltaVista (deep search engine)
• www.altavista.com
• HotBot (sponsored by Wired magazine)
• www.hotbot.com
• Excite (features concept searching)
• www.excite.com
• GO Network
• www.go.com

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Where else?

• Meta-search engines
• Ask Jeeves (natural language searching)
• www.askjeeves.com
• Dogpile
• www.dogpile.com
• Invisible Web
• www.invisibleweb.com

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Where else?

• Specialty search engines
• Beaucoup (links to over 2000 search engines)
• www.beaucoup.com
• Yahoo! People Search
• people.yahoo.com
• infoUSA (reverse phone s)
• www.infousa.com
• MapQuest
• www.mapquest.com

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Where else?

• Directories (actually hybrids)
• Yahoo!
• www.yahoo.com
• AltaVista
• Excite
• WWW Virtual Library (Tim Berners-Lee)
• vlib.org
• Argus Clearinghouse (directory of directories)
• clearinghouse.net

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Also . . .

• Ready reference sites
• Internet Public Library
• www.ipl.org/ref
• Virtual Reference Desk
• thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/reference
• World Factbook (produced by the CIA)
• www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
  
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• britannica.com

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Also . . .

• Online library catalogs (OPACs)
• Library of Congress
• lcweb.loc.gov
• National Library of Medicine
• www.nlm.nih.gov
• College university libraries
• Local public libraries
• School libraries

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Also . . .

• Online databases (if you have access)
• Access is often available to people in schools,
  colleges, and universities
  
• Lexis-Nexis (Scholastic Universe / Academic
  Universe)
  
• FirstSearch
• Uncover
• netLibrary (online books)

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Also . . .

• Mega-sites
• Company websites
• Organizations (American Heart Association, for
  example)
  
• Guru sitespeople with obsessions (and often
  knowledge too!)
  
• Government sites

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Also . . .

• More Mega-sites
• News sites
• Newspapers
• CNN, MSNBC, ESPN
• Colleges universities
• State local agencies
• Local agencies
• Consumer groups

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Also . . .

• More Mega-sites
• Business information
• Health information
• Scientific information
• SciCentral
• www.scicentral.com
• How Stuff Works
• www.howstuffworks.com

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Questions? Comments?

• Don Latham
• latham_at_lis.fsu.edu