Information Literacy Program

1
Emalus Campus

• Information Literacy Program
• Module 3
• Untangle the Web
• Finding Information on the Internet

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Other ILP Modules
Emalus Campus

• Module 1 Resources available _at_ the Emalus
  Campus Library
• Module 2 Accessing the Emalus Library Website
  Using the Online Catalogue
• ?Module 3 Untangle the WebFinding Information
  on the Internet
• Module 4 Critically Evaluating Information
  Sources
• Module 5 Literature Search, Citing Sources
  the Bibliography

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Learning Objectives
Emalus Campus

• to explain the Internet and the World Wide Web
• to demonstrate how to locate information on the
  World Wide Web
• to explain different ways of searching the World
  Wide Web

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Learning Outcomes
Emalus Campus

• At the end of this session, students should
• understand what the Internet and WWW are
• be more aware of search tools such as
  directories, virtual libraries, and search
  engines to locate information on the Internet
• understand the different ways of searching the
  World Wide Web

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Some History
Emalus Campus

• Began in 1960s as a US Dept. of Defense military
  network
• 1969-Spread to link universities and research
  facilities (Advanced Research Projects Agency
  ARPA)
• electronic mail was introduced in 1976 and Queen
  Elizabeth II was the first state leader to send
  an email

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Some History
Emalus Campus

• 1982- the word Internet is used for the first
  time
• libraries began making online catalogs
  available--early 1980s
• Tim Berners-Lee of CERN developed hyperlinks. He
  called it the World Wide Web (WWW) ---- 1991

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Some History, contd.
Emalus Campus

• the WWW is now the largest part of the Internet
• search engines and web directories have been
  developed to track web pages and enable people to
  find things
• wireless Internet --- 2000
• worldwide there are about 2 billion Internet
  users --- ¼ of the worlds population

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What is the Internet?
Emalus Campus

• interlinked web of computer networks
• no organization, corporation or government owns
  or runs the Internet
• the WWW provides a single interface to the many
  functions of the Internet

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Why is the Internet slower in Vanuatu?
Emalus Campus

• Internet Infrastructure
• Fibreoptic networks use light pulses to transmit
  data (literally at the speed of light)
• Cost
• Geographical location
• Vanuatu relies on satellite connections for all
  communications
• Satellite signals have to travel a great distance
  above the earth and then back again causing a
  delay in data transmission

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Uses of the Internet
Emalus Campus

• Communication
• email
• blogs
• social networks, e.g..MySpace
• virtual communities , e.g. Second Life
• Information Retrieval
• libraries
• Databases
• Google
• Wikipedia
• Presentation of Information
• digital publishing (books, photos, etc.)

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Organization of the Web
Emalus Campus

• Web browser
• example Internet Explorer, Mozilla,Netscape
• Portal
• Example MSN.com
• Emalus campus website
• http//www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/
• Emalus campus library home page
• http//www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/
• Library Vanuatu Collection web page
• http//www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/Vanuatu.htm

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The URL - Uniform Resource Locator
Emalus Campus

• URL indicates the location of a file on the
  Internet or WWW
• like a street address or library call number
• includes the type of service as well as the exact
  location of the file
• http//www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj

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Anatomy of a URL
Emalus Campus

• URL uniform resource locator
• http//www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/Video_Collect
  ion.htm

Type of protocol
Name of Host Computer
Domain Name
Directory Path
Requested File
.edu / .ac / .com / .net / .gov / .org / .shop /
.arts / .rec
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Different Domains on the Net
Emalus Campus

• .com or .co commercial source
• .edu or .ac education institute
• .gov government source
• .int non profit international organizations
• .net mostly internet service providers e.g.
  Telecom
• .org originally applied to non-profit
  organizations, but commercial and for-profit
  organizations now also use this designation
  email addresses tend to reflect the parent
  (domain name)

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Domain Names
Emalus Campus

• http//www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/
• http//www.vanuatu.gov.vu/
• http//www.vanuatubeef.com
• http//www.forumsec.org/
• http//www.att.net.au
• http//www.who.int

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Wikipedia.org
Emalus Campus
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Google Home Page
Emalus Campus
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Relevance Ranking
Emalus Campus

• order of terms of search
• location of terms in the document
• proximity of multiple keywords in the document
• repetition of keywords in the document
• location of the page

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Word Order
Emalus Campus

• grass snake -Mostly about a kind of snake
• snake grass -Will find many about a kind
  of grass, not present in first search
• snake in the grass -Most pages will find
  expression but also first two
• snake in the grass -Most specific and
  precise. Exact phrase must appear

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Google Basic Search
Emalus Campus

• Google uses boolean operators
• the AND is implied all of the time in its basic
  search option
• Various endings are implied
• kite flying kites, kiting, flying, fly, flies
• thats why you get such large numbers of records

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Getting fewer results
Emalus Campus

• Im Feeling Lucky
• Define
• Advanced Search
• Directories
• Google Scholar
• Other featuresImages, Translate, etc.

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Google Advanced Search
Emalus Campus
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Search Tools
Emalus Campus

• search engines
• e.g. Google, Yahoo, Ask
• Library websites/databases, Virtual libraries
• e.g. Infomine
• directories
• e.g. Yahoo, About
• portals
• e.g. Microsoft MSN

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Which Tool?
Emalus Campus

• looking for a specific item
• want to browse in a broad subject area
• looking for journal articles
• want to restrict results to sites that have been
  evaluated for quality
• ? use Directories and Virtual Libraries

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Which Tool?
Emalus Campus

• looking for a specific topic
• looking for a subject thats a bit vague
• just exploring to see whats out there
• ? use Search Engine or Portal

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Journal Articles
Emalus Campus
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INFOMINE Home Page
Emalus Campus
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INFOMINE Advanced Search
Emalus Campus
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Ask.com Home Page
Emalus Campus
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Ask.com Advanced Search
Emalus Campus
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No matter what your Information Source
Emalus Campus

• you are responsible for evaluating the
  information and attributing your sources
• Refer to Module 4 CARS criteria
• Refer to Module 5 Literature search,
  citing sources the bibliography

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Via the Internet
Emalus Campus

• The Internet gives you access to the good, the
  bad and the ugly. You can access countless
  providers of information, therefore
• evaluate the information you retrieve
• you do this by verifying / cross-checking the
  information against other reliable sources

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Search Tips
Emalus Campus

• always check for typographic errors
• do not enter a single word to search
• to find an exact phrase, enter it in quotes
  exact phrase
• use the advanced search if available
• use a good subject directory to find reliable
  sites
• always evaluate information carefully

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In Summary
Emalus Campus

• different search tools have different strengths
  and weaknesses
• its easier to compare the results between 2 or
  more search engines if you use the same search
  terms
• consider keeping a list of interesting web sites,
  with brief notes on strengths that interest you
  or add to Favorites

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And Remember

• Man is still the most extraordinary computer of
  all ---John F. Kennedy