WISER Science Finding quality information on the internet Thursday, 19 November 2009 Karen Langdon & Penny Roberts This session will introduce you to a range of internet search tools and other resources, which give access to different types of information, and show different options for looking at information. We will give you some pointers that will help you assess the quality and reliability of internet resources, and show you how you can find some specialised types of data. We are also going to give you an opportunity to evaluate some websites for yourself and decide if they are reliable. Example: mobile phone tracking site

Web search tools Search engines Web directories Meta search engines Academic search engines Portals Search engines: e.g. www.google.co.uk Web directories: e.g. www.dmoz.org tools for structural browsing hierarchical taxonomy Meta search engines: e.g. www.webcrawler.com search more than one search engine more comprehensive coverage Academic search engines: e.g. Scopus, Scirus, Google Scholar Portals (gateways): e.g. www.intute.ac.uk, www.opendoar.org added value services

Alerts RSS feeds Database updates

User-generated resources Blogs Wikis Shared information sites Blogs Wikis Shared information sites (open databases, self-publishing sites): www.freebase.com, www.scienceray.com www.wolframalpha.com

Searching for specific types of data Gene sequences Deep indexing captions tables illustrations Gene sequences: www.pubmed.org Deep indexing: http://www.csa.com/

Evaluating web resources Reliable Verifiable Current Objective

Now try it yourself! Examples to analyse and compare: http://www.ding.net/bonsaikitten/ http://www.karmafarms.com/twisty.htm http://www.mcwhortle.com/index.htm http://www.itaser.com/accessories.html http://www.weirdfragrances.com/ http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/hf_jp_ii_xxv_en.htm http://www.landoverbaptist.org/ http://www.wingmakers.com/ http://www.hrodc.com/ http://www.diplomasandtranscripts.co.uk/ http://www.golfcross.com/home.html

Feedback You will get an e-mail with the online evaluation form in due course

Next session: Conferences This session will enable you to find out about forthcoming conferences and also to locate the published papers of proceedings that have taken place Thursday, 26 November 2009 James Shaw and Sue Bird