Mrs. Geist Belfield Elementary School Librarian Helping Students Search Effectively

Some things to remember: “Surfing” is not searching. An hour on the Web may not answer a question that you could find within two minutes of picking up a reference book. Not all the information that exists in the world is on the Internet—Not all the information that is on the Internet is accurate.

 The Internet is a computer network covering the whole world. We can use it to search through three billion pages of the WORLD WIDE WEB, or to keep in touch with people by . WORLD WIDE WEB  Every computer linked to the Internet has an address. This is its IP number. When you send an or search for information on the Internet, your computer sends packets of data with the sender’s and receiver’s addresses attached. Special computers called servers and routers direct the data through the Internet.

 No one.  The Internet is not under the control of any person or country.  No one is in charge of organizing the Internet. It is held together by a set of standards, or rules, that set out how computers connected to it should exchange information.

 No one really knows.  Some websites, like Netcraft, try to count websites. They estimate there are about 525 MILLION websites (Nov. 2011)  There may be over 3 BILLION individual web pages. How big is a billion? (Click here)(Click here)  Millions of pages are added and deleted every day.

 ANYBODY CAN!  Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection—individuals, businesses, schools, governments, even entire countries can have one or many websites.

 No.  It’s been said that searching on the Internet is like dragging a fishing net across the surface of the ocean: a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is deep and therefore missed.  This is called the “deep Web” or “invisible Web”. More later.

 Companies pay to put ads on websites.  Pop-ups and banners are trying to influence what you buy.  The information on commercial sites--.com— may be presented in such a way as to encourage you to buy a particular product.

 URL’s  Searching techniques  Search engines

 Stands for Uniform Resource Locator  This is the web “address” that connects you with a website  Goes in the address bar at the top of the screen  Gives you information about the website

 transfer protocol: The language computers use to “talk” to one another  www—world wide web: the body of information connected by the cables and computers of the Internet .starwars—domain name: the structured, alphabetic-based, unique name for a computer on a network .com—top level domain: gives an idea of where the document is stored

.edu—higher education (colleges) .k-12—elementary to high schools .com—commercial .gov—government agency .mil—military .org—organization .net—computer network

 Libraries and department stores are planned.  No one is in charge of organizing the Internet.  Well-prepared searches will eliminate useless hits and wasted time.

 Prepare  Organize  Combine

 What do you need to know about your topic?  Make a list of all the terms connected with your topic.  Include names, organizations, and phrases.

 If you stacked up a billion sheets of notebook paper, the stack would be 95 miles high!  That’s as far as from Emporia to. Back to slides…

 Make a list of the words that are critical to your search.  Note terms that you don ’ t want to see appear.  Discard the rest.

For example… If you are looking for information about life on the planet Mars, you don’t want sites popping up about the Roman god of war. Put that in your list of words you don’t want to see. What other words might be connected with your topic that will send you to useless sites?

Use Boolean operators to combine your most important terms.  Use AND to connect the terms you want to see.  Use NOT to exclude terms you don ’ t want.  Use OR to include similar terms.  Use quotation marks around names or phrases  Use lower case for all proper nouns, except for acronyms

 Search engines  Search directories  Metasearchers

 Are like the index in the back of a book  Let you search for specific words and topics  Use robots known as spiders to search for information.

Are like the table of contents in front of a book Let you search for concepts or subject categories Go from general to specific. Sites are added by people.

 Internet Public Library Internet Public Library

Instead of looking through the categories in a search directory, you can put in your terms in their search bar, but it will only look through the sites that have been included within that directory—not the entire web, unless indicated.

“ Let the buyer beware ” Book publishers weed out inaccurate information. No one checks the Internet for accuracy.

EVALUATE!

 Is he an authority on the subject?  Does she have an address?

 Can it be verified in an encyclopedia?  Is it relevant to your topic?  Does the author indicate where he found the information?

 Is it trying to persuade you to another point of view?  Is it trying to persuade you to buy a product?

 When was the last time the website was updated?  Are the links broken?

 Quality Information Checklist Quality Information Checklist Benefits of Colloidal Silver Burger King Introduces…Burger King Introduces

 What can you copy?  Give credit to what you have used.

 Is the legal right of an author or artist to control the copying and use of their creative works.  Taking something without permission is theft, including text and pictures from the Internet.  Using someone else ’ s words without giving credit is called plagiarism.  “ Fair Use ” concept lets teachers and students use portions of copyrighted works without permission.

 Literary works  Computer software  Musical works  Dramatic works  Motion pictures  Sound recordings

 Am I using this for a nonprofit, educational purpose?  Am I only using a small portion?  Will the creator be deprived of future profits?

 A single, hard copy for personal or educational use.  Limited amounts of websites.  Copies cannot be used for public or commercial use.  Students must cite the source of their information.  For multi-media projects:  Video clips — 10% or three minutes  Music — 10% but no more than 30 seconds.  Text — 10% or 1000 words

 The diocesan copyright policy  COPYRIGHT FOR SCHOOLS, by Carol Simpson  Copyright Bay Copyright Bay  Copyright Kids Copyright Kids  Cyberbee Copyright Cyberbee Copyright

 Last name, first name of author.  If there is no author listed, begin with the title.  “ Title of article within the website. ”  Put quote marks around the title  Name of website.  Underline the name  Date article was written.  Put the date first, then abbreviate the month.  Date you accessed the article.  URL.  If the URL won ’ t fit on one line, break it at a slash. Include the entire URL, not just the one for the home page.

 MLA Style MLA Style  Citation Machine Citation Machine

Adams, Joyce. “How Vatican II changed the face of the Catholic Church.” Catholic News Service. 2 Sept Oct < vatican.html>.

 Don ’ t give out personal information.  (phone number, address, pictures)  Use Christian courtesy in s and chat rooms.  Don ’ t arrange to meet with someone from online without telling your parents.  Do tell your parents about inappropriate websites that you run across.  Be careful what you post in a public forum. *

You leave “electronic footprints” wherever you go on the web.

 Books  Jones, Debra. Exploring the Internet. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.,  Simpson, Carol, and McElmeel, Sharron L. Internet for Schools: A Practical Guide, 3 rd ed. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing,Inc.,  Websites  Adams, Helen, and Beyers, Catherine. “ Lesson 2: Finding Information on the Internet. ” American Library Association. Dec. 15,

Dodge, Bernie. “ Seven Steps to Better Searching. ” San Diego State University College of Education. July 8, Nov < sevensteps.htm.> Knowledge is power. Librarians Rule.