Strategies for Conducting Research on the Internet Angela Carritt User Coordinator, Oxford University Library Services Angela Carritt User Education Coordinator, Oxford University Library Services Penny Schenk ICT Officer, Bodleian Law Library November 30, 2009

Outline Tools to find free materials on the WWW Emphasis –Reliability –Choosing the right tool for the job Tips on evaluating web resources Hands on

Resources Search Engines –Google Scholar –Microsoft Academic –Phil Bradley page –News search –real-time –roll your own Directories –Intute –DMOZ –And others….

Academic Search Engines & Google Scholar

Google Scholar Searches… –Peer reviewed / scholarly journals and papers (many behind pay wall) –Books –Scholarly web sites So, what does it search? –It’s a secret What do you get? –Citation –Full Text (“Free” content / / versions) –Times cited –Related Info –Export to reference management software (Endnote / RefWorks)

Scholar preferences set your computer to link to Oxford’s resources set preferences for exporting to reference management software USA Federal and state cases / opinions Options for more precise searching

Phrase searching. E.g. useful for countries (e.g South Africa), names of events / organisations (United Nations), concepts (“human rights” “climate change” etc) At least one word: boolean OR. Use for synonyms (e.g. women / female, war / conflict). In title can be useful to narrow down results

Link to different versions (ie same title / author). Can be useful if full text if not available because you may find a different “version” in an “institutional repository”, as a conference paper, on the web. Times this article has been cited…by other items on Google Scholar Check for full text in Oxford’s subscription databases Bibliographic details – you’ll need these to find the article (in print and online) Notice how Google adds notation & punctuation to your search to show phrases, OR etc. Once you are familiar with this you can create your own searches.

Other scholarly search engines Microsoft Academic –Computing and Technology only (at the moment) –Searches journals, conference papers…

Specialist Search Engines

Phil Bradley’s search engine page

Specialist search engines News search –Silobreaker 360 degree search Network Hot spots map Advantages: –Up-to-date information –Variety of search options

Silobreaker search on Copenhagen climate conference

Collecta.com – real time search Real-time search – next big thing? Advantages: –Immediacy –Searches wide variety of content

Collecta.com Search on Afghanistan

Rollyo – Roll your own search Google custom search

Directories

Directories: A different approach Selected resources –Fewer results –Better results?...if selected by experts –May not include all the relevant resources –May not include the most recent resources Browsable / Organised – can often browse resources as well as searching Can often limit your search to particular document types (e.g. full text journal articles, conference papers, primary materials, blogs…)

From the UK academic community High quality resources selected by academics, subject specialists, librarians

Filter by…limits your search to particular document types (e.g. journal articles, conference papers, research guides) Filter by “Resource guides and directories” is particular good for linking to other more specialised directories for your subject Browsing Searching. What are you searching? Intute records/ descriptions not the actual web sites. To search the actual web sites listed on Intute use the Intute “custom” search engine. MyIntute – personalised features including alerts / RSS feeds

People created web directory People created web directory To contribute content users must be able to demonstrate subject knowledge To contribute content users must be able to demonstrate subject knowledge

Dmoz homepage

Other directories –Multi-disciplinary directory from University of California WWW Virtual Portals to the –Library of Congress –Directories of resources for different countries Find directories for your subject Intute – Browse to your subject – Filter by resource guides and directories.

Who wrote it? Is there an about section? Can you find out about them? Is it peer reviewed? Or published in a source you trust? Is it inappropriately biased? Is it up to date? Last updated statement Last article cited Last event mentioned Do the facts match you own existing knowledge ? Where is it hosted? Do you trust the host?.ac.uk /.edu /.gov /.bbc Is it reliable? Questions to ask Who’s linking to it / who’s not?