Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-1 Information Searching

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-2 SEARCHING IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES > The Obvious and Familiar > Libraries Online > Pre-Digital Information > Not all information is available online. > Sometimes the best source is not an internet source.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-3 HOW IS INFORMATION ORGANIZED? > Recognizing a Hierarchy > Design of Hierarchies

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-4 Figure 5.3. The National Public Radio (NPR) home page

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-5 Figure 5.5. The NPR programmin g hierarchy tree.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-6 SEARCHING THE WEB FOR INFORMATION > How a Search Engine Works — Crawler — Index (Keywords and anchor information) — Query processer — Ranking counts the links to that page and provides a score. Queries return pages in reverse order.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-7 Figure 5.6. The Google search engine’s advanced search view.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-8 Figure 5.7. Restricting the Thai restaurants “hits” by eliminating any page containing the word review.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-9 Logical Operators > AND – All words must be included > OR – Any of the words must be included > OR is assumed if we do not specify.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-10 Examples > If you separate words, they can be found anywhere in the site. > If you surround them with “ “ then only that grouping is searched.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-11 Spelling counts > If confused, you may get a prompt from the search engine.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide Tips – From the book > Clarity – Be clear about what you are looking for to narrow the search. > Type of organization – can select only the appropriate domains (see advanced search). > List terms that are likely to appear for the specific thing you are looking for. > Assess the info returned. Maybe you need to be more specific or maybe you need to broaden your range. > Two pass strategy – Search broadly, then refine within that category.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-13 WEB INFORMATION: TRUTH OR FICTION? > Do Not Assume Too Much > A Two-Step Check for the Site’s Publisher > Characteristics of Legitimate Sites > Check Other Sources > Don’t rely on a single source for information > Develop a list of “trusted” sites. — JMU Library — IRS.gov (most of the.gov sites are legit) — trusted companies — etc.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-14 Figure 5.8. The Burmese mountain dog page.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-15 Chapter 6 – Case Study > You can get lost in the wealth of information available on the internet 1.Primary sources – original documents, first-hand reports. 2.Secondary sources – may offer another perspective, fill in gaps, etc, but must also be looked at carefully. 3.Tertiary – reports of reports – less credible

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-16 Check out the information > Sally Anderson claims to be R. Buckminster’s illegitimate child and posts a long account of a weekend spent with him. > Can you find any corroboration of this involvement? If not, don’t count on it. > Again, don’t trust a single source.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-17 Track your information > Bookmark your sites where you want to be able to return. > Arrange your bookmarks in a meaningful hierarchy. — Genealogy information — ancestry.com — Friedrich family — Rochester marriage index — Mt Hope Cemetery — Weiland family — Pittsford Cemetery

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-18 History File > Contains information about every web site you have visited. On Windows this file is in C:/Documents and Settings/userid/LocalSettings/Temporary Internet Files. > Cookies are in a separate folder. > All can be removed. Cookies are used when you revisit a site. May make it easier to use the site, but also provides a site information about you.

Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. Slide 1-19 When researching > Do keep track of where you went to obtain information. > For research papers, these links will help to form your bibliography or references section.