Current Information To help you find current news and information, many search engines and directories include a hyperlink to a "What's new" page. Many search engines allow you to choose a date range when you enter a search expression. If you don't find what you are looking for with one search tool, try your search again using different tools until you are satisfied with your results.

News Almost every search engine and directory includes a list of current news hyperlinks. The Internet Public Library site includes hyperlinks to hundreds of international and domestic newspapers. News Tracker searches the contents of over 300 newspapers, magazines, and wire services. After you have identified a useful item on a search results page, the related articles hyperlink for that item will provide a way to narrow your search.

Information Usually, weather-forecasting sites will report slightly different forecasts for the same time period in the same area. You can obtain maps and city guides by using online sites such as Mapquest.com. This site will also give you a map and directions from one point to another.

Finding People/Businesses There are a number of search engines on the web that specialize in finding people and businesses. Big Yellow is a yellow pages site that stores only information about businesses. White pages are sites that let you search for individuals' names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Most white pages sites offer individuals ways to remove their listings.

Copyright Issues When you use your web browser to access an image, sound, or video clip, your browser downloads the element into a temporary file on your computer. Because computer files are easy to copy, the potential for copyright violations is great.

Public Domain Public domain means you are free to copy the files without requesting permission from the source (check to see how you should acknowledge the source). Failure to cite the source of public domain material that you use can be a violation of your school's academic honesty policy.

Images and Graphics Most images on the Web are in either GIF or JPEG format. GIF (.gif) Graphics Interchange Format does a good job of compressing files. GIF files can store only up to 256 different colors. Animated GIFs combine several images into a single file that cycles through the images. JPEG (.jpg) Joint Photographic Experts Group stores over 16 million more colors than GIF and is useful for higher-quality photographs but file is very large.

Compression Both GIF and JPEG offer file compression. The greater the compression, the poorer the quality.

Sounds, Music, and Video Clips Sound and video files appear on the web in many different formats and often requir e that you add software. These "plug-ins" are usually available as free downloads. Your computer must be equipped with a should card and either a speaker or earphones.

Sound Files Wave (WAV) flies digitize audio waveform information at a user-specified sampling rate and play on windows computers that support sound. The size of WAV files limits their use on the web. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) format is a standard adopted by the music industry for controlling devices that create and read musical information. MIDI files are much smaller than WAV files and are often used on the web.

Streaming transmission Streaming transmission is a new technique for transferring sound and video on the web. The server sends one part of the file to the browser which begins playing while other p arts of the file are sent to the browser.

Evaluating the Quality of Web Research Resources Information on the web is seldom subjected to the review and editing process that has become standard practice in print publishing. When you are searching the web for an answer to a serious research question, you can reduce your risks of using incorrect information by evaluating the quality of any web resource you plan to use.

Evaluate three major components of any web page: Author ide ntity and objectivity Determine who authored the page. Content Look for some things in the web site's presentation to help determine the quality of info rmation. Form and Appearance Sites that contain spelling errors, loud colors, and graphics that serve no purpose may indicate a low-quality resource.

Library Resources The web has made existing libraries more accessible to more people. As traditional libraries and online collections or research works recognize each other as complementary library users should see many new research resources.

Text on the Web The web contains a number of text resources: Dictionaries Thesauri Encyclopedias Glossaries and other relevant works.

Citing Web Research Resources In using web resources, collect information about the sites so you can include a proper reference to your sources in any research report you write.

Citing Formats The two most widely followed standards for print citations are the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Future of Electronic Publishing One of the changes that the internet has brought to the world is that information can now be disseminated more rapidly than ever in very large quantities with a very low investment. The costs of publishing a web page are very low compared to printing magazines or newspapers