Web Research Angela Benson Assistant Professor University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign
Agenda Internet versus Web Searching the Web Subject directories Search engines Discussion list searches Search strategies Web site evaluation Searching the “Deep Web” Issues Citing Web Resources Plagiarism Questions and Wrap-Up
Definitions Internet A vast global network of millions of computers Web A system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents. The World Wide Web is a way of accessing information over the Internet. Source:
What is the Web URL – Uniform Resource Locator protocol://host/path/filename Protocol: http Host: faculty.ed.uiuc.edu Path: abenson, trio Filename: internet_research.ppt
Domain Names (for hosts).com – commercial.edu – education.gov – U.S. government.org – non-profit organization.net – network access provider.mil – military Country .uk – United Kingdom .ca – Canada Not absolutes!
Web Directories General topics to explore Good for browsing topics Maintained by people, many times experts or authorities Examples Commercial User-submitted sites Academic Academically reviewed and approved sites
Search Engines Program finds and indexes sites Keyword search, more specific Good when searching for something specific Examples (meta-search engine)
Discussion Lists Mailing lists and newsgroup directories Examples (mailing lists) (newsgroups)
Search Strategy Questions What do you want to know? What are the key concepts or topics? What keywords define those concepts/topics? (include synonyms) What is the relationship between the keywords? How does the search tool you’re using require you to specify that relationship?
Useful URLs Web Search Cheat Sheet Find Spot
Search Exercise Find sites on an area of interest to you
Evaluating Web Resources Points to consider Purpose Author, Publisher Intended Audience Perspective Currency Accuracy Links Evaluation Guides e.html e.html
Deep Web Web databases not accessible by search engines Many fee-based Also called “invisible Web” A White Paper Web/index.asp Examples University Library, e.g., Virtual Library, e.g.,
Deep Web Exercise Find resources available to you University Local Library
Citing Web Resources Web Citations htm htm Citation Managers EndNote at RefWorks at Article about the two
Plagiarism What it is Using ideas and expressions without citing the source. Why it’s easier on the Web Copy-and-paste Buying papers online How to spot it How to prevent it Inform students More information:
Useful URLs University of Michigan School of Information University of Albany Library UC-Berkeley Library /Internet/FindInfo.html /Internet/FindInfo.html