2. 1 San Domenico High School Online Resources & Web Searching A practical guide for students

3. 2 Plan Your Search How much time do you have? ( For quick searches, use a simple keyword search on any search engine and hope for relevant hits on the first returns page) Search engines & ‘keyword’ searching. How does it work? – Basic keyword searches cast a VERY LARGE net by searching for the word or words anywhere on the world wide web whether it appears once or many more times on any given page.

4. 3 Pinpointing Your Search More search terms reduces the number of hits (more equals less) – genocide (12 million+ hits) – genocide sri lanka (730,000+ hits) – genocide “sri lanka” (630,000+ hits) – genocide “sri lanka” tamils (224,000+ hits) – genocide “sri lankan” tamils (150,000+ hits) Use Quotations (“ “) to search for exact phrases and narrow your search

5. 4 Pinpointing Your Search - Continued – genocide “sri lankan” tamils (150,000+ hits) – genocide “sri lankan” intitle:tamils (24,000+) – genocide “sri lankan” intitle:tamils 2009…2010 (4,600+ hits) – genocide “sri lankan” intitle tamils –site:com (681 hits) Use intitle: or inurl: with a keyword to reduce hits Use date range 2007…2010 to narrow results Use – sign to discard keywords or domains

6. 5 Other tips Search a single site: site:http://www.tamilsagainstgenocide.org/ Search a single domain: site:org Search a specific country’s websites: site:in (India) – Find country domains at, http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/ To find a keyword in a long document use Ctrl + F on PC’s or Command + F on Macs with the word(s) you’re searching for – Go to http://www.tamilnet.com/http://www.tamilnet.com/ – Use Command or Ctrl F and search for SLAF (Sri Lankan Air Force)

7. 6 Consult a Directory or Ask a Librarian Has your topic already been indexed or cataloged for you? (use a directory or database vs. a search engine) Google directory, Yahoo directory, Google Scholar Google directoryYahoo directoryGoogle Scholar If you are stuck or need help with a search, Ask or email your librarian – sfletcher@sandomenico.org sfletcher@sandomenico.org

8. 7 Online Catalogs & Databases Library Webpage – Books OPAC Marinet – Proquest Platinum – Grolier Online Encyclopedia (World Newspapers) – Bookmarked Web Pages – Cited Works (bibliography) Help

9. 8 Evaluating A Web Page Check for: – Authority (who wrote or sponsored it?) – Accuracy (errors in spelling/grammar, citations or bibliography) – Objectivity (is the language or content biased or hyperbolic?) – Currency (is the information new, updated, dates?) – Navigability (is the site well-organized, easy to read, indexed?) One good One not so good