Library Research 101 - Class 9

Library Research 101 The Almost Compleat Web Searching Toolkit
The Lure of the Web	Note: Everything important on this page has been incorporated into Chapter 6 of your text. I have left this page here because there are a few links in it that you may want to visit. Our compleat Web searching toolkit cannot aspire to be comprehensive as Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler (1653), the first of the "all you wanted to ever know but were afraid to ask" genre. His tome was about fishing, but, in a way, that is what we are doing when we search the Web. Fishing for information on the Web is, just like real fishing, an uncertain process. There is no single "card catalog" for all the Web pages that exist. There is no single magic search technique that works every time. However, we have selected the best tools for the job, so when you finish this class, you should be almost completely tooled for any Web search challenge. The scope of this class is searching the Web. Unfortunately, we do not have time to cover related topics such as Newsgroups, Discussion Lists, or Web "people directories." There are two things you need to learn to search the Web effectively: What kinds of search tools are available on the Web, and which to choose for a specific search Searching skills (including the basic Boolean techniques that you already learned!) Keep in mind that the Web sites and content searched by one tool may partially overlap that of another, but that no two search engines or directories cover exactly the same territory. You may need to use more than one search tool to find what you are looking for.
Directories, Search Engines, & Meta-Search Engines	Most search tools can be categorized as a directory, search engine, or meta-site. Some search tools offer both directory organization and search engine services. Yahoo!, InfoSeek, and Lycos are examples of hybrid services, but tend to be stronger as one type than the other. Yahoo! is a fine Web directory, but you can search it by keyword as well. Lycos is about half-and-half, and the InfoSeek is predominantly a search engine. Even the search engine AltaVista has recently added a "browse by subject" option.
Directories	A directory organizes Web pages by subject, usually in a hierarchy, from broad subjects to narrow sub-categories. The user can start at the top of the hierarchy and "drill down" through narrower topics until reaching a specific area of interest. Study the Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/) site as an example. Computers do not have the intellectual judgment of human beings necessary to create a skillful organization of Web sites. People review Web sites submitted for inclusion in Yahoo! and decide where they belong in the hierarchy of subjects. A computer cannot classify sites by concept; it sees only the words included in the Web page or the "meta" tags that Web page authors have included for indexing purposes. Of course, people don't always think alike, but they can consider context when assigning a Web page to a category. For example, the words "computer programmer" could appear in a job announcement or a job-hunter's resumé, and a human indexer would put pages containing this phrase in the correct category; a search engine's "bot" would read only the words on the page. Use a directory when the information you want falls into a recognizable category of information, such as cities, types of business, a sport, libraries on the Web, etc. Of course, some directories can be searched by keyword, but their best use is for general searches, such as "What companies offer Web support for their laser printers?" or "Where are the fan clubs for my favorite science fiction TV shows?"
Search Engines	Search engines allow keyword searches of all the Web pages included in their indices. Search engines differ in what they index. Some index every word in millions of Web pages; others, only Web page titles, or meta tags. Each search engine offers slightly different ways to narrow or expand a search. Read the documentation when you visit a new search engine. Valuable hints may be in the Help files, FAQ's ("frequently asked questions" lists), Search Tips section or similarly titled pages. Use a search engine when your search can be well-described by several keywords or specific phrases. All of the Boolean techniques you learned in searching the library catalog can be applied to search engines! Most allow OR, AND, and NOT. Some allow NEAR or proximity searching. AltaVista (http://www.altavista.digital.com/) will be our prime example of a search engine for this class. Features: AltaVista lets you specify REQUIRED or PROHIBITED terms. Required terms are preceding by a plus sign (+), excluded or prohibited terms by a minus (-) sign. Search a phrase by enclosing it in quotation marks. For example you can search for the phrase "Irish Setters" or "Penny wise, pound foolish," or "Elvis Presley." Phrase searching is one of the easiest ways to avoid a huge number of irrelevant "hits" because search engines typically assume OR between search words rather than AND. AltaVista allows Boolean search operators if you select an "advanced search." There are several other advanced techniques available in AltaVista that you can learn about by reading the help files.
Meta-Search Engines	Meta-Sites let you enter a seach once and send it to several search engines. Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/) is a good example of a Meta-Site. Type your search and send it to 20+ search services (three-at a-time)! Dogpile searches Web directories and search engines, and other Internet resources: Web: Yahoo!, Lycos' A2Z, Excite Guide, Go2.com, PlanetSearch, Thunderstone, What U Seek, Magellan, Lycos, WebCrawler, InfoSeek, Excite & AltaVista. Usenet: Reference, Dejanews, AltaVista and Dejanews' old Database. FTP: Filez and FTP Search. News Wires: Yahoo News Headlines, Excite News and Infoseek NewsWires.
Faking it	Sometimes you can guess a Web site address quite easily, and don't have to bother with searching at all. If you are looking for a company, try using the company name as the Web address. For example: http://www.datastorm.com/ If you are looking for a university, try using an acronym of part of its name, such as: http://www.unc.edu/ or http://www.cwru.edu/ If its an organization you want, the same technique often works: http://www.apa.org/ or http://www.npr.org/ Personal Web pages can sometimes be found by using the institution address and adding a tilde plus the person's name as a directory: http://www.unca.edu/~sinclair/ Finally, many government agencies are easy to guess: http://www.nasa.gov/
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