Plainville
Community Schools Teacher Resources
Internet Search Tips
Evaluating
Internet Sources
Where to Find Information
Create a Search Strategy
Create a Search Statement
Basic Search Strategies
Searching with Boolean Logic and Proximity
Operators
Field Searching
Additional Websites and Tutorials
10
C’s For Evaluating Internet Sources
Content
Continuity
Credibility
Censorship
Critical Thinking Connectivity
Copyright
Comparability
Citations
Context
http://www.uwec.edu/Library/Guides/tencs.html
Great site describing the Ten C’s of Website Evaluation.
Where
to Find Information
Search Engines
- Huge databases
- Built by a computer program
called a “spider”, not by human selection
- Searches full text (every word)
- Contains the good, the bad,
and the ugly - YOU must evaluate the information
- Use when researching a narrow
topic
- Examples: Google, Teoma, Alta
Vista
Subject Directories
- Created by human selection
- Organized by Subject
- Serves as a gateway to a topic
- Features the guidance of experts,
which may generate alternative search terms
- May be evaluated and annotated
- Searches only title of web page,
not full text
- Use when researching a broad
topic
- Examples: Yahoo, about.com,
Infomine
MetaSearch Engines
- Search more than one search
engine or directory at once and compile results
- Good place to start for an overview
of what’s available
- Examples: SurfWax, Vivisimo,
Ixquick
Invisible Web
- Consists of thousands of specialized
databases that can be searched via the web
- Locates information not generally
accessible by general search engines
- Use when looking for information
that is likely in a database or is apt to change
- Examples: Invisibleweb.com,
Invisible-web.net
www.invisibleweb.com
The Invisible Web is made up of thousands of Databases &
Searchable sources that contain highly targeted and valuable information,
and whose content is not seen (indexed) by traditional search engines.
This includes databases, specialized search engines, archived material,
and interactive tools (such as calculators and dictionaries)
Subscription Databases
- Subject specific collections
available for a fee
- Password protected
- High quality information without
advertising
- Examples: SIRS, InfoTrac, Opposing
Viewpoint Resource Center
www.iconn.org
This is a periodical and general information database that is provided
by the Connecticut State Library and includes full text coverage
from the New York Times, Hartford Courant, and Washington Post,
among others. Also includes InfoTrac periodicals for all levels,
Wilson Biographies Plus and other General Reference databases. Excellent
database that all teachers should be familiar with.
Create
a Search Strategy (Determine
the correct search tool for your research)
If you are browsing and trying to determine what is available
in your subject area, try a Subject Directory such as Yahoo.
If you are looking for specific information go to a major Search
Engine such as Google.
If you want to retrieve everything you can on a subject, use a
MetaSearch Engine like AltaVista.
Don’t forget to check the Invisible Web and available
Subscription Databases
Create a Search Statement
If you enter more than one keyword, your search engine/directory
will automatically add either the AND or OR conjunction to link
your search terms together. This may alter your search in unexpected
ways.
Stop words are words that search engines/directories DON’T
stop for when searching texts and titles on the web. Examples include
a, about, an, and are is, of, the, with etc. - not all search engines/directories
recognize the same stop words.
Review the basic settings recognized by the search engine/directory
you are using, look for links to searching tips within each search
tool.
Basic
Search Strategies
Be specific
Ex: Hurricane Hugo
Whenever possible use nouns and objects as keywords
Ex: fiesta dinnerware plates cups saucers
Put the most important terms first in your keyword list
Ex: dog breed family pet choose
Use at last three keywords in your query
Ex: interaction vitamin drugs
Combine keywords whenever possible, into phrases
Ex: “search engine tutorial”
Avoid common words, e.g. water, unless they’re part of a
phrase
Ex: “bottled water”
Think about words you’d expect to find in the body of the
page and use them as keywords
Ex: anorexia bulimia eating disorder
Use the plus (+) and minus (-) sings in front of words to force
their inclusion and/or exclusion in the search – no space between
the sign and the keyword
Ex: -review
Ex: +meat +potatoes
Use double quotation marks (“ “) around phrases to ensure
they are searched exactly as is, with the words side by side in
the same order
Ex: “bye bye miss american pie”
Type keywords and phrases in lower case to find both lower and
upper case versions. Typing capital letters will usually return
only the exact match
Ex: president retrieves both president and President
Use truncation and wild cards to look for variations in spelling
and word form - review the search engine/directory you are using
for specific symbols
Ex: library* returns library, libraries, librarian, etc.
Ex: colo*r returns color (American spelling) and colour (British
spelling)
Use the “find” command to locate your keyword(s) within
the document – select “Edit” located on the toolbar
In Boolean searches always enclose (OR) statements in parentheses
Ex: Yosemite (campgrounds OR reservations)
Always use CAPS when trying Boolean operators in your search
statements
Ex: “immune system” AND homeopathic (medicine OR remedy)
Searching
with Boolean Logic and Proximity Operators
Boolean logic takes its name from British mathematician George
Boole (1815-1864) who wrote about a system of logic designed to
produce better search results by using precise queries. Boolean
logic uses AND, OR and NOT to link words and phrases for more precise
searching.
Boolean “AND” narrows your search by retrieving
only documents that contain every one of the keywords you enter.
The more terms you enter, the narrower your search becomes
Ex: rock AND roll
Boolean “OR” expands your search by returning
documents in which either or both keywords appear. The more keywords
you enter, the more documents you will receive
Ex: rock OR roll
Boolean “NOT / AND NOT” limits your search by
returning only your first keyword but not the second, even if the
first word appears in that document too
Ex: rock NOT roll
Nesting is using parenthesis in an effective way to combine several
search statements into one search
Ex: (hybrid OR electric) AND (Toyota OR Honda)
Implied Boolean operators use the plus (+) and minus (-) symbols
in place AND and NOT. Putting quotation marks (“ “) around
two or more words will force them to be searched as a phrase in
that exact order
Ex: +dementia +alzheimers
Ex: “green tea”
Proximity operators (NEAR, ADJ) serve similar function as Boolean
operators in formulating a search. Not all search engines/directories
accept proximity operators. Check the advanced search option.
Ex: sonnets NEAR Shakespeare
Ex: Ernest ADJ Hemingway (adjacent)
Returns both Ernest Hemingway and Hemingway, Ernest
Field
Searching
A typical web page is composed of the following major fields:
title, domain, and host, link and image. Some search engines will
allow you to retrieve information by using the correct filed label
in combination with your search term(s).
Title Searching – The subject of a web page is often
listed in the title of the page. Searching for a keyword in the
title field, rather than as a keyword alone, may produce more relevant
responses.
Ex: title"web search tutorial”
Domain Searching – You can limit your search to a
specific domain
.edu educational site
.com commercial/business site
.gov U.S. government site
.mil U.S. military site and agencies
.net networks, Internet service providers, organizations
.org U.S. non-profit organizations
.uk country code – United Kingdom
Ex: domain:edu AND “On the Origin of Species” AND Darwin
AND paleontology (limits your search to educational sites dealing
with Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution)
Host Searching – Locate information that resides on
a specific computer or server
Ex: host:www.sc.edu (returns pages hosted at the University of South
Carolina)
Link Searching – determine who is linking to a particular
web page. This is helpful when trying to evaluate a site.
Ex: link:www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html
Image Searching – Use if you would like to find
a particular image
Ex: IMAGE:bones.gif
Additional
Websites and Tutorials
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites
useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is
updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning.
She includes such topics as Webquests, Special Ed. Resources and
Assessments and Rubrics. This is such a rich site for educators
and it should not be missed.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/yp/iypsrch.html
An excellent link from Kathy Schrock's page above.
This page gives you links to search tools and answers questions
on how and when they should be used.
http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html
Bare Bones 101. This is a basic but comprehensive tutorial on
searching the web from the University of South Carolina.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/About.html
Finding Information on the Internet. A tutorial from UC Berkeley.
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