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Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Finding quality information
on the Internet
Kate Alderson-Smith
Oxford University Library Services
Oxford University Library Services – Information Skills Training
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Session Objectives
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An overview of the types of web search
tools available
Review of the functionality and focus of
different search tools
Summary of helpful search techniques
Review evaluation techniques for judging
results
Introduction to the principles of citing eresources
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Web basics
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Size
Organisation
Scope
What are you really searching?
Deep/Invisible web
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Primary search tools
 Search engines
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General – google
Specific – google scholar
 Meta-search engines
 Directories / gateways
 Reference
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Search Engines
Database of web resources collected by
robots/spiders/web crawler
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Size and scope
Interface and ease of searching
Ranking of results
Advance searching functionality
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Search Engines
Major players
 Google [US and UK versions]
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Google scholar [www.scholar.google.com]
Yahoo search [www.yahoo.com or co.uk]
Ask Jeeves [www.ask.com or co.uk]
Teoma [www.teoma.com]
N.B. Many search engines use other engine’s databases alltheweb
& Lycos = Yahoo
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Search Engines
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Advantages:
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index a large proportion of the public web
word for word indexing
easy to use and available
Disadvantages
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databases created automatically
no quality control
different advance searching techniques
public pages only
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huge number of ‘hits’ generated
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Search techniques: Review
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Too many results? Add more concepts,
link terms, search in a particular field i.e.
title, limit to UK pages – advance
searching options
Too few results? Broaden your search
terms, add alternate phrases, try a metasearch engine
Are you searching in the right place?
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Meta-search engines
a tool that searches across a number of
individual search engines retrieving
the ‘top’ results from each
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Vivisimo [www.visisimo.com]
Clusty [www.clusty.com]
Metacrawler [www.metacrawler.com]
Dogpile [www.dogpile.com]
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Meta-search engines
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Advantages
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search across a number of engines using a
single interface
can save time searching
more of the web searched
duplicates removed
Disadvantages
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difficult to limit searches
search engine coverage
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Directories/indexes
Lists of web resources group together in a
structured manner
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Open directory [general]
Yahoo [general]
WWW Virtual Library [general/academic]
British Academy Portal [academic]
Infomine [academic]
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Directories/indexes
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Advantages
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created by people who have evaluated the sites
subject structure allowing browsing
smaller and more manageable than engines
general and academic directories
Disadvantages
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browsing can return a long list of sites
difficult to identify what category you need to
search in
indexed by title rather than word-for-word
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Gateways
Classified list of resources focused on one
particular subject area. Mainly created by
professionals for the HE community.
Available from the RDN
For Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering,
Health and Life sciences, Physical Sciences,
Arts and creative industries, and Geography
& Environment.
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Gateways
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Advantages:
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contains only high quality sites
detailed subject coverage
focused on resources of value to the academic
community
Disadvantages:
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often very subject specific
general/popular sites may not be included
specific results retrieve very small or no hits
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Searching techniques: Review
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Choose the correct tool
Use phrase searching with “”
Be specific, use unique keywords if possible
Link keywords: AND, OR, NOT, –, +
Truncation or wildcard characters * or ?
Use advanced searching to limit results
Use a variety of tools to locate material
Evaluate results
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Evaluating results
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When? Check currency, when was it
produced?
Who? Who is responsible for the
information?
Why? Has it been published on the
internet?
Where? Where is the page situated?
What? What value is of to you?
Workshops in Information Skills and Electronic Resources
Citing web resources
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No agreed standard for citing e-resources
Include as much information as possible:
author or editor, date. Title of the web
page [online]. Place of publication,
publisher. Available from: URL [date
accessed]
Cite e-material in the same style as you
would printed material
Be consistent