2.Understanding How to Form Search Expressions

A. Basic Search Strategy

B. Boolean Searching

C. Phrase Searching

3. Critically Evaluate Information

A. Why Evaluate?

B. Guidelines for Evaluation

C. WWW Resources on Evaluating Resources

4. Citing Resources

A. URL Formats

B. Styles for Citing Web Resources

C. WWW Resources for Citing Electronic Sources


Credits

Other

Have you wandered through too many Internet web sites searching for valuable information? Does your favorite Search Engine return too many "hits" having little or no relevance? Do you compare searching a Browsing Directory with searching for a "needle in the haystack?"

With an explosion in the number of information resources, knowing "how to search the World Wide Web effectively" will maximize the quality of resources returned from a web search. This is your opportunity to learn several search techniques to make better use of your Internet time. Observe the same search using different search tools.

The textbook, Searching and Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web by Ernest Ackermann and Karen Hartman, (see Credits) can be found at bookstores and online. This book adds much detail to any discussion on searching the Internet.  It would be a worthy investment.

Follow the topic list on the left to discover the means to improve your online search time and results.

Planning Search Strategies

Using Directories

Characteristics of Directories

1. Directories are topical lists of Internet resources arranged in a hierarchical fashion
   
2. Directories are meant to be browsed by subject, but can also be searched by keyword.
   
3. Humans are utilized to collect and classify the information.
   
4. A way to determine a directories’ particular characteristics is to ask these questions:
   
1. Who selects the included Web resources? A directory administrator or the Internet community?
   
2. Who categorizes the Web pages? An administrator or the submitter?
   
3. How are the pages displayed-alphabetically, by relevance or by type of Web page?
   
4. Are the resources rated? Are they annotated? Are they reviewed?
   
5. Major advantages of directories
   
1. They contain fewer resources than search engine databases.
   
2. Many directories rate, annotate and categorize chosen resources.
   
3. Directories have increased probability of retrieving relevant results.
   
4. People selecting, maintaining and updating the resources results in fewer "hits" than occurs in a search engine.
   
6. Several major disadvantages
   
1. The hierarchical arrangements are arbitrary. For example, in Yahoo! vegetarianism is under Food and Eating which is located under Entertainment!
   
2. Selecting, maintaining and updating takes time, and therefore the resources tend to be less up-to-date than databases from search engines.
   
3. People choose the resources. And what one person deems a "good" resource will not be the same for another person.
   
7. Browsing a Directory
   
1. It is as easy as clicking on a subject category. For example, from Yahoo!, select Science, and then Information Technology. Next you examine the choices to select a specific URL.
   
2. Several layers may be traversed before finding the research topic. From Magellan, select Business and then Economics & Statistics, from the annotated results, search for a resource related to The Information Economy. BTW, what is the resource source?
   
8. Searching a Directory
   
1. Using the search facility of a Browsing Directory allows direct access to the desired resource. From the Magellan home page, enter The Information Economy into the search window and click the Search button. What is the first returned resource? The second? Try it again using "The Information Economy" Are there differences when quoted?
   
2. Return to Yahoo! and enter vegetarianism into its search window. Review the resources. How many major categories contain vegetarianism?
   

 
Virtual LIbraries

1. Virtual libraries are directories with resources that librarians or cybrarians have organized in a logical manner.
   
2. Virtual libraries are often referred to as annotated directories.
   
3. These specialized directories have committed individuals finding the very best resources. There is careful maintenance, analysis, and resources arrangement in virtual libraries.
   
4. Select the Argus Clearinghouse URL to begin a search on the Middle East.
   
1. Click on Places and Peoples.
   
2. Click on Asia
   
3. Click on Middle East
   
4. Click on The Middle East-North Africa Internet Resource Guide. Note that the Web page cites the guide’s author, the affiliated organization, and ways to contact him. A rating is provided covering multiple characteristics.
   
5. Use the URL to access the subject guide.
   
6. Press the Back button, and select the Search/Browse option under Navigation.
   
7. Type Middle East into the search window, and Submit Search.
   
8. Multiple results are listed when using the search function. Each is listed with a "check mark" rating. Try one.

Search Engines

1. Search engines make use of keyword indexing to create a database of Web resources.
   
2. Spiders, or robots, are used to automatically search the Internet for Web pages.
   
3. Some search engines allow Web pages submitters to attach meta-tags to their pages. These tags include keywords but may not appear on the page. View the meta tag statements in any web page

1. Use of keywords, phrases, or proper names in a search form
   
2. After a click on Search, Submit, or Seek buttons, the database returns a collection of hyperlinks
   
3. Usually listed in order or Relevance to the keyword(s) you entered [from most to least]
   
4. Online HELP is generally available to acquaint user with search options:

1. Size of the index
   
2. Search options (syntax differences)
   
3. Speed
   
4. Update frequency
   
5. Relevance of the search results
   
6. Overall ease of use
   

Understanding How to Form Search Expressions

Basic Search Strategy

1. Identify the important concepts of your search.
   
2. Choose keywords that describe these concepts.
   
3. Determine whether there are synonyms, related terms, or other variations of the keywords that should be included.
   
4. Determine which search features may apply, including truncation, proximity operators, Boolean operators, and so forth.
   
5. Choose a search engine.
   
6. Read the search instructions on the search engine’s home page. Look for sections entitled "help," "advanced search," "frequently asked questions," and so forth.
   
7. Create a search expression using syntax that is appropriate for the search engine.
   
8. View the results. How many hits were returned? Were the results relevant to your query?
   
9. Modify your search if needed. Go back to Steps 2 through 4 and revise your query accordingly
   
10. Try the same search in a different search engine, following Steps 5 through 9 above.

Search Tips

1. If you feel that your search has produced too few WWW resources (low recall), there are several things to consider:
   
1. Many the search expression was too specific; modify the expression by removing some of the AND’s
   
2. There may have been too many keywords used. Either think of more synonyms or use the OR connector.
   
3. Check for spelling errors or missing punctuation. See balloons (241010) vs. baloons (1762) vs. ballons (8134) vs. balloon* (718720)
   
4. Read the instructions on the help pages again.
2. If your search has too many results and many are unrelated to your topic (high recall/low precision), consider:
   
1. Narrow the search to specific fields if possible.
   
2. Use more specific terms, add adjectives. "liver cancer" vs. cancer
   
3. Add more terms with AND or NOT
   
4. Remove some synonyms where possible.

 
Boolean Searching

Boolean searching with AND, OR, and NOT

1. hiking AND camping hiking OR camping hiking NOT camping will each yield different results.
   
2. The ability to combine keywords allows one to narrow the search query.
   
3. Consider the research task that follows.

 
Phrase Searching

Phrase searching using quotes

1. A phrase search guarantees that the words typed will appear adjacent to each other.
   
2. if the search is for global warming, and global AND warming was entered,
   
1. global economy
   
2. global markets
   
3. warming trend
   
4. global warming
3. using "global warming" narrows the hyperlinks returned

Try the following research activity

1. Identify the important concepts of your search.

We want to find World Wide Web documents on the topic of the effects of self-esteem on young girls’ likelihood of developing eating disorders. There has been a lot of research done in the past ten years about how changes in modern life have hurt teenage girls’ development and we’d like to see if any of this research has been published on the Web. We want to focus on the topic of self-esteem as a causal factor in eating disorders among young women.

2. Choose the terms or keywords that describe these concepts.

The main terms or keywords are: teenage girls, self-esteem, and eating disorders.

3. Determine whether there are synonyms or related terms that should be included.

For self-esteem: self-respect

4. Determine which search features may apply, i.e., truncation, Boolean operators, etc.

Take a few minutes to determine whether you have used all of the search features that you possibly can before you get online. It can save you a lot of time in the long run.

A. Teenage girls

teenage OR adolescen (truncate this ) AND girls

B. Eating disorders

eating disorders (as a phrase) OR anorexia nervosa (as a phrase) OR bulimia

C. Self-esteem

self-esteem (as a phrase) OR self-respect (as a phrase)

 5. Choose a search engine.

We chose AltaVista because it is a full-text database. This means that its search engine can search all the words in every document. AltaVista is a very large and powerful search tool. AltaVista also supports Boolean and nested Boolean searching, which is necessary for the multi-faceted topic we are searching for. Click on the Open icon, type the URL http://www.altavista.digital.com, and then click on the Open button. You could also open AltaVista by clicking on the pane in the window labeled Location. After the pane changes color, type the URL and press Enter.

 6. Read the search instructions on the search engine’s home page. Look for sections

entitled help, advanced search, frequently asked questions, etc.

AltaVista has two search modes: simple and advanced. The simple search mode supports implied or pseudo-Boolean searching only. This means that you could perform an AND and NOT search by typing a "+" before the word if it has to appear in each of the results, and a "-" before words that you don’t want to appear in the results. Since our topic involves many ORs, we will need to do an advanced search. When you open AltaVista, you will see the simple search query box. You will need to go to the advanced query section. Then you will want to look at the search instructions for the advanced search capability in AltaVista.

After reading the extensive help screens in AltaVista, you can start to determine how to construct your search expression. In addition to finding out how to combine Boolean operators with phrases and parentheses, you’ll need to find out how AltaVista truncates words. You’ll also need to read the section on the Results Ranking Criteria. This is a crucial part of AltaVista’s advanced search mode. You must type words in this section that you want to be in the first documents that are returned to you. If you don’t, the results will be listed in any order, and the first documents may not be as relevant as the last documents returned.

 7. Create a search expression, using syntax that is appropriate for the search engine.

Click on Submit Advanced Query.

 8. View the results. How many hits were returned? Were the results relevant to your query?

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 2 to get to the next page of results. Look through the results on this page to see if they seem to be relevant.

 9. Modify your search if needed.

After viewing the results, we determine that they are relevant, and the amount of hits returned is an adequate set to work with. You may, however, want to limit the results by date. You could do this by going back to the search query screen and typing a date in the space provided.

 10. Try the same search in a different search engine, following Steps 6 through 9 above.

Now you could go to another search engine and try the same search there. Remember that you have to review the search features of the search engine you choose before you type the search expression, because the search expression we used in AltaVista would probably not work in that search engine.

Critically Evaluate Information

Why Evaluate?

1. The World Wide Web gives access to a large variety of information on many different topics.
   
2. When used for information or research purposes, exercise care to be sure the information is authentic, reliable, and authoritative.
   
3. Be equally cautious when we use information from other sources.
4. Professional librarians have often put print sources that are available to us through a research or academic library through a screening process.
   
5. It may be useful to consult a virtual library on the Web.
   
6. Be skeptical or critical of information used. It's relatively easy to publish information on the Web, and it can be presented in such a way as to hide its intent or purpose.
   
7. Assessing resources, then, establishes confidence in the information and helps one become better versed in the topic.

 Guidelines for Evaluation

1. Use some general guidelines or criteria when evaluating information or resources.
   
2. Ask the following questions about whatever information we find:
   
1. Who is the author or institution?
   
2. How current is the information?
   
3. Who is the audience?
   
4. Is the content accurate and objective?
   
5. What is the purpose of the information?
3. Various strategies will help us find answers to the questions. Here are some of those tips:
   
1. Look for the name of the author or institution at the top or bottom of a Web page.
   
2. Go to the home page for the site hosting the information to find out about the organization.
   
3. To find further information about the institution or author, use a search engine to see what related information is available on the Web.
   
4. Use Deja News or another tool to search archives of Usenet articles. This way, you can find other information about the author or institution. If an individual has written the article, you can see what other articles they've posted on Usenet.
   
5. Check the top and bottom of a Web page for the date on which the information was last modified or updated. If no date is present, look at Document Info if you're using Netscape, or Properties if you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer.

 
WWW Resources on Evaluating Resources

Criteria for evaluation of Internet Information Resources, Alastair Smith, VUW Department of Library and Information Studies, New Zealand
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/index.htm

Evaluating information found on the Internet, Elizabeth Kirk, Milton S. Eisenhower Library, The Johns Hopkins University http://milton.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/education/net.html

Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators - Critical Evaluation Surveys, Kathleen Schrock
http://www.capecod.net/schrockguide/eval.htm

Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills for World Wide Web Resources, Jan Alexander and Marsha Tate, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University
http://www.science.widener.edu/~withers/webeval.htm

Citing Resources

URL Formats 

1. URLs are everywhere.
   
1. http://www.loc.gov
   
2. http://vlib.stanfor.edu/Overview.html
   
3. http://home.netscape.com/excapes/search
   
4. ftp://ftp.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/images/browse
   
2. They provide – how-to-get-there://where-to-go/what-to-get or state another way, a URL includes the name of the Web server and the file or directory holding the information.
   
3. Enter URLs exactly as provided. Spelling is important, and they are case-sensitive following the slash (/).
   
4. http://www.mwc.edu/~ernie/facacad/WWW-Teaching.html is different than
   
5. http://www.mwc.edu/~ernie/facacad/WWW-teaching.html

Styles for Citing Web Resources 

Citing references or writing a bibliography is usually part of creating a research report. You provide citations so others may check or examine the resources used in the report. There are several agreed-upon styles for citing documents in print format. With the use of resources from the Web or the Internet, it becomes necessary to have a uniform format for citing these resources.

1. Citations to documents and other information found on the Web or Internet always include the URL, or Uniform Resource Locator.
   
2. There is no uniform agreement on how to cite information from the Web or Internet.
   
3. Most suggest that a citation include:
   
1. the author’s name,
   
2. the work’s title,
   
3. the date the information was last revised,
   
4. the date the information was accessed,
   
5. and the URL. The date of access is included because it’s relatively easy to modify information on the Web and the information may not always be the same as when it was accessed for research.
   

A citation for a Web page contains certain parts in the following order:

1. Name of author or authors—if known
   
2. Title of the work—in quotes, if known
   
3. Title of the Web page—in italics, if applicable
   
4. Date of last revision—if known
   
5. URL
   
6. Date accessed
   
   

As an example:

Ackermann, Ernest. "Writing Your Own Web Pages." Creating Web Pages. October 23, 1996.
http://www.mwc.edu/ernie/writeweb/writeweb.html
February 10, 1997.

A citation for a file available by anonymous-FTP contains certain parts in the following order:

1. Name of author or authors—if known
   
2. Title of the work—in quotes, if known
   
3. Date of last revision—if known
   
4. URL
   
5. Date accessed
   

 As example is:

American Civil Liberties Union. "Briefing paper Number 5, Drug Testing in the Work Place." November 19, 1992.
ftp://ftp.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Medical/aclu_drug_testing_workplace.faq
February 13, 1997.

The citation style for email will include the following items:

1. Name of author
   
2. Subject of the message—in quotes
   
3. Date the message was sent
   
4. Type of communication: personal, distribution list, professional
   
5. Author’s email address
   
6. Date accessed
   

 As an example:

Mills, C. "Getting gigs in Nashville." May 13, 1996. Personal.
cc@digicool.com
December 13, 1996.

WWW Resources for Citing Electronic Sources

There are several useful guides to specific citation styles for electronic resources.

1. The Internet Public Library has a short list in the books section of its Web page "Citing Electronic Resources," http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/netciteFARQ.html#books
   
2. One of the first books written is Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information, Xia Li and Nancy Crane, Information Today, 1996. See the Web site at http://www.uvm.edu/~xli/reference/espub.html
   
3. Another is Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources, Andrew Harnack and Gene Kleppinger, Saint Martin’s Press, Inc., 1997. Check the Web site at http://www.smpcollege.com/online-4styles~help
   

The following Web sites have links to other sources on the subject:

1. "Citing Electronic Sources," Tom Nickel http://www.csbsju.edu/library/internet/citing.html
   
2. "IPL Citing Electronic Resources," Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/FARQ/netciteFARQ.html
   

 These Web pages contain information on specific styles.

1. "Bibliographic Formats for Citing Electronic Information," Xia Li and Nancy Crane http://www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles
   
2. "Citing the Sites: MLA-Style Guidelines and Models for Documenting Internet Sources," Andrew Harnack and Gene Kleppinger
   http://falcon.eku.edu/honors/beyond-mla/#citing_sites
   
3. "CITING INTERNET-APA Style," Maryann Readal and Susan Goodwin
   http://www.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/contracts/lrc/kc/CitingElecSources-apa.html
4. "MLA Electronic Citation Examples—Internet/Westlaw," Peggy Whitley
   http://www.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/groups/lrc/kc/mla-internet.html
   
5. "Columbia Online Style: MLS-Style Citations of Electronic Sources," Janice R. Walker
   http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html
   

These two Web pages contain good, thoughtful discussions about citing work from Web or other electronic sources:

1. "Citing Electronic Information in History Papers," Maurice Crouse
   http://www.people.memphis.edu/~mcrouse/elcite.html
   
2. "Electronic Style – What’s Here," George H. Hoemann
   http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~hoemann/whats.html

And now for the Credits

The Permission:

Ernest Ackermann has granted written permission to use the materials in this book co-authored with Karen Hartman for the presentation "Searching and Researching the Net."   This is an excellent text for anyone serious about Internet search results.

The Book:

"Searching and Researching on the Internet & the World Wide Web." Ernest Ackermann & Karen Hartman. ISBN 1-887902-26-0. Published by Franklin, Beedle & Associates.

The Web Site:
http://www.mwc.edu/ernie/search-web.html For Students, Teachers, Librarians, and Folks Who Want to Stay in the Know.

Other  (definition: An Interesting Collection)

View a Table of Search Tools

Discover other Search Resources from the Net

Other Citation Resources

Today's Weather  

If you learned something, let me know. Thanks.

Entered on the Web, May 7, 1998 -- There were 80 people at the meeting!