Finding the information you want can be easy or may seem impossibly
difficult. This is due in part to the amazing size of the WWW. Another
reason is that the WWW is not indexed in any standardized way nor does
it have a controlled vocabulary. And, unlike a library catalog or a journal-article
index, it does not use controlled subject descriptors to describe and index
resources.
When you are searching the Web, you are not searching the whole content
of the Web. Instead you are searching only those texts which have been
selected for inclusion in the particular search tool database you are using.
Therefore the success of your search depends upon the size and contents
of the database you select, its features for searching its contents efficiently,
and your search strategy.
If you are using a search engine for the first time, it is useful to familiarize
yourself with the particulars of the engine by reading the "help"
page. This will save you time later when you run your searches.
The University of Berkeley
Teaching Library provides an excellent guide entitled How
to Choose the Search Tools You Need. This guide also includes a comparison
of features of engines.
Most search engines allow Boolean expressions:
AND,
OR,
AND
NOT,
and NEAR (within 10 words).
| for example: |
(Secretary-General
or
"Kofi Annan") and "United Nations" |
Searches for either Secretary-General or Kofi Annan - the retreived
documents could contain both, but do not have to - and combines that result
with United Nations. |
| Congo
and
not "Democratic Republic of the Congo" |
Searches for Congo and excludes the Democratic Republic of the Congo. |
| "human rights" near (women or girls) |
Searches with either women or girls within 10 words of "human rights". |
Most search engines support "double quotes"
or (brackets) for a phrase to force the terms to be consective.
| for example: |
"United Nations" |
| (United Nations) |
Determine if the search engine
allows truncation,
e.g. with an asterisk * or a question mark ?
| for example: |
civil* |
Retrieves words such as civilian, civilization
etc. |
| civil? |
Did you get too many results? Consider limiting
your search by a specific date range.
Determine if the search engine is case sensitive (recognizes upper
and
lower case) and
if you can search in a specific language.
For some search engines you can use plusses (+)
and minuses (-) immediately before a word
to force the word to be included or not to be included respectively in
your search.
| for example: |
"United Nations documents" +General
Assembly -Security Council |
Finds General Assembly documents
and excludes Security Council documents from the search. |
Try not to complicate your search by using too many terms and be
specific about what you are searching for. If you search
on commonly used words, you may get irrelevant documents containing your
words but not your subject. With some search engines you can also search
only particular fields such as title, url, image
and link to narrow down your search.
| for example: |
title: "World Bank" |
Finds pages that contain World Bank in the page title (which appears
in the title bar of most browsers). |
| url: nato |
Finds pages that contain the word nato in the host name, path, or filename
-- the complete URL, in other words. |
| link: www.un.org |
Finds pages linking to the home page of the United Nations. |
Keep synonyms and acronyms
in mind, in order to cover all possibilities.
| for example: |
Great Britain -- United Kingdom |
| UNHCR -- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |
Since search engines are continuously improved and updated and new engines
appear regularly it is important to experiment regularly
and apply new methods of searching as needed. If you
are searching the Internet on a regular basis, try to use at least two
or three different search tools regularly, and master their features. It
is also wise to check more than one search tool for any topic, because
search results vary from one engine to another due to their different coverage
and search capabilities.
If you would like to continue
to explore the Internet with more tutorial sites, here are some suggestions:
Walt
Howe's Internet Learning Center (people.ne.mediaone.net/walthowe/index.html)
Includes a hands-on introductory Internet workshop; Internet
bibliography; "Learning Tree" consisting of
questions about the Internet; Internet glossary and history
An
Internet Tutorial (www.msn.com/tutorial/default.html)
Includes a basic tutorial on the basic concepts involved
with understanding and exploring the WWW
Finding
Information on the Internet: A Tutorial (www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html)
This comprehensive tutorial presents the substance of
the Internet Workshops offered year-round by the Teaching Library at the
University of California at Berkeley.
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