Transcript Web Searching - San Domenico School

San Domenico High School
Online Resources
& Web Searching
A practical guide for
students
1
Plan Your Search

How much time do you have? (For quick searches, use a simple
keyword search on any search engine and hope for relevant hits
on the first returns page)

Search engines & ‘keyword’ searching. How do they work?

Has your topic already been indexed or cataloged for you? (use a
directory or database vs. a search engine)
 Google directory, Yahoo directory, Google Scholar, Proquest
2
Pinpointing Your Search

More search terms reduces the number of hits (more equals less)
–
genocide (12 million+ hits)
–
genocide sri lanka (730,000+ hits)
–
genocide “sri lanka” (630,000+ hits)
–
genocide “sri lanka” tamils (224,000+ hits)
–
genocide “sri lankan” tamils (150,000+ hits)

Use Quotations (“ “) to search for exact phrases and narrow your
search
3
Pinpointing Your Search - Continued
–
–
–



4
genocide “sri lankan” intitle:tamils (24,000+)
genocide “sri lankan” intitle:tamils 2009…2010 (4,600+ hits)
genocide “sri lankan” intitle tamils –site:com (681 hits)
Use intitle: or inurl: with a keyword to reduce hits
Use date range 2007…2010 to narrow results
Use – sign to discard keywords or domains
Google Search Engine Shortcuts

The word ‘define’ and a space before a word finds a
definition

Calculator (+ – * / are the arithmetic symbols, also ‘%of’’ and, ‘^’
for power of)

Maps/Directions (enter address or cross streets and city or zip
code)


Phonebook (name and zip or address)
For more information go to
:http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
5
Ask a Librarian


Collaborating with your librarian may save
you time and effort
Use the Library’s Bookmarked Sites
–
6
Ask for help creating a web ‘Hotlist’
Search Engines vs. Directories
–
A Practice Search – california “gold rush”
 Yahoo
 Librarians
 Kidsclick
7
Internet Index
Kid-Friendly Directories
(Organized, hierarchical web information. Someone
librarian [?] has done the work for you)
–
(a
Kidsclick (for younger students, good organization)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
–
700+ Great Sites (ALA compiled, good organization)
http://www.ala.org/greatsites/
–
Look Smart (By Net Nanny. Safe directory for kids
information, games, activities, etc.)
http://search.netnanny.com/?pi=nnh3&ch=kids
–
Yahooligans (huge site, some dead links)
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/
8
Directories for Older Students & Adults
–
Librarians Index to the Internet (freedom from
choice, fewer sites, reliable)
–
http://lii.org/
Internet Public Library (great sites, general
reference tools) http://www.ipl.org
–
Digital Librarian - (Comprehensive, easy to
navigate.) http://www.digital-librarian.com/
–
Blue Web’n (organized by subject, grade level
and format)
–
Google Scholar (free scholarly journals, citations,
reviews) http://scholar.google.com/
9
Marin Net / Marin Public Library
10

Search for Books

Search Databases
11