Transcript Presentation - USP: Emalus Campus Home

Emalus Campus
Information Literacy Program
Module 3
Untangle the Web:
Finding Information on the Internet
1
Other ILP Modules
Emalus Campus
Module 1: Resources available @ the Emalus Campus
Library
Module 2: Accessing the Emalus Library Website &
Using the Online Catalogue
Module 3: Untangle the Web:Finding Information
on the Internet
Module 4: Critically Evaluating Information Sources
Module 5: Literature Search, Citing Sources & the
Bibliography
2
Learning Objectives
Emalus Campus
• to explain the Internet and the World Wide
Web
• to demonstrate how to locate information
on the World Wide Web
• to explain different ways of searching the
World Wide Web
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Learning Outcomes
Emalus Campus
At the end of this session, students should:
• understand what the Internet and WWW are
• be more aware of search tools such as
directories, virtual libraries, and search
engines to locate information on the Internet
• understand the different ways of searching
the World Wide Web
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Some History
Emalus Campus
• Began in 1960s as a US Dept. of Defense
military network
• 1969-Spread to link universities and
research facilities (Advanced Research
Projects Agency –ARPA)
• electronic mail was introduced in 1976
and Queen Elizabeth II was the first state
leader to send an email
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Some History
Emalus Campus
• 1982- the word “Internet is used for the
first time
• libraries began making online catalogs
available--early 1980s
• Tim Berners-Lee of CERN developed
hyperlinks. He called it the World Wide
Web (WWW) ---- 1991
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Some History, cont’d.
Emalus Campus
• the WWW is now the largest part of the
Internet
• search engines and web directories have
been developed to track web pages and
enable people to find things
• wireless Internet --- 2000
• worldwide there are about 2 billion Internet
users --- ¼ of the world’s population
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What is the Internet?
Emalus Campus
• interlinked web of computer networks
• no organization, corporation or government
owns or runs the Internet
• the WWW provides a single interface to the
many functions of the Internet
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Why is the Internet
slower in Vanuatu?
Emalus Campus
Internet Infrastructure
• Fibreoptic networks use light pulses to
transmit data (literally at the speed of light)
• Cost
• Geographical location
• Vanuatu relies on satellite connections for all
communications
• Satellite signals have to travel a great distance
above the earth and then back again causing a
delay in data transmission
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Uses of the Internet
Emalus Campus
• Communication
– email
– blogs
– social networks, e.g..MySpace
– virtual communities , e.g. Second Life
• Information Retrieval
– libraries
– Databases
– Google
– Wikipedia
• Presentation of Information
– digital publishing (books, photos, etc.)
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Organization of the Web
Emalus Campus
• Web browser
– example: Internet Explorer, Mozilla,Netscape
• Portal
– Example: MSN.com
• Emalus campus website
– http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/
• Emalus campus library home page
– http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/
• Library Vanuatu Collection web page
– http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/Vanuatu.htm
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The URL - Uniform
Resource Locator
Emalus Campus
• URL indicates the location of a file on the
Internet or WWW
• like a street address or library call number
• includes the type of service as well as the
exact location of the file
– http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Anatomy of a URL
Emalus Campus
URL – uniform resource locator
http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/library/Video_Collection.htm
Type of
protocol
Name of
Host
Computer
Domain
Name
Directory
Path
Requested
File
.edu / .ac / .com / .net / .gov / .org / .shop / .arts / .rec
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Different Domains
on the Net
Emalus Campus
•
•
•
•
•
.com or .co = commercial source
.edu or .ac = education institute
.gov = government source
.int = non profit international organizations
.net = mostly internet service providers e.g.
Telecom
• .org = originally applied to non-profit organizations,
but commercial and for-profit organizations now
also use this designation
email addresses tend to reflect the parent (domain
name)
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Domain Names
•
•
•
•
•
•
Emalus Campus
http://www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj/
http://www.vanuatu.gov.vu/
http://www.vanuatubeef.com
http://www.forumsec.org/
http://www.att.net.au
http://www.who.int
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Wikipedia.org
Emalus Campus
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Google Home Page
Emalus Campus
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Relevance Ranking
Emalus Campus
• order of terms of search
• location of terms in the document
• proximity of multiple keywords in the
document
• repetition of keywords in the document
• location of the page
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Word Order
• grass snake
• snake grass
• snake in the grass
• “snake in the grass”
Emalus Campus
-Mostly about a kind of
snake
-Will find many about a
kind of grass, not
present in first search
-Most pages will find
expression but also first
two
-Most specific and
precise. Exact phrase
must appear
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Google Basic Search
Emalus Campus
Google uses boolean operators
 the AND is implied all of the time in its basic
search option
 Various endings are implied –
kite flying= kites, kiting, flying, fly, flies
that’s why you get such large numbers of
records
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Getting fewer results
•
•
•
•
•
•
Emalus Campus
I’m Feeling Lucky
Define:
Advanced Search
Directories
Google Scholar
Other features—Images, Translate, etc.
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Google Advanced Search
Emalus Campus
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Search Tools
Emalus Campus
• search engines
e.g. Google, Yahoo, Ask
• Library websites/databases, ‘Virtual libraries’
e.g. Infomine
• directories
e.g. Yahoo, About
• portals
e.g. Microsoft MSN
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Which Tool?
•
•
•
•
Emalus Campus
looking for a specific item
want to browse in a broad subject area
looking for journal articles
want to restrict results to sites that have
been evaluated for quality
→ use Directories and Virtual Libraries
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Which Tool?
Emalus Campus
• looking for a specific topic
• looking for a subject that’s a bit vague
• just exploring to see what’s out there
• → use Search Engine or Portal
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Journal Articles
Emalus Campus
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INFOMINE Home Page
Emalus Campus
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INFOMINE Advanced
Search
Emalus Campus
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Ask.com Home Page
Emalus Campus
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Ask.com Advanced
Search
Emalus Campus
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No matter what your
Information Source …
Emalus Campus
you are responsible for evaluating the
information and attributing your sources
Refer to
Refer to
Module 4 : CARS criteria
Module 5 : Literature search,
citing sources & the
bibliography
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Via the Internet
Emalus Campus
The Internet gives you access to the good,
the bad and the ugly. You can access
countless providers of information,
therefore …
evaluate the information you retrieve
– you do this by verifying / cross-checking
the information against other reliable
sources
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Search Tips
Emalus Campus
• always check for typographic errors
• do not enter a single word to search
• to find an exact phrase, enter it in
quotes “exact phrase”
• use the advanced search if available
• use a good subject directory to find
reliable sites
• always evaluate information carefully
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In Summary
Emalus Campus
• different search tools have different
strengths and weaknesses
• it’s easier to compare the results between
2 or more search engines if you use the
same search terms
• consider keeping a list of interesting web
sites, with brief notes on strengths that
interest you or add to Favorites
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And Remember
“Man is still the most extraordinary computer
of all”
---John F. Kennedy
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