Finding & evaluating information on the World Wide Web Academic Learning Support Services Dr Eric Wong February 2005 1 Finding & evaluating information in the WWW • Meeting peers (5’) • Introducing basic searching tips (5’+5’+10’) • Understanding web search tools (15’+10’) • Evaluating web resources (5’+15’+10’) • Locating web resources useful to your studies (10’) • Citing web resources (10’) • Q & A (10’) 2 Introducing basic searching tips • Use appropriate sources • Create search strategies • Refer to help pages to understand their search capabilities & the right syntax to change the scope of your search • Use specific terms rather than general terms • Scan results and evaluate each entry before activating the links • Use different types of search tools • Make use of the options provided by some search engines (e.g., Google, ProFusion) to find more relevant documents 3 Introducing basic searching tips Use appropriate sources • Look for library-subscribed webbased resources for academic purposes • Look for free resources on the web when you can’t find information you want in librarysubscribed web-based resources and for non-academic purposes 4 Introducing basic searching tips Library-subscribed web-based resources • Listed under Electronic Resources on the Library website • Reviewed & selected by librarians for academic pursuit • Subscribed by the Library thus restricted access to authorized users 5 Introducing basic searching tips Free resources • Not listed under Electronic Resources on the Library website • Free information of vase amount • Unfiltered information thus no quality control • May contain very updated/outdated information 6 Introducing basic searching tips Create search strategies • General strategies • Boolean logic & proximity operation • Field searching 7 Introducing basic searching tips Create search strategies • 3 students in a group, each studies one of the following items (5’) o General strategies o Boolean logic & proximity operation o Field searching • share your learning with the other two members (10’) Source Creating a search strategy: http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson6.shtml Boolean Searching on the Internet http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html SEARCHING WITH BOOLEAN LOGIC AND PROXIMITY OPERATORS http://www.eccc.edu/library/lesson8.html Field Searching http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/lesson9.shtml 8 Understanding web search tools • Subject directory • Search engine • Deep web 9 Understanding web search tools • Examine the following web search tools (15’) o Subject directory (Group1) o Search engine (Group 2) o Deep web (Group 3) http://library.albany.edu/internet/checklist.html http://library.albany.edu/internet/deepweb.html • Share with your peers (2’- 3’) o What is it? o Any example to illustrate? o When to use it? 10 Evaluating web resources Reasons for evaluating • Anyone can put up a Web page – about anything – for pennies – in minutes • Many pages not kept up-to-date • No quality control – most sites not “peer-reviewed” • less trustworthy than scholarly publications – no selection guidelines for search engines Source http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides /Internet/Evaluate.html 11 Evaluating web resources Basic criteria for evaluation • Accuracy • Authority • Objectivity • Currency • Coverage • Stability • User friendliness Source http://www.kepler.edu/secure/students/Writing_web.htm Another Source http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating /index.html 12 Evaluating web resources • Work through the following page to understand more about the evaluating criteria (10’) http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html • Find a website of your choice and evaluate it using these criteria (5’) • Report to the whole group the results of your discussion (2’- 3’) 13 Locating web resources useful to your studies Source http://www.cityu.edu.hk/lib/subject /index.htm 14 Citing web resources Citation Styles: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/ online/citex.html 15 More references http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pa ges/bones/bones.shtml http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Teaching Lib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html 16 Q&A 17