Searching the World Wide Web: Suggested Search Engines and Evaluating the Information You Find
Search Engines - Advanced Searching
- Subject Directories - Invisible
Web Directories - Meta-search Tools - Other
Internet Search Tools - Evaluating what you find
on the Internet
Search Engines
Advanced Searching with Engines
Use Advanced Search screens or options for each major search engine
(Google, AltaVista
, AlltheWeb)
to limit your search to find better results.
Using Search Engines
- Use the advanced search options available and read the help screens!
- Relevancy Ranking - beware of the sponsored results and ranking
by "popularity"
Definition of relevance ranking - A feature of some search
software that weights the documents or records retrieved in a search
according to the degree to which they meet the requirements of the
query. Ranked results are normally presented in decreasing order of
relevance, computed on the basis of the number of occurrences of each
search term in the document or record, and the weight assigned to
the field(s) in which each term appears (title, subject headings,
abstract, or full-text). (Source: Online
Dictionary of Library and Information Science)
- Join keywords with AND or +, enclose phrases with "", use truncation
- Check the sites for accuracy and authoritativeness by asking "Is
it Trustworthy and Reliable?"
Subject Directories
Web sites and pages that have been collected and categorized by experts
(not machines)
Complete
List
Invisible Web Directories
Invisible Web directories provide listings of invisible web databases. These databases are not
searchable by regular search engines.
Our library's article databases
are considered part of the invisible web
Complete Planet
Intute
You will see links to web databases in the course of browsing through subject directories. Search for the term "database."
Complete explanation
Meta-search Tools
Search multiple search engines at once
Complete
List
Other Internet Search Tools
Open Directory Project
Directory of Open Access Journals
Infomine
Internet
Public Library Magazine Directory - Magazine Directory - Computers and
Internet
Google Scholar
MagPortal
Find Articles
Librarians' Internet Index
Evaluating what you find on the Internet
But wait... if its on the web, isn't it always Trustworthy or Reliable?
NO
- Anyone can put information on the web
- ~ personal accounts
- Web logs (blogs) and discussion boards
- Information gets passed around without knowledge/citation of
originating source (chain e-mails)
- Information may be plagiarized from another source
- Links are unstable
- No editor
- No standards
- No subject/topic description or organization (as in library catalog
or database)
How do I determine if the stuff I find is trustworthy?
- Author, publisher contact information?
Can you tell who wrote the information, can they be contacted?
Domain, Credentials http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
- Is the information presented as fact or opinion?
- Can you tell when the information was updated?
- Are the sources of information cited, can you check for accuracy?
- Can you tell if the page is a personal web site? (~name)
- Viewing, Fees, Software needed to view?
- Do other sites link to this source?
Search in Google or AltaVista by typing link:.siteURL
- Click here for more information
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