SEARCHING THE   INTERNET

• The Internet is a huge, unorganized collection of documents.
• It is currently estimated to contain about 2.8 million sites and 800 million pages. 
• About 83% of the sites are commercial and about 6% are scientific or educational.
• Searching on the Internet is more like being a detective than pressing a button.
• To find the information,  plan before searching and learn more ways to search.
• It is necessary to think about the problem you are trying to solve before going to the computer.

Step One:  Plan Your Search

• Make a list of keywords, questions, or concepts for your topic(s). These are your search terms.
• Think of different ways of saying the same thing.   If one word doesn’t work, try another.
• For example,  information on careers could be found under careers, employment, vocational education, occupations, jobs.
• Decide which search tool(s) to use: Search Engines, Subject Directories, or Educational Subject Directories.

Search Engines 

Give computer-created lists of sites on a topic.

Work best for looking for specific information, for example the complete text of the Declaration of Independence. 

 Searched by keyword, for example career. 

To find  information on jobs in agriculture, put in the keywords "agriculture jobs". You would then get a list of sites on jobs in agriculture.   

Two popular search engines are:
Altavista http://www.altavista.com/   
Excite http://www.excite.com/?73,23

Subject Directories

Human-created categories of information on a subject or a topic. Organized from the general to the specific. 

To find  information on jobs in agriculture, you would go from the category Business, Economy& Jobs to Career Fields to Agriculture to Jobs. 

Particularly good if you are searching for general information on a topic.

Two popular subject directories are:
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/
Magellan http://magellan.excite.com/

Educational Subject Directories

Created by teachers or librarians on school-related topics. 

High-quality information.

I usually start my research on educational subjects with one of these sites.

I recommend the following educational subject directories: 
Encyclopedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com/  

Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators
http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/

Chico High School Library Helpful Bookmarks 
http://dewey.chs.chico.k12.ca.us/

Blue Web Learning Sites Library 
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn/categories.html

Step Two:  Use the Correct Language for Searching:

• Check spelling.  Computers do not understand  misspelled words, even if it is only one letter.
  
• Put  "quotation marks" around  phrases and  proper names.

     Phrase is two or more words that should be searched together, for example "agriculture          career".  

    Proper name is someone's full name, for example "John Smith."

     You will find more useful sites if you search with phrases.

• Search with Boolean logic which uses  AND, OR, NOT, NEAR, +, - in a special way for computer searching.

Cable AND car will give documents with both words. 

Cable OR car will give documents with either word.  This gives the greatest number of hits.

Cable NOT car will give documents about cable, but not cable cars.  NOT is good way to limit a search.  

"Cable cars" NEAR San Francisco will give information about cable cars in San Francisco.  NEAR gives hits for words within 10 words of each other.
 
+  means that word is required.  Information on cable cars can be found with  +cable +cars.  

-  means excluded.  Information on cable only can be found with +cable -cars. 

 When in doubt, check Help for the search engine, or ask one of the library staff.

Step Three:  Do the Search

• Decide on best terms and type them into the search engine.
• Check results.  If you get no hits, or wrong hits, CHECK SPELLING.
• If you get hits that look relevant, look over the first few and then write down the useful ones. Since lists of sites are often created by computers, lots of junk is included with the good stuff.
• From the search results page, click on the web addresses of 2 or 3 promising sites.  Proceed to Step Four for each one.

Step Four:  Assess the Results of the Search

• Did you get the information you needed? 
• If not, try the search another way. 
• If you need help with the search, please ask the library staff or your teacher.
  
  

Sources

Anderson, Mary Alice. "Beyond Surfing:  Internet Search Engines." http://wms.luminet.net/staffdev/handouts/search_engines_TIES.pdf. 1998. Accessed 7/13/99.

Cohen, Laura.  "Quick Reference Guide to Search Engine Syntax."  http://www.albany.edu/library/internet/syntax.html .  Last updated 6/29/99. Accessed 7/19/99.

Guernsey, Lisa. "Seek - but on the Web, You Might Not Find."   New York Times. 7/8/99. Online version http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/07/circuits/articles/08geek.html . Print version, p.G3.

"Introduction to Searching the Internet."  http://www.gsn.org/web/research/index.htm . Last updated 6/16/99. Accessed 7/13/99.

Lake, Matt.  "Desperately Seeking Susan OR Suzie NOT Sushi:   To Search the Web Successfully, Pick the Right Engine and Learn How to Use It."  New York Times.  9/3/98.  p. G1.

"LEARN THE NET:  Searching the Web."  http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/15wsrch.htm .  Last updated 2/22/99.  Accessed 7/15/99.

Mardis, Marcia and Sherry, Carol.  "15 Minutes is Not Enough:   Teaching Searching to Students."  http://www.merit.edu/training/macul99/sherry_macul99/searching_for_students/sld001.htm .  1999. Accessed 7/13/99.

This page was created by Joanne Parnes Shawhan, Ph.D.,  library media specialist, Cobleskill-Richmondville High School, Warnerville, NY 12187.  shawhanj@crcs.k12.ny.us .  Copyright 1999.  No changes may be made to this document without the author's written consent.   Reproduction/distribution without the author's consent is permitted for educational purposes.