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Internet II-Finding What You Need

The Internet is full of useful and interesting information on an almost infinite variety of topics. In this class we will cover three different ways to search for information on the Internet: Search Engines, Online Databases and the Library Catalog.  We hope to give you a more robust understanding of your searching options when you are finished today.

As we go through the information on searching the Internet in this class, be thinking about a topic or question that you would like to search. At the end of the class, we will have practice time for you to use your new searching skills!

Search Engines

A search engine is a program that searches documents and websites for certain keywords. It uses another program called a spider to pull in the appropriate web pages and an indexer then reads the documents and indexes them based on the keywords used on the web page. Each search engine has its own patented way of determining how the pages are indexed.  That’s what makes the difference between search engines. There are a number of Search Engines to choose from. We are going to focus on the two most popular search engines: Google and Yahoo Search.

Google

Google is one of the most recognizable Internet brands around. The company started in the late 1990’s and quickly became a leader in the Search Engine field. The complexities of how it works are masked by an ease of use by users and the accuracies of its search returns. Google has evolved into more of a web portal (an entrance to the Internet) through the years. Let’s take a look at it.

• Type google.com in the address bar. 
• Press ENTER.

The Google search menu will look like this:

Notice you can look for things in different formats:
Images
Video
Maps
News (for recent online news items about the topic)

• At the top of the page next to GMAIL, click on more, then at the bottom of the drop down window, click on even more.

Look at all the choices of specialty searches, like search engines within a search engine.

• BOOK SEARCH
• DESKTOP-this allows you to search the files on your own computer.
• EARTH-neat aerial shots of the earth right down to your neighborhood. You do have to download a free program to be able to use this feature.

But Google is much more than just a search engine. On the right side of the same page, look at some of Google’s services.

• Gmail-Google’s email service
• Calendar feature
• Picasa for editing pictures

But right now we are talking about searching.

• Type in the country Belize in the Google search box at the top of the page. 
• Click on SEARCH THE WEB or press the ENTER key.

Your search brought up over ?????????? results. Remember that number as we narrow things down. 

• To the right of the SEARCH button click on ADVANCED SEARCH. 

This is a way to really focus your search so that you can get the results you want without having to wade through a lot of other topics.

• Click on the + next to “Date, usage rights, numeric range and more”.
• In the line “Where your keywords show up:” choose “in the title of the page”.
• Click the Advanced Search button.

That lessens your results to ??????.

Look at your results and see if you can pick out some of the websites that would be the most useful and reliable.

• At the top of the page click on ADVANCED SEARCH again. 

At the bottom of the page Google lists some interesting TOPIC- SPECIFIC searches including:
GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH for full text books available online.
GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVE SEARCH which looks at historical news events and timelines.

But say you only want to find pictures of Belize. 

• Click on the BACK browser button to return to the search results page.
• At the top of the page click on IMAGES above your search box.
• Try to narrow down the search using the ADVANCED IMAGE SEARCH yourself and find only LARGE pictures in FULL COLOR.

Other Search Engines

There are several other search engines available on the web. They are similar to each other but not the same. If you do not find what you need using the first one that search, try another one.

Another major search site is Yahoo. Yahoo! was founded in 1994 and now boasts more than 500 million users from around the world. It is one of the biggest and most recognizable web portals on the Internet. The search bar in Yahoo! looks very similar to the one in Google:

Some of the other search engines available are:

AlltheWeb.com
Altavista.com
Ask.com
Bing.com

You can get results from several search engines at once by using a metasearch engine like www.dogpile.com. It searches Google, Yahoo Search, MSN Search and Ask.com all at once. There are even some specialty search engines which only search certain types of files:

Blogdigger.com for blogs
Picsearch.com for pictures
Yahooligans.com for kids

Ask the Experts!

If you have searched all over the internet and can’t find the information you need, AND you’re willing to pay some money to get the answer, there are a few web sites that will, for a fee, research your question for you.

AllExperts.com: 

One Q&A site can be found at http://www.allexperts.com. At this site, the user chooses from a list of experts and their qualifications. They even have shopping experts on this site!

As with many things in the computer world, searching just takes practice, practice, and more practice! If you don’t find what you want the first time, search again using a different keyword or a different search engine. Happy searching! 

Extra Help

The Internet Public Library provides a lot of great information on finding information on the internet, including Web Searching Tips http://www.ipl.org/.

A website called Infopeople has a nice chart detailing the different web search tools.  www.infopeople.org/search/chart.html.

The UC Berkeley Library has an excellent web searching online tutorial.   http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html.

Finding Library Material

Sometimes when searching for information nothing can beat having the print of audio-visual material in your hand. Along with finding information on the internet, the library offers a variety of book and audio-visual resources. You can search our library catalog to find that information.

The Library’s catalog is available on-line so you can search for titles at home before making a trip to the library. 

To access the catalog:

• Go to the library’s webpage at www.henricolibrary.org.
• Click on the Catalog link from the library homepage.
• Type “Belize” in the search box and click on the down arrow next to EVERYTHING and highlight SUBJECT and click on SEARCH.

Your search should pull up about 20 titles including several books about events which occurred in Belize.

• Click on the FULL DETAILS button for the title Frommer’s Belize.

You can then check for other possible subject headings by clicking on the CATALOG RECORD tab over the main entry. The subjects are at the bottom of the page and provide links to other titles on that subject in the catalog.

 

 

What if you wanted to find a video on Belize?

Click on the HOME/SEARCH link at the top of the page.

Click on ADVANCED SEARCH located below the library drop down box.

Type “Belize” in the SUBJECT box.

In the drop down by FORMAT,

Choose DVD, and click SEARCH.

There are two DVD’s with Belize as the subject.

 

 

• Scroll to the bottom of the page and try choosing VHS as your FORMAT. 

There is one videotape. 

Still want more DVDs?  Try broadening your search. 

• Click on the GO BACK link at the top of the page
• type “Central America” as your SUBJECT
• Choose DVD as your FORMAT.

Another possible search strategy would be to use the EVERYTHING category. 

• At the bottom of the page, type “Belize” in the SEARCH box next to EVERYTHING. 
• Choose DVD as the FORMAT. 
• Click on the FULL DETAILS for each title and choose the CATALOG RECORD tab to see that Belize shows up in the Contents or Notes field of each one.

 

The ADVANCED SEARCH
Boxes are also set up to do what is known as a Boolean search. Boolean searches offer a way to easily expand or limit your searches.

• Click on the GO BACK link until you return to the ADVANCED SEARCH page.
• Click on the down arrow next to the word AND. 

These are your Boolean operators. 

There is a good explanation of these search terms in HELP. 

• Click on the HELP link now. 
• Click on the link for “Boolean operators.”

 

 

 

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR, XOR) locate records containing matching terms in one of the specified fields, both of the specified fields, or all of the specified fields. Use Boolean operators to connect words or phrases between more than one text field, or use them to connect words or phrases within a text field.

Use the AND operator to locate records containing all of the specified search terms. For example, if you search under "dogs AND cats", the e-library locates records containing all of the specified terms.

Use the OR operator to locate records matching any or all of the specified terms. For example, if you search under "dogs OR cats", the e-library locates records containing either the first search term or the second.

Use the NOT operator to locate records containing the first search term but not the second. For example, if you search under "dogs NOT cats", the e-library locates records containing the first search term but not the second.

Use the XOR (exclusive or) operator to locate records matching any of the specified terms but not all of the specified terms. For example, if you search under "dogs XOR cats", the e-library locates records matching any one of the specified terms but not all of the specified terms.

You can also use these Boolean operators when doing searches in almost any search engine to help limit or expand your results.