Internet Searching:

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Internet Searching
Tips and Techniques
Vicki F. Croft, Head Health Sciences Library
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Objectives

• To help you search the Internet more efficiently
  and effectively
• To share selected free animal health-related web
  sites and information resources and other useful
  health and international web resources
• To provide suggestions on ways to evaluate
  Internet sites and resources

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Outline

• PowerPoint Presentation
• Hands-on Searching
• Discussion and Questions

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Definitions

• Internet a global network of interconnected
  computers. Includes email, the www, etc.
• WWW (World Wide Web) a service that includes a
  collection of documents stored on computers
  connected to the Internet. The contents are
  written in markup languages, such as html, and
  often contain hypertext links for moving from
  document to document.

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World Wide Web (WWW)

• Visible web that part of the web that is
  searchable by search engines
• Invisible or deep web the non-searchable part of
  the web. It may be 2-500X as large as the visible
  web!
• Proprietary information
• Archival documents older materials (pre-1980s)
• Library catalogs
• Information/citations/articles from databases,
  etc. that cost money to access, e.g. Web of
  Science
• Sites technically not accessible

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Ways to Find Information from the WWW

• Search engines, e.g. Google
• Directories, e.g. Yahoo
• Subject gateways, favorite sites/lists, such as
  Vet Gate
• Specialized databases, such as PubMed, Agricola

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Search Engines

• Search engines are powerful Web search tools that
  enable you to trawl vast quantities of Web
  resources by keyword searching. Results are
  ranked based upon computer completed indexes of
  words from web pages.
• Examples Google, DogPile

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Directories

• Large, multi-subject search tools aimed at a
  general audience and built by human editors.
• Quality of resources is variable
• Usually use very broad subject hierarchies that
  take a lot of browsing, with no controlled
  indexing.
• Examples Yahoo, NetVet/Electronic Zoo, DMoz

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Subject Gateways

• Designed to help users locate high quality Web
  resources in a particular subject area. Provide
  access to hand selected, evaluated Web resources,
  chosen by subject specialists and information
  professionals.
• Organized by subjects for easy browsing.
• Examples VetGate, Free Animal Health Resources
  (Cornell)

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Search Engines vs. Directories, Favorite Sites,
Gateways

• Use search engines for finding more specific
  information (visible web)
• Use directories and subject gateways for more
  general information and starting points
• Use known web sites or specialized databases when
  the information is likely to be found at that web
  site, e.g. Pub Med
• Remember No single search engine can capture all
  the information. More information is not always
  better.

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Hands on Practice

• http//wsulibs.wsu.edu/hsl/icahis5/handson.htm

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Search Engine Strategies (Syntaxes)
(http//google.com)

• For exact phrase, use quotes west nile virus
• By title In title rabies bats
• By URL urlwww.aaep.org
• By date bubonic seattle 1907..1908
• Exclude a word python Monty
• By language use Preferences and select
  language(s), e.g. Zorro English
• Combining syntaxes, e.g. in url www.aaep.org
  navicular

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Veterinary Web Site Gateways

• Free Animal Health Resources (Cornell)
  http//www.vet.cornell.edu/library/FreeResources.h
  tm
• An excellent, annotated, up-to-date web site of
  free internet resources, arranged by category.
  Includes hints on searching, and evaluation of
  web sites.
• VetGate Internet Resources for Animal Health
• http//vetgate.ac.uk
• UK-based, from BIOME, a free internet service
  that provides access to Internet resources in
  health and life sciences. Linked sites have
• been selected and evaluated by
  experts.
• Includes a nice tutorial.

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Quick Answer Reference Sites

• Internet Public Library http//www.ipl.org
• Provides links to general reference, quick
  answers. Ready Reference section has good links
  to almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
  acronyms, etc. Useful if you dont know the URL.
• Yahoo! Reference Collection http//www.yahoo.com/r
  eference
• Google Images http//images.google.com
• Includes over 800 million images. Can limit by
  size, format, color, domain
• All the Web http//www.alltheweb.com
• Images, video, and audio searching

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Free Searchable Databases

• PubMed http//pubmed.gov
• Contains references with abstracts to articles in
  over 4,300 biomedical journals published
  internationally and covering all aspects of
  medicine. Includes indexing to more than 80
  veterinary journals. Updated daily. Contains
  links to some free online journals. Some
  references go back to the 1950s.
• For a list of veterinary journals indexed in
  PubMed, go to http//www.systems.wsu.edu/bin/libd
  ocs/periodicals/VetJournalsPubMed.pdf

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Help Guides to Searching PubMed

• PubMed Tutorial http//www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/pubmed_
  tutorial/m1001.html
• A Web-based learning program that shows how to
  search PubMed
• PubMed Searching Veterinary Medicine
• http//www.lib.vt.edu/services/branches/vetmed/VM
  LS/VMLS20PubMed20brochure.pdf
• Helpful hints for searching for veterinary
  topics in PubMed
• PubMed Search Tags and Field Qualifiers
• http//nnlm.gov/ner/PubMedFieldTags.doc
• A handy chart of tags and field qualifiers.

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Free Searchable Databases Continued

• AGRICOLA http//www.agricola.nal.usda.gov
• Contains approximately 3 million citations in
  agriculture and related topics from 1970 to
  present.  It is maintained by the U.S. National
  Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland.
  Best for food production animals, animal
  husbandry and feeding, as well as other aspects
  of agriculture.

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Evaluating web sites

• Where?
• Why?
• Who?
• Current?
• Authors credentials?
• Reliability? Accurate?
• http//snopes.com
• Organized? Easy to navigate? Clear?

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When you are looking for something and cant find
what you need

• Is online the best place to look?
• Should I try a directory or search engine? Which
  one(s)?
• Who is most likely to have the answer?
• Have I looked the right places with the right
  tools?
• Have I overlooked some important resources?
• Is my search too narrow? Is my search too broad?
• Any misspellings? Have I used correct syntaxes?

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Creating and Maintaining Your Own Favorites

• Bookmark favorite sites in your browser, e.g.
  Internet Explorer
• Create a list in Word with hotlinks
• Include your websites on your libraries web page
• Suggestion Check links, look for new sites and
  links every 6 months
• Free automated link Software www.linklint.org
• Open Source Perl Program
• Includes Documentation

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Free Software

• Adobe Acrobat Reader www.adobe.com
• Open Office www.openoffice.org
• Multilingual, open access alternative to MS Word,
  Excel, Power Point
• Firefox- open access web browser
  http//www.mozilla.org
• Caution Take time to read the license

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References

• Calishan, Tara. Search Engine Garage. Upper
  Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall PTR,
  2005.
• A book about using the Internet and search
  engines, the basic principles of internet
  searching, with examples.
• Beyond Google Searching the Web More Effectively
  http//healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/beyondgoog
  le.html
• Handout for a class on teaching users other
  ways to search beyond Google.

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References

• Search Engine Watch http//searchenginewatch.com
• Search engine news search links by subject
  provides tips and information about searching the
  web, analysis of the search engine industry and
  help to site owners trying to improve their
  ability to be found in search engines.
• Search Engine Showdown the Users Guide to Web
  Searching (http//searchengineshowdown.com )
• Includes search engine directories,
  comparisons, news about search engines, etc.

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Acknowledgements

• The presenter gratefully acknowledges the
  assistance of the following
• Erica van der Westhuizen, University of Pretoria
• Sarah McCord, Washington State University
• Joyce Franke, Washington State University
• Susanne Whitaker, Cornell University
• Greg Youngen, University of Illinois
• Lenny Rhine, University of Florida
• LEEP Program University of Illinois (UIUC)
  Graduate School of Library Science