searching and researching the world wide: emphasis on christian websites developed from the book:...
Post on 21-Dec-2015
213 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Searching and Researching the World Wide: Emphasis on
Christian Websites
Developed from the book:
Searching and Researching on the Internet and World Wide Web
By Ernest Ackermann & Karen Hartman
Mary Washington College
Getting Started:Basics of the Internet and the World Wide Web
Topic Areas The World Wide Web as an Information
Resource Hypertext and Hypermedia Key Terms and Concepts Information Sources Available on the
Web
The World Wide Web as an Information Resource
The Internet is an international collection of computer networks that exchange information.
The World Wide Web is the collection of information found on the Internet, linked together by hyperlinks.
Each link is specified or written using a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL.
Hypertext and Hypermedia Hypertext describes text that
contains hyperlinks to other text. Hypermedia refers to information
that links to text, video, or sound.
Key Terms and Concepts Client/Server HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Error Messages Bookmarks and Favorites
Client/Server A relationship in which one system
requests information and another provides it.
The browser is the client, and a computer at the site that provides the information is the server.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Documents or files are passed from a
server to a client according to specific rules for exchanging information.
These rules are called protocols. The Web uses the HTTP protocol because
the items passed from one computer to another are in hypertext or hypermedia form.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Provides formal rules that govern
how text is displayed as part of a Web page.
The browser interprets an HTML file’s contents so that graphics and images are displayed along with the text.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Hyperlinks are represented in a
specific format called a URL. Each Web page has a URL as its
address. The URLs that point to Web pages all
start with http://
Error Messages 404 Errors occur when the URL is
incorrect, or if it is no longer available. A 403 Forbidden Error means that the
URL was correct and the file is on the server, but the file is not available to the public.
It is rare to see error numbers today. Most browsers provide a more user-friendly error message.
Bookmarks and Favorites Use bookmarks and favorites to save
hyperlinks for later reference. Mozilla calls them Bookmarks. Internet Explorer calls them
Favorites. You’ll find that you use similar
techniques for either bookmarks or favorites.
Information Sources on the Web Directories or subject catalogs Search engines Meta-search tools Virtual libraries Specialized databases Library catalogs FTP archives Email discussion groups Usenet newsgroups
Using the World Wide Web for Research
Topic Headings: Browsing the World Wide Web: Using
Directories Finding Information Gems in Virtual
Libraries Searching the World Wide Web:
• Using Search Engines• Finding fewer, but more relevant pages
using Advanced Search features.
Browsing the World Wide Web: Using Directories
Directories are topic lists of selected Web resources, arranged in a hierarchical way.
Directories can be browsed by category or searched by keyword.
Once very popular, directories are not used as much (Yahoo! Had one of the most popular) but are useful if you want to do a quick search on a topic. The Open Directory Project, http://dmoz.org.
Finding Information Gems in Virtual Libraries
Virtual libraries are directories that contain collections of evaluated resources that have carefully selected by information specialists.
Subject guides, reference works, and specialized databases, are most likely found in virtual libraries.
Two popular virtual libraries are the Internet Public Library, http://ipl.org, and the Librarians’ Index to the Internet, http://lii.org.
Searching the World Wide Web: Using Search Engines Search engines use computer
programs called spiders or robots to gather information on the Internet.
The information is kept in a database that is searchable.
Two popular search engines are, and Yahoo!, http://www.yahoo.com, and Google, http://www.google.com
Advanced Searching
A simple search often yields too many websites, many only tangentially related to your topic.
To get better search results, use the Advanced Search option.
Advanced Search Link
Advanced Search Options
Advanced Search Options
“AND” Search: with all of the wordsAll of the search words must be in the web page for it to come up.
“OR” Search: with at least one of the words Only one of the search words must be in the web page for it to come up.
Advanced Search Options
“PHRASE” Search: with the exact phrase Exact phrase must be in the web page for it to come up.
“NOT” Operator: without the words A web page will be excluded if any of the words are found on it.
Advanced Search Options
When to use/not use: Do “And” searches with key words
relating to your topic. Try and avoid doing an “OR” search. It
will likely find too many irrelevant web pages.
If a “Phrase” or “And” search produces no results, then try doing an “OR” search.
Advanced Search Options
A “Phrase” search is ideal when searching for information on a person or title.
The “Not” operator can help you filter out pages not relevant to your search.
Examples…
Other Advanced Search Options
Language: Specify only English or perhaps another language, if it’s a foreign language class.
File Format: Looking for a .PDF or a Power Point presentation? Specify the file format you want.
Date: Filter out pages not updated recently. Can be useful when researching current events.
Other Advanced Search Options
Occurrences: Where are your search terms in the page? Title: Good way to narrow down pages. Text: Likely to be too broad. URL: Likely to be too narrow. Links in page: References to other
pages.
Other Advanced Search Options
Domain: Limit search to a WWW Domain .ORG: Non-profits. .GOV: U.S. Government run websites. .EDU: Web pages of colleges and other
educational institutions. .NET: ISPs, Networking companies.
Other Advanced Search Options
Usage Rights: Different websites permit different levels of usage of their content. When properly cited, almost all web content falls within “fair use.”
Safe Search: Exclude sites that contain objectionable content.
Favorite Christian Websites
http://www.biblegateway.com/ Has every major translation of the Bible. Search by verse or search by word/phrase.
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/Has most hymns: music, lyrics, as well a story behind the hymn.
top related