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Finding Information on the Internet
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Introduction
Within a relatively short period of time, the Internet has grown to the point where it is now possible to access information on almost every conceivable topic. However, finding relevant, high quality resources is becoming increasingly difficult and frustrating. Finding useful information on the Internet requires a combination of familiarity with the search tools and resources available, an understanding of search strategies and language, and persistence.
This ItrainOnline section aims to provide tools and resources to help guide you through the maze, and to evaluate the quality of information you find online.
A Guide to Google
Developed by: Nancy Blachman
Type of resource: Web site
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
An online tutorial, helping google users to know more about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve users' needs.
This Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give users practice with the material presented and to inspire users to find amusing or useful information.
Dhttp://www.googleguide.com/
Editor's choice: University of California (Berkeley) Searching Resources
Developed by: University of California (Berkeley)
Type of resource: Web articles, presentations and handouts
Target audience: General, Trainers
Cost: Free access
The University of California at Berkeley offers an excellent online tutorial on "finding information on the Internet", covering basic through advanced search techniques. Included are an overview of the features of major search engines, detailed instructions for using seven of the most commonly used search engines, PowerPoint slides for presentation purposes, and search engine exercises. This is probably the most useful search engine training site, and includes information on browsers and "getting connected", and a glossary of Netscape and Internet jargon.
Dhttp://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Int
ernet/FindInfo.html
ITrain Effective Internet Searching
Developed by: Bellanet
Type of resource: Students' and instructors' manual in PDF and zipped MS Word format
Target audience: Trainers
Cost: Free access
This training module is designed to teach advanced Internet searching skills to participants. The materials explain how search engines work, how to choose among search engines, advanced search engine techniques, and how to go beyond search engines in finding information on the Internet.
Dhttp://www.bellanet.org/itrain/materials.cfm
ITrain Reference Guide: Search Engine Links
Developed by: Bellanet
Type of resource: PDF reference guide
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
Reference guide which includes links to general and specific search engines.
Dhttp://www.bellanet.org/itrain/materials.cfm
Bare Bones 101. A Very Basic Web Search Tutorial
Developed by: University of South Carolina Beaufort Library
Type of resource: Online tutorials
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
Created by Ellen Chamberlain at the University of South Carolina Beaufort Library, this is a helpful and easy-to-understand tutorial to searching the Web. It is meant to be "bare bones" only, designed to get you started in the right direction with a minimum of time and effort-or if you are bewildered by the sometimes confusing 'Help' sections offered by the various search engines, some of which throw rather too much at you at once. There are a total of 20 lessons, including lessons and descriptions of the major search engines, the search options they offer and their special features. Each lesson concludes with an assignment, and there are also recommendations for other tutorials, including those for advanced searching.
Dhttp://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/bones.html
ICT for Library and Information Professionals: A Training Package for Developing Countries - Module 5
Developed by: Lourdes T. David
Type of resource: Website with downloadable resources
Target audience: General, Trainers
Cost: Free access
The package available on this website is intended to provide the knowledge and skills required to deal with the application of ICT to library and information services. It is meant for library and information personnel who may become trainers in the area.
By the end of Module 5, learners should Module 5 is designed to enable participants to acquire knowledge and skills that will help them train other information professionals to use the Internet.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Identify Internet tools and resources
2. Utilize Internet search tools and services
3. Evaluate Internet tools and resources
4. Cite properly the information found on the Internet
5. Address the trends and issues concerning the Internet
6. Use the Internet as an information resource
Dhttp://www.unesco.org/webworld/publications/ictlip
5/index.htm
Searching Online Databases
Developed by: Information Literacy @ Wesleyan University
Type of resource: website
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
As your searching needs become more complex, simple search techniques will not suffice. Information Literacy @ Wesleyan University developed this online module to help improve search precision, understand the difference between "keyword" vs. "subject" searching, and use common searching methods such as Boolean searching, phrase searching or related terms identification more efficiently.
Dhttp://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/infolit/modules/onlin
edb/index.htm
If you are looking for information in a specific area, a subject-specific information gateway may be a good place to start. Information gateways are compiled by people with expertise in the specific topic, and use some form of quality assessment criteria to decide which sites to include. A selection of development-related information gateways and directories is listed below. SDGateway
Developed by: IISD
Type of resource: Web site
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
SD Gateway contains over 1200 documents relating to sustainable development, a calendar of events, a job bank, information about mailing lists and news sites, and the SD Webworks section on using the Internet effectively for sustainable development.
Dhttp://sdgateway.net/
Choike: A Portal on Southern Civil Societies
Developed by: Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM)
Type of resource: Portal
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
A directory and search engine of Southern Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), grouped in five major thematic fields: the people, society, the environment, globalization and communication. Includes both our own and outside reports on these issues, as well as links to other international agencies and organizations.
Dhttp://www.choike.org/
Eldis: the Gateway to Development Information
Developed by: Institute of Development Studies, Sussex
Type of resource: Web site
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
Funded by Danida and Sida and hosted by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, Eldis offers a large collection of resources for 40 development-related sectors.
Dhttp://www.eldis.org/
HuriSearch
Developed by: HURIDOCS
Type of resource: Search engine
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
"HuriSearch is a HURIDOCS project. Its general objective is to facilitate access to human rights information on the web. Its specific objectives are as follows:
* To provide human rights professionals with a powerful web research tool.
* To increase the visibility of information published by human rights organisations, in particular small local organisations with first-hand information.
* To encourage webmasters to use metadata systematically, thus making human rights information searching much more reliable and efficient."
Dhttp://www.hurisearch.org/
Thirteen Tips for Effective Tagging: How to mark sites so you and others can find them
Developed by: TechSoup
Type of resource: Web article
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
"How many times have you dug fruitlessly through the links you've saved in your browser's Favorites folder, struggling to remember how you categorized that site you wanted to remember? Or how often have you been unable to locate information you needed - simply because you didn't know what search word to use?" This TechSoup article offers tips for effective "tagging".
Dhttp://www.techsoup.org/howto/articles/webbuilding
/printpage4519.cfm
MainTain IT Cookbook: Small and Rural Libraries
Developed by: The MaintainIT Project
Type of resource: Downloadable PDF
Target audience: General, Trainers, Information intermediaries
Cost: Free access
This Cookbook from the MaintainIT project covers fundamentals that are valuable for any library, and is a great resource for someone wanting to know a bit more about supporting and sustaining public computers. Learn about locking down public computers, use a handy maintenance checklist, and more! These topics are covered: Technology Planning, Computer Maintenance, Volunteer Recruitment, Technology Training Tips, Library Technology in the Future
Dhttp://maintainitproject.org/cookbooks/small-and-r
ural-libraries
100 Ways to search the Deep Web
Developed by: AGEG weitzenegger.de
Type of resource: website with links to search tools
Target audience: General, Trainers, Information intermediaries
Cost: Free access
This list offers 100 tips and tools to help you get the most out of your Internet searches, including Meta-Search Engines, Semantic Search Tools and Databases, General Search Engines and Databases, Academic Search Engines and Databases, Scientific Search Engines and Databases, Collaborative Information and Databases and more.
Dhttp://www.weitzenegger.de/en/deepweb.html
Folksonomies - Cooperative Classification and Communication through Shared Meta Data
Developed by: Adam Mathes
Type of resource: web article
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
This paper by Adam Mathes examines grassroots metadata classification as applied in two web services, Del.icio.us, a tool for organising web pages; and Flikr, a service for organising and sharing photos. Metadata - data about data - facilitates grouping and finding of information. It examines the individual and community aspects of tagging, and focuses on the role of immediate feedback and bridging the gap from the personal to communicative. The article uses illustrative examples from the two web services to help the reader better understand folksonomy and tagging, and offers suggestions for future research.
Dhttp://www.adammathes.com/academic/computer-mediat
ed-communication/folksonomies.html
The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging
Developed by: Ellyssa Kroski
Type of resource: web article
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
This overview article by Ellyssa Kroski examines characteristics of folksonomies, describes tools for data organisation, and tag clouds. Folksonomies are inclusive, current, democratic and self-moderating, according to Kroski, but also have plenty of "hitches", which she also details.
Dhttp://infotangle.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/the-hive
-mind-folksonomies-and-user-based-tagging/
Social Bookmarking Tools (I)
Developed by: Tony Hammond, Timo Hannay, Ben Lund, and Joanna Scott
Type of resource: web article
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
This article from D-Lib Magazine provides an overview of social bookmarking. It first examines link and bookmark history, tagging, and social issues relevant to social bookmarking. Itīs annex offers a review of common social bookmarking tools as of April 2005.
Dhttp://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond
.html
Folksonomies: Power to the People
Developed by: Emanuele Quintarelli
Type of resource: web site
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
This article helps readers understand different classification processes for web content, when each one is more suitable, and why and how the distributed classification folksonomy model has emerged. With folksonomies, people associate keywords to content (tagging). But tagging alone is not enough, states author Emanuele Quintarelli, it is the possibility of aggregation of that information - "the power is the people".
Dhttp://www.iskoi.org/doc/folksonomies.htm
7 Things You Should Know about Social Bookmarking
Developed by: Educause Learning Initiative
Type of resource: PDF
Target audience: General
Cost: Free access
This brief article presents two scenarios of bookmarking use to exemplify the benefits of "social bookmarking", especially in a teaching setting. The concept of social bookmarking is explained, who is doing it, why and how, as well as what the future holds as social bookmarking grows and some of its pros and cons.
Dhttp://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7001.pdf
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