Library Research Skills
Searching the Internet
Overview
Aims
- To use the internet and especially the web to find and evaluate information
- Objectives
- To appreciate the differences between different types of search tools
- To use these search tools to locate specific types of information
- To evaluate the information found using these search tools
Outcomes
By the end of this section you will:
- Have experience in using the web to search for information
- Be able to select appropriate search tools to locate different types of information
- Be able to evaluate the information found using internet search tools
Introduction
The Internet represents a vast, global library of information. However, for this information to be useful, users must be able to locate the relevant required information.
The sheer number of resources available through the internet make finding a relevant resource like finding a needle in a haystack! This is further complicated by the factors listed below:
Information sources
The resources available on the Internet are increasing constantly and at a rapid rate.
Cataloguing
There is no single, comprehensive listing of all Internet resources.
Subject coverage
Despite the quantity of Internet resources, subject coverage can still be uneven as there is no development policy for what is published.
Quality control
As anyone can potentially publish anything on the internet without review, the quality of information available varies greatly.
This section will therefore describe the searching tools available and how they can be used to find information.
For many web users, the only search tool they use is a search engine such as Google. However, in many cases such a tool may not be the most effective way to locate a resource.
Examples of the search tools available are shown below. Which of these tools you should use is determined by the type of resource you want, just as when looking for a phone number, you would use a phone directory, rather than a dictionary.
Information
- Search engines
- Metasearch engines
- Classified directories
- Subject gateways
People
- Directory services
- Institutional web sites
Software
- Software databases
- Anonymous FTP archives
These search tools are described on the following pages.
Copyright (c) 2005 by Susan Kelly, Wexford County Library Service.
Adapted and modified (5th December 2005) from TILT, Texas Information Literacy Tutorial. This material is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the TILT Open Publication Licence. (the latest version is presently available at http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/yourtilt/).
