With the
number of web pages reaching an estimated one billion, you need to search the Internet
effectively to locate the most relevant and useful information.
To help you evaluate some popular search sites, see PC Magazine's Scorecard: Search
Sites. For information on how to use search
engines effectively, see Terry A. Gray's How
to Search the Web: A Guide to Search Tools.
Tips for Effective Web Searches
The following web sites
offer links to plenty of search engines:
Use variations of your search word(s)
Narrow your search if you receive too many matches
You can narrow your search by increasing the number or search words, using more specific
search words, and using Boolean operators
Use Boolean operators
You can limit your search by using Boolean operators such as "AND,"
"BUT," "OR," and "NOT." Search engines vary in terms of the
ways they use Boolean operators, but most search engines include information about the use
of Booleans to help you search effectively.
For more information about searching with Boolean operators, see
the following web sites:
Three Good General Search
Engines
Northern Light is one of the most
comprehensive search engine. Northern Light categorizes search results into folders
(organized, for example, according to source and subject). Northern Light includes a large
Private Collection of full-text articles that may be purchased online.
Hotbot is an excellent search engine, especially if
you are unfamiliar with the use of Booleans to narrow searches. Hotbot features pull-down
menus that narrow searches to "all of the words," "any of the words,"
"exact phrase," etc. PC Magazine calls Hotbot "the best all-purpose search
site on the web."
Google was recently named the best search engine by
Yahoo! Internet Life and The Net. Google seems especially effective in locating specific
search phrases in web pages.
Two Good Meta-Search Engines
Meta-search engines automatically run
search words through numerous search engines.
MetaCrawler is a highly praised meta-search engine
that includes radio buttons that allow you to click and search for any of the words, all
of the words, or the exact phrase.
Dogpile is a meta-search engine that automatically runs
your search word(s) through more than ten popular search engines and categorizes the
matches according to the search engine.
Two Good Subscription Databases
IVCC's Jacobs Library subscribes to FirstSearch and ProQuest, which are online subscription databases
that provide access to bibliographic information and full-text articles from thousands of
magazines, journals, and newspapers. Both FirstSearch and ProQuest are accessible from any
computer with an Internet connection.
Both databases require a
login name and password, which can be obtained from Jacobs Library. The library has also
printed a convenient "Ticket to Information" with login information for the
databases that you can distribute to students.
FirstSearch and ProQuest
provide access to essays and articles that originally appear in print form and that are
not accessible through general Web searches. The databases are valuable research resources
both for you and for your students.
For more information about
online library resources, see Jacobs Library's Information Resources for General Research.
Other Good Online Resources
For more information about
more online resources, see the following web sites:
Evaluating the Credibility of
Online Resources
Students often mistakenly believe that
anything they find on the Internet is a credible source. The following web sites offer
advice on evaluating the credibility of web sites.
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