Post on 30-Dec-2015
SLAV, September 2004 ©Maureen Henninger
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Quality of informationQuality of information
Peter Steiner (1993). The New Yorker, 69 (20) p. 61
SLAV, September 2004 ©Maureen Henninger
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Is it out there somewhere?Is it out there somewhere?
Don’t assume that it exists in digital form
Don’t assume that it exists on the Web
Don’t assume that it is free
Don’t assume that it is true or has quality
Do use trusted, value-added
resources/services
SLAV, September 2004 ©Maureen Henninger
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Cyber somewhereCyber somewhere
The Web Approximately 4-5 billion documents Collected into directories Indexed by search engines
The invisible Web Approximately 550 billion documents Stored in databases NOT indexed by Web search engines
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Trusted, value-added resourcesTrusted, value-added resources
Evaluated resources Similar to an academic library Selection criteria for inclusion e.g. BUBL, Infomine
Resources with added metadata for detailed searching, e.g. author, ERIC subjects
Subject gateway Specialised collection Selected by subject experts Evaluated & annotated resources Similar to an art library e.g. Artifact
SLAV, September 2004 ©Maureen Henninger
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What are you looking for?What are you looking for?
Searching for specific information or documents
Looking for general information ‘Just browsing’ ‘I need a fact’ Monitoring
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A library mental modelA library mental model
Searching for a specific document
Just browsing Looking for general
information Need a fact Searching for specific
information Monitoring trends
Catalogue, author or title
Classified sections Encyclopaedias
Reference book Catalogue or indexes —
subject or keyword Latest journals — new book
shelf, alerting services
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What are the discovery tools?What are the discovery tools?
Two general categoriesSearch engines
General Specialised (by subject)
Directories General (catalogues of resources) Specialised (subject gateways) Directories of directories, databases
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Directories vs search enginesDirectories vs search engines
Catalogue of resources created by humans
Most popular are commercial, eg. Galaxy, Open Directory
Use for broad subject treatment
Often indiscriminate in quality
Database of keywords created by computer robots
Huge databases — Google points to 4+ billion documents
Use for unique documents, highly specific information
No quality control
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Searching for a specific documentSearching for a specific document
‘Publisher’ site e.g. Department of Education, Science and Training
Search engine e.g. Google Database eg. ERIC [Eductational
Recources], National Geographic Publications
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ExamplesExamples
A homepage Use Google to find Artifact, which is part of the
Resource Discovery Network in the U.K. – use I'm Feeling Lucky!
The Australian report “Rural Teacher Education"
Use Yahoo "rural teacher education" AND inurl:au Limit the search to pdf format
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Browsing, general information Browsing, general information
Specific resources e.g. Oxfam’s Cool Planet for Teachers
Directories General e.g. Galaxy, Open Directory Evaluated e.g. BUBL Link, KidsClick,
Infomine Subject gateways e.g. GEM, Artifact,
ERIN
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ExamplesExamples
1. General directoryUse Open Directory to find information on
dinosaurs
2. Directory of evaluated resourcesUse BUBL to find Web resources on
dinosaurs
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Examples of subject gatewaysExamples of subject gateways
Aboriginal Studies WWW Virtual Library
AGRIGATE (Australian) Artifact ERIN Gateway Antarctica
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Specialised education gatewaysSpecialised education gateways
AwesomeLibrary EDNA Educator’s Reference Desk European Schoolnet GEM MarcoPolo SOSIG: Education
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Selected directories of gatewaysSelected directories of gateways Australian Subject Gateways BUBL Link BIOME PINAKES WWW Virtual Library
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ExamplesExamples
1. Use MarcoPolo to find algebra lesson plans for 6-8 grades students
2. Use the WWW Virtual Library to find an information literacy subject gateway
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Monitoring - keeping upMonitoring - keeping up
News search engines eg. RocketInfo Journal scans eg. Ingenta Subject gateways
often have the “latest news” Education monitoring services
Australia.edu
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ExamplesExamples
1. Use RocketInfo to find the past week’s cricket scores in Zimbabwe
2. Use Australia.edu to see what happened today in history
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Search strategiesSearch strategies
Know who has the information
Need general information
Need specific information
Best results
Go to the site
Use subject directories
Use search engines
Use advanced searching techniques
Use subject gateways
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Search enginesSearch engines Only two major general ones
Google and Yahoo End of 2003 AltaVista and AlltheWeb
purchased by Yahoo Killed off April 2004
Minor ones, e.g. HotBot and Teoma
Specialised ones, eg. RocketInfo, GoogleNews (news), AskJeeeves
for Kids,SportQuest, Topica (discussion groups)
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Best results with search enginesBest results with search engines
‘Conceptualise’ your search Use advanced searching techniques
Boolean operators Proximity operators Field searching, e.g. in the title
Why use advanced searching techniques To get more precise/relevant results Techniques are used in database searching,
e.g. ERIC
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Search exampleSearch example
I need information on Australian or New Zealand government policy for social justice in education
Searching with each set of concepts would return different documents
1st set of concepts 2nd set of concepts 3rd set of concepts
education policy education education
social justice social justice social justice
government government policy government
Australia Australian policy Australia
New Zealand New Zealand policy New Zealand
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Boolean & proximity operatorsBoolean & proximity operatorsBoolean OR
broadens the search (any one term must be present)
use for synonyms Boolean AND
narrows the search (all terms must be present) Boolean NOT
term must not be present (can be problematical) Proximity
specifies contextual relationship, eg. phrase system specific
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Searching with YahooSearching with Yahoosocial justice education 6,380,000
social AND justice AND education 6,380,000
"social justice" AND education 1,230,000
("social justice" OR "social capital") AND education 1,400,000
“social justice” AND “social capital” AND education 16,700
intitle:"social justice" AND intitle:education 462
(intitle:"social justice" OR intitle:"social capital") AND intitle:education
193
(intitle:"social justice" OR intitle:"social capital") AND intitle:education AND (Australia OR “New Zealand”)
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Death of AltaVistaDeath of AltaVista Died April 2004 Most sophisticated search syntax
Similar to that used in databases, eg ERIC Used proximity operators and truncation
“ ” = a phraseNEAR = a bi-directional adjacency
e.g. blind venetian, venetian blind
within n = within n words of each othercomput* = computer, computers,
computerisation, computing
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Advanced searching techniquesAdvanced searching techniques
Search request Results
library OR libraries 7,580,000
library AND design 4,290,000
“library design” 111,000
library NEAR design 784,860
(library OR libraries) AND design 5,100,000
(library OR libraries) NEAR design 1,850,000
title:library AND title:design 8,490
title:“library design” 1,620
“library design” NEAR school 9,225
“library design” NEAR (school* OR educat*) 12,650
(library NEAR design) AND (school* OR educat*) 14,000
(library NEAR design) NEAR (school* OR educat*) 236
Six trends in library design
Previews and overviews in digital libraries: designing surrogates to support visual information seeking
School libraries: a design recipe for the future
Inaccessible Web design from the perspective of a blind librarian
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('library design') :Title 12
(librar* adj design*) :Title 23
(librar* NEAR design*) :Title 52
(librar* NEAR design*) :Title NOT (librar* adj design*) :Title 29
(librar* w/5 design*) :Title 78
•Six trends in library design
•An analysis of seven academic libraries designed by Perry Dean Rogers
•Maintaining and designing library buildings to provide transcendent spaces
•Information systems design: the librarian's role
•Designing and maintaining your library's Web site
AskEricAskEric
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Current search syntaxCurrent search syntax
Search engine
Simple search
Advanced search
Boolean Nesting Proximity Truncation Field search
Yes
Yes
OR AND is automatic use – (minus) for NOT
No
" "
No ~ for plurals
intitle: inurl: link: site: filetype:
Yahoo
Yes
Yes
OR AND NOT
Yes ( )
" "
No
intitle: inurl: domain: linkdomain: filetype:
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YahooYahoo
Since August, Yahoo’s algorithm seems to have changed Full Boolean operators do not always work the way
you expect AND is the default filetype: does not work
You must select the format from the Advanced search Possibly it is better to use the advanced
search, but some difficulties with phrase searching
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Example - YahooExample - YahooInformation on bullying in Australian schools pain
Search request Results
(bully OR bullying OR bullies) AND (school OR schools) 2,180,000
(bully OR bullying OR bullies) AND (school OR schools) AND Australia 293,000
(intitle:bully OR intitle:bullying OR intitle:bullies) AND (intitle:school OR intitle:schools) AND intitle:australia
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intitle:school OR intitle:schools intitle:bully OR intitle:bullying OR intitle:bullies AND Australia
237
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Example - GoogleExample - GoogleInformation on bullying in Australian schools pain
Search request Results
bully OR bullying OR bullies school OR schools 598,000
bully OR bullying OR bullies school OR schools Australia 104,000
~bully ~school ~Australia 137,000
allintitle:~bully ~school ~Australia 12
intitle:~bully intitle:~school intitle:~Australia Many of these are not correct
49,7000
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Specialised search enginesSpecialised search engines
AskEric (education) AskJeeves for Kids Bartleby (reference books) Biographical Dictionary OneKey (“Google for kids”) PeachPod
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ExampleExample
Use OneKey to find Web information on Australian rainforest frogs
allintitle:~frog ~australia rainforest
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Databases via the WebDatabases via the Web Information stored in databases
Tend to be scholarly information Bibliographic data, eg.
abstracts of journal articles conference proceedings full text of journal articles technical reports library catalogue records
Statistics, eg. census & demographic data Reference data, eg. chemical properties
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Examples of educational databasesExamples of educational databases
AskERIC CHID (Combined Health Information
Database) Education-line (electronic texts in education
& training) Home Economics Database World Data on Education (UNESCO)
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ProblemProblem
Suppose you want authoritative information about Australian natural resources Search for “natural resources
database” Australia on Google
Results — list of 2,080
Which is the ‘best’ one?
If you knew of ANRO
Use Google’s I’m feeling lucky
SLAV, September 2004 ©Maureen Henninger
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Discovery & accessDiscovery & access
A two step process
1. Finding a database which may have the required information
2. Formulating, issuing and refining a search query in the database
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Directories of searchable databasesDirectories of searchable databases Academic Info
BUBL Collection of Special Search Engines Direct Search Infomine Internet Public Library Invisible Web (Intelliseek) DADI (Les bases de données gratuites sur
Internet) Librarians' Index to the Internet
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ExampleExample
Authoritative information on amphibians Use AcademicInfo to find an appropriate
database(amphibia OR frog) AND database
ORuse the index Sciences > Environmental Studies > Biodiversity > Databases
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Field searchingField searching
General search engines title, url, file format
Specialised search engines date, document type
Databases many fields, depending on the record
structure Eric, CHID
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ERIC interfacesERIC interfaces AskERIC
baldry*:author author bully*:title title bully*:maj,min all ERIC subject heading 200*:publication_date publication date
Ovid baldry$.au. (truncation allowed) bullying.sh. subject heading journal$.pt document type 2002.yr. publication year
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Cyberworld qualityCyberworld quality
Use subject gateways and evaluated directories
Use search engines with caution Use Boolean operators and field
searching Use specialised search engines Use databases
Find them in database directories Use advanced searching techniques