Using the Computer in Your Research

9610027A Dora

9610035A Rikki

9610047A Litta

5A computers and the research paper

Before computers – the typewriters Now – computer software For example: word, excel, power point.

Computer changed

In some quarters, computer have done away with note cards.

In some schools, by the e-mail to the traditional submission of hard copy.

The laborious business of research, they offer to full- text databases.

5B The internet

The internet – it is a system to connect by a common protocol.

The world wide web – it is part of the internet.

Some internet terms

FTP: file transfer protocol HTML: hypertext markup language HTTP: hypertext transfer protocol ISP: internet service provider URL: uniform resource locator

Understanding internet addresses

http:/

protocol

www.loundy.com

Name of the host

/jmls-trademark.html

Document path

5C Online resources

Databases Electronic journals Online public-access catalogs (OPAC) Blogs

5D: RESEARCHING WITH SEARCH ENGINES

A search engine is a program that searches the web for specific words related to your topic.

The step you start to search:Type a key word into search boxClick on search or go

FINDING A SEARCH ENGINE

Use a searching engine to find other search engines that are more specific to your purpose.

When you type a words which receive too many hits, you can try a new search engine on google, you can find something more relative to your key words.

Use Certain connectors- and, or ,not

BOOLEAN LOGIC

It played a significant role in the emergence of the modern computer.

There are three logical operators in Boolean logic: With all of the words: AND (A” +” plus sign to mean AND.) With any of the words: OR(A "│” vertical line sign to mean

OR.) Without the words: NOT(A “-” a minus sign to mean NOT.) Variations exist among all engines, we cannot use this wa

y for all the web engines.

EDUCATIONAL SEARCH ENGINES

Except the searching engines we talked before, there are some other are maintained by nonprofit organizations- libraries, schools, and government agencies.

Education search engines, www.searchengineguide.com/pages/education

English server, www.eserver.org Library of congress, www.loc.gov/index.html Searched, www.searchedu.com The universal library, tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu

USEFUL SEARCH ENGINES

There are three types of engines: manual, robotic, metasearch

Manual: Yahoo! Searches directories and subcategories that have been compiled by humans.

Robotic: Google has indexed billions of pages, far more than its competitors.

Metasearch: searches and compiles the top listings of other search engines.

Name Web address Coverage

Google www.google.com Sophisticated software crawls millions and millions of web pages; functions almost like a metasearch engines. Possibly the best and most widely used search engine today. (enter your phone number in the search box and see what happens)

AltaVista www.altavista.com More than 4 billion web pages indexed; returns comprehensive result from both web pages and proprietary databases.

Ask www.ask.com A comprehensive search engine that suggests various ways of narrowing the topic of your search.

Excite www.excite.com Keywords on more than 50 million web pages.

Hotbot www.hotbot.com More than 54 million documents.

Mamma www.mamma.con Databases of 10 other engines.

MetaCrawler www.metacrawler.com Databases of various search engines, including Lycos, Infoseek, AltaVista, and Yahoo!

WebCrawler www.webcrawler.com Hundreds of millions of web pages.

Yahoo! www.yahoo.com Among the smallest search engines( fewer than one million sites); high quality control makes Yahoo! A researcher’s favorite; unlike other engines, which use a search algorithm, Yahoo! Uses people to select its sites.

5E: USENET, LISTSERV, TELNET, AND GOPHER

Usenet: A serious of electronic bulletin boards. Everyone can post their response on it. Usenet presents information in an email format, with no graphics and no sound.

Listserv Listserv and similar software manage the electronic mailing lis

ts of discussion groups.

Telnet and gopher Telnet is a protocol for connecting computers on the internet. Gopher is an old-fashioned system of searching the internet.