Where the Heck do I Find That? A friendly overview on how to find stuff on the internet
Acrobat Word
By Cybèle Elaine Werts
Cybèlew@aol.com
There are plenty of articles and books on the art of searching the internet. So many perhaps, that it would be a total waste of time to write another one. Instead, Information Specialist and expert online researcher Daphne Worsham and I did a little meta-review what’s available out there in internetland. We’ll introduce them to you here so that you can right go to the section that might answer the questions you may have. After all, if you already know what a Boolean operator is then you might be annoyed if I wrote another article on how to use AND, OR and NOT in a search engine.
Here’s the Five Sections:
- The Big Picture
- Choosing the Right Search Engine
- How to do Boolean Search
- Cybele and Daphne’s Prime Directives for Searching
- Evaluating the Information that you Find
- Citing your Resources
The Big Picture - If you want a general overview on how the internet works, what’s out there in the big bad world of the web, and how to utilize search terms in the most effective way, read this article:
Internet Search Tips and Strategies by Robert Harris
http://www.virtualsalt.com/howlook.htm
 Overview (from the article) - The Internet has an enormous quantity of information, with thousands of newsgroups and billions of web pages. The two questions that face any information seeker are, (1) How can I find what I want? and (2) How can I know that what I find is any good? This article treats the first question. A companion article, "Evaluating Internet Research Sources," treats the second. Through the use of a little creativity, some patience, and a few search engines, you will be able to find just about anything you want. Many of the search tools and tool types mentioned in this article are available at "World Wide Web Research Tools."
Let me say just a brief word or two on each of these items (and then I will go into detail later). "A little creativity" means simply that you must be able to generate some synonyms (words or phrases similar in meaning to each other) for the idea or topic you are searching for. "Some patience" means that you must remember that when you search a library collection, you must plan to spend more than five minutes looking in the card catalog or on the shelves. People who say, "There is nothing on the Internet about my topic," are often those who sit down in front of the computer, type one phrase into one search engine and find nothing relevant. If you are willing to spend an hour looking around, however, you will almost certainly be well rewarded. Lastly, "a few search engines" means that you must use a variety of tools to find what you want.
Choosing the Right Search Engine - This article includes a very practical table that lays out various options for search engines. For example were you to ask: “I need a few good hits fast such as an organization’s homepage” it would tell you which search engine to use. There’s also an Acrobat version you can download.
How to do Boolean Search - There are lots of articles on Boolean searches, but I liked this particular one because the pictures explain things very clearly. A Boolean search is simply a search that uses AND, OR, and NOT. Nothing fancy, really!
Cybele and Daphne’s Prime Directives for Searching – Aside from fancy stuff like Boolean searches, the biggest challenge with searching is that people often just start typing in stuff into Google without thinking first. If you use just these four techniques, your searches will be 90% more effective, and we guarantee it!
- Use a unique identifier when searching. In other words, don’t look for cake recipes. Look for mandarin orange crème bundt cake recipe.
- Use the pearl-gathering technique. Pearl gathering refers to the technique of studying a relevant citation and identifying additional terms to be used in your search query. Additional words, subject headings, or specific fields may identified. A particular author may appear as an expert on your topic, suggesting a search by author.
- Look for a relevant citation which will help you figure out some of the terms related to the material you are searching for. For example you might know that you’re looking for a type of chocolate but don’t know the exact type. By looking around, you might well fall over the term “truffle” which will be just the thing you wanted. (it’s certainly the thing I want.)
- Use the most basic part of a word to bring up all possible versions of that work. For example use “temp” which will bring up temperate, temperature and temptation. If you were to use “temperate” instead, you would NOT get temperature which might be just what you needed! (although I myself am always in need of temptation)
- Write down the search strings that you use as you use them. You may think you’ll remember them, but really… you won’t.
Evaluating the Information that you Find - The old adage that if it’s in print it must be true is one kaput adage. In fact, because the internet is such an open environment, anyone can print anything they like. On the good side, it’s not too difficult to determine if a source is credible. This article will help you do exactly that.
Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask
From UC Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
 Citing your Resources – All good information specialists cite their sources, but considering how things change on the internet this can be a wee bit confusing. This article show several different styles that you can use for citing internet sources.
Style Sheets for Citing Resources (Print & Electronic): Examples & General Rules for MLA, APA, & Chicago & Turabian Styles
From UC Berkeley - Teaching Library Internet Workshops
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Style.html
 Cybèle Elaine Werts is an Information Specialist for WestEd’s Northeast Regional Resource Center. NERRC is a part of Learning Innovations at WestEd, a research, development, and service education agency. The NERRC website is www.rrfcnetwork.org/nerrc and her personal website is www.supertechnogirl.com/
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