TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Online Information Retrieval: Tools & Techniques Rajesh Singh Deputy Librarian University of Delhi DELHI

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, My credentials  Information Literacy Program (ILP) at University of Delhi, since  E-Resource Orientation Programs Campus Departments Colleges  IL Annual Workshops Sciences Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities  Training The Trainers IL Workshop College Libraries Campus Libraries  Hands on Training College Faculty Members  Optional short term course ‘Information Literacy for Research Competency’.  “Online Tutorial on Information Literacy”  Promoting DULS ILP as a model for rest of the Universities in India.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Features of e-Resources Huge information reservoir Up-to-date information Multimedia format Interactive Quick information retrieval 24X7 Availability Multidisciplinary approach Peer-reviewed Information sources Various search options Special services i.e. SDI, Alerts, etc. Standardized citations

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Features of e-Resources Thus it Facilitate : My folder/ my profile/ my settings etc. Selection of Journals for searching Download/save/mail search results. Locate a Publication Visual Search/Concept Map Common/Federated Search (Possible Searches) Number of databases One subject or a group of subjects Particular Journal/ Author

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Information Overload Rajesh Singh, DULS

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Information Environment Information made available through web information retrieval tools such as search engines provides thousands of search results which may not be useful if they are not indexed properly. Information retrieval tools such as Search engines crawl the Web and log the words from the web pages they find in their databases. Without a clear information retrieval strategy, using a search engine is like wondering aimlessly in the stacks of a library trying to find a particular book.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Information Environment Use of information retrieval tools for searches of electronic resources are more effective if you know how to "talk to“. Communicating with these systems requires knowing certain basic search techniques. These techniques are very important for getting good search results. These techniques will vastly improve your search results while searching the Internet.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Before we begin, we first need a little understanding about how information is stored and accessed on the Web. There are basically three categories of information on the Web: The Free, Visible Web. This category includes all the publicly mounted Web pages. These pages are indexed by search engines. To find information from this category, use a good search engine or directory. Categories of Information on the Web

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS The Free, Invisible Web. This category includes the contents of sites that provide their articles or information free to users, but that content may be accessible only by going directly to the site. In other words, search engines cannot index it. Some magazines, newspapers, reference works, and other sites are in this category. Many databases such as legal, medical, and financial are here, too. To find information from this category, you must go to the appropriate database. Paid Databases over the Web. This category includes commercial databases that libraries subscribe to, containing scholarly journals, newspapers, court cases and the like. Providers like Elsevier, EBSCO, UMI Proquest, JSTOR and others are in this group. To find information from this category, you must have access to the database and search on the database using the particular search engine and its features. Categories of Information on the Web…

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Information Retrieval Tool Types Search Engines. A search engine consists of the interface you use to type in a query, an index of Web sites that the query is matched with, and a software program (called a spider or robot) that goes out on the Web and gets new sites for the index. The robot crawls the Web at certain intervals, in order to index new material. When you use a search engine, you are asking it to look in its index to find matches with the words you have typed in. Many search engines may also have news, weather, free software, picture indexes, ratings of web sites, and other features. Directories. Directories are categorized lists of sites picked out by human editors. Directory databases are therefore much smaller than those of search engines. However, the fact that the sites are hand picked often means that you will find very high quality sites or articles in the results. Example directories are Yanza, Look Smart, and intute.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, What is a search engine? A Tool!

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Search tool most often used. Finds web pages by using small, automated computer programs called spiders or crawlers. Advantage – Sites are recorded and updated automatically so the database is HUGE. Disadvantage – Search engines do not evaluate the web sites for content or accuracy. What is a search engine?

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Search Engines Search engines are the preferred tool when you:  Are looking for something very specific  Need to pin down a quick fact or two  Need to know if any information exists at all on a subject  Want mass quantities of links, but are not concerned about quality control.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Examples – Search Engines Google – Google Altavista- Altavista Lycos- Lycos Yahoo! Search – Yahoo! Search Excite – Excite Alltheweb – Alltheweb

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Subject Directories A subject directory is a database of titles, citations, and websites organized by category. Advantage – Most directories are edited, maintained and created by people.  Usually they are carefully evaluated and annotated for this reason. Disadvantage – Typically include a smaller number of sites than a search engine due to the great amount of human effort involved.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Subject Directories Subject directories are organized and selective. They are useful when you want to know more about broad-based subjects, such as  General topics  Popular topics  Targeted directories  Current events  Product information

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Examples of Subject Directories  Bubl Information Services  Infomine  Intute  MathGuide  Pinakes: A Subject Launchpad  SocioSite  WWW Virtual Library  Yenza Subject Directories

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Metasearch Engines Meta searches use multiple engines to look for your keywords. Advantage – You have many search engines all looking for what you need. Great when you are looking for something that is hard to find. Disadvantage – It’s hard to fine tune your search and narrow things down. Also, Meta searches can sometimes give you more information than what you need.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Examples - Metasearches Beaucoup! – Beaucoup! Clusty – Clusty Mamma, “the mother of all search engines”- Mamma Ixquick – Ixquickwww.ixquick.com

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Federated/Meta Search DULS

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Overall Structure Research Topic Specialist sub-area Relevant Primary research Your research question

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Information Retrieval Tips … Recall, Relevance, and Precision

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Information Retrieval Strategy STEP 1: STATE WHAT YOU WANT TO FIND First, in one or two sentences, state what you want to find. Example: Cognitive Architecture of the Depressed. Globalization and its impact on the Indian Working Class.

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS STEP 2: IDENTIFY KEYWORDS Underline the main concepts in the statement. Example: Cognitive Architecture of the Depressed. Globalization and its impact on the Indian Working Class. Information Retrieval Strategy

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS STEP 3: SELECT SYNONYMS AND VARIANT WORD FORMS List synonyms, alternate spellings, and variant word forms of each. Example: Alternate terms of Software Reengineering: Computer software reengineering, reengineering of Software, software renovation, software renewal, software engineering, software maintenance, computer software reusability,etc. Information Retrieval Strategy

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS STEP 4: COMBINE SYNONYMS, KEYWORDS, AND VARIANT WORD FORMS. Using different searching techniques/ connectors / operators. Information Retrieval Strategy

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS STEP 5: GIVE A CONTEXT  Genetic Mutation  Human, Animal, Plants  Foreign Direct Investment  India, Information Retrieval Strategy

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS STEP 6: CHECK YOUR SPELLING A Search engines return websites with words that match your keywords. If you misspell a keyword, your results will contain websites where that word is also misspelled. Information Retrieval Strategy

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Search Techniques Concept Map/ Visual Search Related Topics Publication Search

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Search Techniques Phrase Search Field Search Boolean operators Proximity Search Controlled Vocabulary Concept Map

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, Rajesh Singh, DULS Search Techniques Limiting/ Refining Searches Publication Search Visual Search Related Topics

Online Information Retrieval: Tools & Techniques Thanks