Kathy Drewes

Signing in  You will need a library ID.  Library ID :  Is not your Aurora account (class sign-up)  You need to have accessed it before  If you do not have an ID, use the temporary ID.

What We Will Cover You can follow along in your worksheet.

1a. 1a. Why is it important?

How Many Pages are Indexed?  The problem isn’t finding some information, it is finding the right information for the job.

Is It a Website? Just because something is available online doesn’t mean it is, strictly speaking, a website. It might be:  An archive or online library  A repository  A catalog or journal database  An online or scanned book or other publication

Academic Articles Collections of academic journals are available online either for free or for a fee:  Google Scholar indexes (and has full text to) some academic articles online. The U of M Libraries subscribes to Google Scholar. Google GoogleGoogle  The U of M subscribes to some academic journals online (worth over $3 million!) through databases (Academic Search Elite, ERIC, etc.). Library Homepage Library Homepage Library Homepage

Once You Find it, Cite it!  Once something is put on the web, it is considered published, and all the laws of copyright apply to words, phrasing, and images that you find on the web.

1b. 1b. How I know I found a good website?

Is It a Good Website?  How do you plan to use the site?  Who is the author?  Why is the author an authority on the subject?  What is at stake for the author if they are wrong or lying?  Is the page up to date?  Is the page associated with an institution, company, or organization? Do they have an agenda?  Why did the author / organization produce the website?  Do you trust the page? Why or why not?

2.

2 Ways to Search the Web Directory  Human Indexed (people recommend each site)  Headings  Better for browsing Search Engine  Electronic  Keywords  Better for finding a phrase

When to Use a Directory  You want to browse topics within a broader subject  You want pages that other people use, for example, when finding blogs, recipes, and general information on a topic

Directory Examples: Both a directory and a search engine:

Directory Example  Writing a paper on Buddhism, but you don’t know where to start or what to write about.  Note that you can search within a certain sub- heading inside the Google Directory. (Try #1 on your worksheet.)

Search Engine (& Meta search Engine) Examples: Meta Search Engines – search many common search engines at the same time.

Search Engine  A search engine crawls the web using links to move from one website to the next. The engine saves a copy of everything it crawls as a cache file  Go to this page and View Source: Look for libguy as an image Goshen County Library Home Page

Search Engines Might Rank pages according to:  How many other websites link to the page  Who links to the page  How many times your search words appear  Where your search words appear on the page  Who gives them money$$$

Search Engines Do Not Index:  Pages that request not to be crawled  Cannot access pages inside of many databases (for example, specific records within our library catalogue)  Cannot access pages that are encrypted or password protected

Making Money  Search engines make money in a number of ways. Some take money to rank certain pages higher than others. Others allow banners and ads to be posted on their pages.  Sponsored Links Type in environmental

3.

Places to Go for More Information  Google Cheat Sheet Google Cheat Sheet Google Cheat Sheet  Search Engine Watch (general info about search engines.)  Googlepedia Author: M. Miller TK G66 M , Reference Section of Engineering Library TK G66 M , Reference Section of Engineering Library  Google “About Google” Google GoogleGoogle

3 Ways to Search Google  Simple Search Tricks  Advanced Search Screen  Manipulating the URLs Google GoogleGoogle

Narrow vs. Broad  Try to narrow your results so you get only websites that are relevant to you. You can do this by adding more words (it makes the search more specific).  If you cannot find anything on your topic, try broadening the search by taking away search terms and limits (it makes the search less specific).

What Google Assumes  Google is smart. It assumes certain things about searching to try to get the best results for you.

Word Order  Google assumes that you will put the most important word at the beginning of your search terms, and that each word becomes less important to you as you move left to right. eg. Boat fishing reel

Plurals Stemming:  Google automatically searches for common plurals and verbs. (Not all search engines or databases stem.) eg. mushroom searches for both mushroom and mushrooms

Capitals Not Case Sensitive:  Google does not care if your search uses capital letters correctly or not. eg. dOG RaCIng is the same search to Google as DOG RACING and dog racing Exception: Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) must be capitalized (we’ll look at that in a minute)

Assumes you want all the words  Google assumes that when you type more than one word into the search box, you want it to find both of the words mentioned somewhere in the webpage.

All the Words Bush (232,000,000) Lawn (73,100,000) Bush Lawn (1,380,000 ) NARROWS the SEARCH

At Least One of the Words (OR)  If you type OR between your search words, Google looks for websites that have one word or the other word or both. eg. old OR elderly In the advanced search page it is called advanced search advanced search at least one of the words

Elderly (65,200,000) At Least One of the Words (OR) Old (1,040,000,000 ) old OR elderly (1,110,000,000 ) BROADENS the SEARCH

Not (-) Use a minus sign to search for pages without a certain term on the page. Use a minus sign to search for pages without a certain term on the page. eg.bush lawn -president Searches for web pages with the words bush and lawn on them, but excludes pages with the word president On the advanced search page this is called advanced search advanced search without the words

Search Three Bush (232,000,000) Lawn (73,100,000) President (378,000,000 ) (Bush and Lawn) not President (1,250,000 ) NARROWS the SEARCH

Exact Phrase  If you are looking for an exact phrase, a name, or two words together, place the phrase within quotation marks. eg. “stephen harper” searches for documents that have his name together in this order. Google NARROWS the SEARCH

Forgot a Word?  If you don’t know a word within the phrase or want to search for someone who sometimes uses a middle name, use the * symbol within a phrase. egs. “everybody knows that smoking * school” (Song by Motley Crue) “john * macdonald” Google BROADENS the phrase SEARCH

Similar words (~)  Use the ~ to find synonyms. eg. ~elderly Will find pages with the words elderly, old, aging etc. on them. Google BROADENS the SEARCH

File Types  You can search for pages that are of a certain file type (or you can exclude them using the -) egs. “strategic plan” filetype:pdf Returns only pdf files with the phrase strategic plan. “strategic plan” –filetype:pdf Returns pages that are in any format except PDF format. (Also available on Advanced Search page) Advanced Search pageAdvanced Search page Google NARROWS the SEARCH

Specific Domain or Website  Use site: to search within a specific site or within a specific area. eg. solar flare site:edu Searches for the words solar and flare, but only on education sites (that end in edu) solar flare site: Searches for the words solar and flare, but only on the University of Manitoba site Google NARROWS the SEARCH

Search for similar pages  If you find a page you like, go to the advanced search page and type in the URL next to: advanced search page advanced search page related: find pages similar to the page

Google Books & Google Scholar  Google Books searches for books with your search terms. Some books are full text while others are not.  Google Scholar is a database of scholarly articles and books. The U of M purchases links and full-text access to Google Scholar. You need to be on campus or to sign in to access some of the full-text content. Google

Wayback Machine  Archive of old website  Indexed by URL and date archived eg. BBC BBC

Recap 1.Evaluation 2.Directories vs. Search Engines 3.Google Tricks