1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Tools for Searching Information on the Web  Search Engines  Meta-searchers  Information Gateways  Subject Indexes

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Search Engines  Keyword searching tools  Most have huge databases of web resources gathered by robots, spiders or crawlers  Examples include: Lycos, Alta Vista, InfoSeek, Excite, etc.

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Search Engines  Generally provide simple entry point  Advanced search engines may provide many other options  Good for finding lots of information  Each search engine index documents differently  Searching for organisations, people, images

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Meta-searchers  Simultaneous searching of a number of search engines  Sophisticated searching but relies on effective and speed of service  Examples:MetaCrawler, SavvySeach

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Information Gateways  Subject related, reviewed resources  Access to quality information eg: The Official Guide to Geneva, as opposed to The Student’s Geneva Web Page.  Addressing more general information needs obtaining a general overview of what’s available for a particular subject area  Organising information more effectively information sources are categorised according to their content Example SOSIG -

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Subject Indexes Are Good For...  Addressing general information needs obtaining a general overview of what’s available for a particular subject area  Organising information more effectively information sources are categorised according to their content Example:

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Classic Search Engine Problems There’s too much information out there! I can’t see why I’m getting these results! How can I make my search more specific? Most of the documents I retrieve aren’t relevant to my query.

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Overcoming Information Overload Devise a search strategy before you begin Make use of relevancy ranking features Use advanced features of search engines Focus your topic clearly

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Defining Your Topic, Scope and Keywords Think about words which describe your topic effectively. Be aware of.. –Alternative spellings –Use of synonyms –Use of plurals –Broader or narrower terms –Capitalisation What sorts of information do you need? –Web or usenet? –Very recent material? –English language? –National or International?

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Structuring Your Search  Use of Boolean Operators - AND, OR, NOT –Asia AND AWORC –Asia OR AWORC  Use of field and phrase searching –“Beijing Platform for Action” –title:”Asian Women’s Resource Exchange” –domain: kr  Use of truncation –comput*

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Choosing A Search Engine Factors to consider:  ease of use  comprehensive: scope, size and coverage  control over the search  flexibility in searching  valid assessment of relevance  informative presentation of results

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Quality Considerations Content:  who is the intended audience?  how reliable is the information?  how comprehensive is the information?  are there links to other quality documents?  are there many ‘dead’ links?  how up to date is the information?

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Quality Considerations Source and Ownership:  who is the author or owner of the information?  what is their designation or authority?  is contact information available?  is there evidence of sponsorship on the web site?  is any bias evident?  is there a copyright statement or a disclaimer?

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Quality Considerations Structure and Layout:  are graphics sensibly used?  is it easy to navigate around the site?  does the text follow basic rules of grammar, spelling etc.?

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Other Tools for Searching Information in Computer Network  Directory Services  Intelligent Agents  Archies

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Directory Services  online services (White Pages) that provide means of searching for people and computers  Examples: CSO, Finger, LDAP, Netfind, Whois, X.500  More information:

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Intelligent Agents  softwares which carry out tasks on behalf of users  from automating routine search tasks, to adapting to user routines and preferences  can take initiative to provide user with information not specifically requested but likely to be of interest  examples: Autonomy Agentware: Bargain Finder: Firefly: LiveAgent: More Like This: Search’97: WebCompass:

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Archies  one of earliest tools for searching specific items across hundreds of servers  gathers data from servers which houses archives, organizes it, maintains it and provides search interface for it  Archie servers cooperate to provide searchable index of Internet information, worldwide in scope  popular for indexing anonymous ftp archives  has gone commercial, marketed as database tool

1999 Asian Women's Network Training Workshop Summary  Plan your search before you start  Make use of search query languages  Be prepared to go back and refine your search if you don’t find what you need at first  Developing a good search strategy will save you time and frustration in the long run