Outline. Blended Services Training Session 8: The Web. January 14, Outcomes & competencies. What s on the web.

Transcription

1 Blended Services Training Session 8: The Web January 14, 2010 Outline Outcomes & competencies What s on the web How the web works Web search tools Web search & browser tips Activity: searching the web At the end of this unit, you will be able to describe some of the characteristics of the Web use search engines and subject directories to find info on the Web decipher search results read URLs or web addresses navigate web pages effectively 1

2 Blended Services Information Fluency Competencies Standard One Explores a variety of general information sources Describes the characteristics of different publication types such as books, journal articles, magazine articles, web sites Identifies the value and differences of some potential resources (books, journal articles, web sites) Blended Services Information Fluency Competencies Standard Two Selects appropriate search tools and other information resources, e.g., catalogue, databases, in order to access the information needed Uses various search systems, e.g.,catalogue, key databases, search engines to retrieve information Blended Services Information Fluency Competencies Standard Three Assesses the quantity and relevance of the search results to determine whether alternative search strategies should be utilized (additional keywords) Articulates and applies sound criteria for evaluating both the information and its sources (books, journals, web sites, etc.) 2

3 Poll What formats or types of material can you find on the Web? (e.g. text, images) Formats/types of material on the Web text data & statistics images, pictures or photos maps audio, music, sound clips movies, video clips, animations games, exercises, interactive sites virtual environments tools, e.g. converters, document creating Video: How the Web Works World Wide Web in Plain English (from CommonCraft) 3

4 Poll Besides Google, can you think of any other ways to find info on the Web? Web Search Tools go to the Library home page click on Using the Libraries > How to Find under Library Tools, click on Web Search Tools Subject Directories: Examples 4

5 Subject Directories arranged by topic compiled by people! browse OR search high relevance Example: Intute Browse: social sciences women s studies women and politics Search within results: vote Filter by: papers/reports, etc. Subject Directories: Good choice when you are looking for a few high quality web sites on a topic looking for relatively broad topics for example, when browsing or searching, look for: women and politics rather than: the correlation between national childcare policies and the percentage of women in elected office 5

6 Subject Directories: Not good for specific, narrow searches finding all the possible sources/sites on a topic Search Engines Search Engines Examples 6

7 New Visual Gigantic 7

8 Multisearch Search Engines What are they? database of collected pages spider/crawler/robot collects pages search software relevance-ranking engine brings back results with most relevant at the top Search Engines: Good choice when you need to verify citations check spelling (did you mean ) define words locate quotes or blocks of text find info on a topic from a wide range of sources track breaking news find multimedia (e.g., videos, images) 8

9 Search Engines: Disadvantages quality of results vary, each source needs be evaluated quantity of results can be overwhelming scope of search unclear Google Images Google News Google Earth Google Video Google Services also accessible as links across the top of Google screens Web Images Maps etc. Activity Connect to Google Search for a topic of your choice OR traffic volume in the GTA 9

10 Phrase searching Advanced search Synonyms Limit date Limit domain Searching Smarter Common Top-Level Domains.edu U.S. post-secondary educational establishments.gov - U.S. governments and their agencies.gc.ca Canadian government.gov.on.ca Ontario government.org organizations, often non-profits.com commercial.mil military use.ca Canada.fr - France.us United States.uk United Kingdom (.co.uk, commercial) How low can you reduce the results for this search? Globalization 10

11 Google Search Tips Handout Understanding how Google works & what all these links do How results are ranked 1. PageRank - proprietary algorithm for measuring page importance. Combination of how many sites link to a page x the PageRank of the sites linking to it. 2. Where the search term is used in the page, and how many times. 3. Location-dependent. h;p:// 11

12 Deciphering Google Search Results Click page title to access page. This text appears in the dark blue bar across the very top of the page (i.e., title bar). It doesn t always correspond to the title or heading on the page itself. Search terms are bolded url /web address Cached links provide a snapshot of the page as it appeared on an earlier date. These pages usually load more quickly and can be used when the current page is unavailable. Search terms are also highlighted. URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) How to Read Them domain name Protocol ftp://, gopher:// Sub-domain library Domain - mcmaster Top-level domain -.ca,.edu,.gov, etc. Directory or Folder - about File name mills Common File Formats.htm Hypertext Markup Language (web).pdf Adobe Acrobat.doc Microsoft Word.xls Microsoft Excel.ppt Microsoft PowerPoint.mp3 MPEG audio stream, layer 3 More file formats: List_of_file_formats_(alphabetical) 12

13 Activity Identify url components & assess sites Protocol Domain Name Directory File article/ Tips for Using Your Browser To find a word on a web page: press Ctrl+F or select Find from Edit menu of browser type word, hit Enter and word should be highlighted within page To move forward and back pages Use arrow buttons to move one page Right click arrow buttons and select page you want to move to from menu Tips for Using Your Browser II High-efficiency browsing: 1. press Ctrl+T to open a brand new tab anytime. Similarly, Ctrl+N to open a window. 2. Ctrl+L to jump to the address bar. 3. Repeat as needed. Ctrl-R or F5: refresh page. Ctrl-F5: refresh and clear cache. 13

14 Jigsaw Activity: Practice Questions Team 1: Find Martin Luther King s I Have a Dream Speech. What is the first line? Team 2: Can you recommend a good web site for genealogy research? Team 3: I need the video made by the guy whose guitar was broken by an airline. Bonus: I need a picture of Frank Lloyd Wright s most famous house, the one built over a stream. Our Answers 1. MLK Online in Google type: I have a dream; click on search suggestion: i have a dream speech text 2. Genealogy Learning Centre 3. United Breaks Guitars v=5ygc4zoqozo 4. Google Image search for: frank lloyd wright house Feedback 14