1. Use the Librarians’ Index to the Internet, http://lii.org, to look for the blue book for automobiles. Try to find it by typing in keywords and by browsing the subject categories. What categories did you go through to find it? Explain why either browsing or searching was easier.

2. Browse Yahoo!, http://www.yahoo.com, for a list of home-brewer organizations. Write down the top-level category and all the subcategories that you clicked on to reach the list.

3. Use WebCrawler, http://www.webcrawler.com, to look for the home page of Mary Washington College. First, search for it by typing in Mary Washington College. Note how many results were returned. Then try the search again with quotation marks around the phrase. How were the results affected? Why?

4. Use the Argus Clearinghouse, http://www.clearinghouse.net, to find a subject guide on Celtic music. What is the URL of the subject guide? When was it updated?

5. Go to AltaVista, http://www.altavista.com, and search for Web pages on the presence of the Coca-Cola Company in foreign countries. Read the help section in AltaVista. Do you need to use Boolean operators? Phrase searching? Write the search expression that you used.

6. Use MetaCrawler, http://www.metacrawler.com, to find information on baby boomers and social security. How many results did you obtain? What search engines did the meta-search tool consult? Write down the first three Web page titles in the results list and their URLs. Write down the search expression you used.

7. Browse Excite Channels, http://www.excite.com, to find a list of AIDS/HIV resources. Find the three most relevant sites and make a note of their URLs.

8. Use HotBot, http://www.hotbot.com, to search for information on Nelson Mandela. Use the pull-down menu to help you search for a person’s name. Write down the URLs for the three most relevant Web pages you found.

9. Use the meta-search tool Internet Sleuth, http://www.isleuth.com, to find the U.S. Government Manual. Access it and search for information on the Central Intelligence Agency. Make sure you read the search tips. How did you type in the search request? There are two choices for viewing the text. You may select TXT or PDF. The PDF (portable document format) option is available only if you have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer.

1. Using the advanced search mode in AltaVista, http://www.altavista.com, or a boolean expression in HotBot, http://www.hotbot.com, or NorthernLight, http://www.northernlight.com, find information on a new drug that has been developed by Glaxo-Wellcome (a pharmaceutical company) for AIDS and HIV. The drug is commonly referred to as 1592, or 1592U89. Write out the search expression you used. Open a Web page or two and find 1592 or 1592U89 somewhere in the document using the Find in Page function. Now try to find similar information using Infoseek, http://infoseek.go.com. Write out the search expression you used and the number of results received.

2. Using a search engine (Try Lycos, http://www.lycos.com, if you haven’t used it recently) and find information whether there is an increasing number of youth gangs in cities in the US. Is the number of youth gangs increasing? Has there been an increase in juvenile crime and violence in the US? Use results from the search to support your claims. Write out the search strategy and search expression(s) used.

3. Using Metacrawler, http://www.metacrawler.com, to find information on baby boomers and social security. Write down the search expression, the number of results obtained and the titles of the first five results.

Follow the same procedure using SavvySearch, http://www.savvysearch.com.

4. Find information about baby boomers and social security that's been posted to the Web within the last 2 weeks.

Find information about George W. Bush that has been posted to the Web or news services within the last week.

5. Search for information about Newt Gingrich in which his name appears near the term ethics. After retrieving results, limit the search to documents that were indexed in the past year. Try using AltaVista Advanced Search or Lycos Power search.

6. Find documents that deal with the economic benefits of historic preservation. Try using NorthernLight. After getting initial results , limit the results to those that come from educational institutions. Try the same, (limit by domain), for US Government sites, commercial sites.

1. Search HealthGate Medline, http://www.healthgate.com, for articles on the Ebola virus. Limit your search to review articles that have abstracts and that are published in English. You’ll need to do this search from the advanced page. How many articles did you find? Write down three of the most interesting titles.

2. Using the Internet Sleuth, http://www.isleuth.com, find a directory of lawyers and law firms in the United States. What is the name and URL of the database you found? Connect to this database and search for attorneys or law firms in Cincinnati, Ohio, specializing in bankruptcy cases. How many firms or attorneys did you find? List at least three, including their addresses.

3. Go to the Librarians’ Index to the Internet, http://lii.org. Find the IBM Patent Server. Explain the steps you took to locate it. Look for patents granted since 1995 on the subject of graphical user interfaces. How many patents did you find? Write down the numbers of three patents you found.

4. Use The Clearinghouse, http://www.clearinghouse.net, to find the Internet Movie Database. Explain the procedure you followed to locate this database. Once you have accessed it, find out who played Boo Radley in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. Find a list of movies that were filmed in Krakow Poland. (Note that Krakow is sometimes spelled Cracow)

5. Using the Internet Sleuth, http://www.isleuth.com, find the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall database. Describe how you found it. Search the database for names of people from your hometown or state that appear on the wall. Did you find any? If so, write down two names.

6. Go to the Internet Public Library, http://www.ipl.org, and look for Peterson’s Education Center. How did you find it? Look for a brief description of Oberlin College. Oberlin has a unique history that makes it stand out from the rest of the four-year colleges in the United States. What is the significance of Oberlin’s student acceptance policy?

7. Can you name the top 10 home run hitters? Go to the specialized database Total Baseball, http://www.totalbaseball.com, and select the hyperlink Batting under the "Records" category. While you’re there, look through the players’ biographies for information about Al Lopez. What’s his connection with the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox? In which year did he have the most home runs of his career? In which year did he have his best batting average?

8. Go to the specialized database Festival Finder, http://www.festivalfinder.com/, and use the search form to get information about jazz festivals. List three that will take place in the U.S. within the next year. For each, list a phone number to call for information and the cost of tickets (if that information is available).

9. Go to the Internet Sleuth, http://www.isleuth.com. What specialized databases are listed there that deal with baseball? While you are using the Internet Sleuth, search the directory of databases to find a list of specialized databases for another sport or some other topic related to recreation.

1. Suppose you’re preparing a report on astronauts’ jet packs, which are known as SAFER. One way to obtain information on them is to search the Web using HotBot, www.hotbot.com, with the search phrase jet pack +safer +astronaut, and the option set to use all the words.

a. Evaluate the first two resources using the criteria given in this chapter.

2. The URLs of the following Web sites end with .com, so the Web pages available may be designed to sell or market a product. Determine which of the following are designed to sell or market a product. What’s the purpose of each Web page? Justify your answer based on what’s on the Web page or on the site that hosts the Web page.

"Smokers: Protect Your Health with Vitamins" http://www.van99.com/smokers

"HP ScanJet 5p scanner"

"Esprit Development Corporation: C.D. Repair" http://www.cdrepair.com

"The Compact Disc Player"

"Netscape Communicator and Netscape Navigator"

"What’s the story on Internet Explorer 4.0?" http://www.microsoft.com/ie/press

3. Here’s a collection of Web pages dealing with the issue of sustainable forest management. Write a short evaluation of each, focusing on whether the information is presented with a bias or with the intent to advocate a cause.

"Guaranteeing the future of our forests through sustainable forest management"

http://www.nafi.com.au/faq/management/sustainable.html

"Sierra Club Conservation Policy: Forest Management"

"SFI, Principles for Sustainable Forestry"

"Owens Forest Products: Forest Facts" http://www.hdwds.com/forest_facts.htm

4. Here are some references to Web pages that address the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. For each reference, use the methods and guidelines we’ve discussed to write a brief explanation about whether the Web page contains information that is accurate and objective. In each case, be sure to identify the organization that’s sponsoring the Web page.

"Harvard Risk Management Foundation: Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide" http://www.rmf.org/w3415.html

"Ohio Right to Life: Euthanasia: A Case of Individual Liberty?"

http://www.ohiolife.org/euth/liberty.htm

5. Here are the home pages for two organizations involved with issues related to smoking. Looking at the Web pages and some of the information available from the pages, determine whether one is likely to provide more authentic and reliable information than the other. Justify your answer.

"Action on Smoking and Health" http://ash.org

"The National Smokers Alliance" http://www.speakup.org

6. Here is a list of Web documents dealing with the issue of affirmative action. Using the guidelines in this chapter for evaluating Web resources, determine whether any of these provide reliable and objective information about the issue.

"It’s Genocide" http://www.africa2000.com/xndx/xaffirm.htm

Affirmative Action http://www.buchanan.org/afirm.html

"Statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Council on Affirmative Action"

http://www.aflcio.org/publ/estatements/aug95/affirmat.htm

7. Here are several Web resources dealing with the topic of gun control. When you’re evaluating a document, you need to establish the name and credentials of the author or institution providing the information. In many cases, this helps determine the level of credibility or reliability. Do that for each of the following Web resources (some also appear in print).

"Proven Solutions to Ending School Shootings" http://www.jpfo.org/school.htm

"Guns in America: The Statistics" http://www.aclu-sc.org/GunStats.htm

"Kids & Guns" http://www.gunfree.org/csgv/bsc_kid.htm

"Memorandum on Arms & Freedom"

"The Racist Roots of Gun Control" http://www.cs.sonoma.edu/~cramerc/racism.htm

8. One virtual library with a clear statement of how items are selected and rated is the Argus Clearinghouse, http://www.clearinghouse.net. Go there and find information about how sites are rated or selected. Compare the criteria they use to those we’ve discussed in this chapter. How do those sets of criteria compare?

9. Several directories rate and select Web pages. One site, Lycos Top 5% by Lycos, http://point.lycos.com/categories, uses the criteria at http://point.lycos.com/categories/criteria.html. Read the criteria they use and compare it with those we have offered.

10. The Web page "RB Red Alert Beauty," http://homearts.com/rb/beauty/01rabef2.htm, published by the popular magazine Redbook, contains information about dealing with skin conditions. Several physicians are given as references for the information. Using the methods demonstrated in Activity 12.1, see what information you can find about the physicians. Your intention is to verify that the information is authoritative.

11. In this exercise, we’ll use some of the guides for evaluating Web resources to assess documents. As a sample document, use either "CDT Children’s Privacy Issues Page," http://www.cdt.org/privacy/children/index.html, or "Tools For Teaching: The World Wide Web and a Web Browser," http://www.mwc.edu/~ernie/facacad/WWW-Teaching.html.

a. Evaluate the document using the "Internet Evaluator Checklist," which is available halfway down the Web page "Evaluation of Internet Information," http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/~techman/eval.html.

b. Evaluate the document using an appropriate checklist. You can find one on the Web page "Evaluating Web Resources," Jan Alexander and Marsha Tate, Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University, http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webeval.htm.