Using the World Wide Web for Research

This material has been developed to accompany:

"Searching and Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web, Fourth Edition" ISBN 1-59028-036-9
"The Information Searcher's Guide to Searching and Researching on the Internet & the World Wide Web" ISBN 1-887902-58-9

Using the World Wide Web for Research

Topics

Using Directories	Finding Information Gems in Virtual Libraries
Searching the World Wide Web: Using Search Engines	Using Several Search Engines Simultaneously: Meta-search Tools
Search Strategies

Activities

Using a Directory to Browse for Information & an introduction to bookmarks/favorites	Finding Resources in a Virtual Library
Using Boolean Search Operators	Using Phrase Searching to Find Information
Using a Meta-search Tool to Find Information

The World Wide Web has revolutionized the way we do research.

We will discuss the difference between browsing and keyword searching the WWW, and you will see examples that focus on each method. You'll discover when it is better to use a directory or subject catalog (topical lists of selected WWW resources, hierarchically arranged) and when it makes sense to start with a search engine (a tool that provides keyword searching ability of known WWW resources). We will also cover the advantage of using virtual libraries, directories that contain only selected WWW resources. We will discuss employing several search engines simultaneously by using meta-search tools.

If you know different tactics for finding information on the WWW, your searches will be more successful. We'll provide activities in this chapter that will give you practice in browsing and keyword searching. Once you learn how to use the WWW to its fullest potential, you will be amazed at what you can locate in a short period of time.

Let's start researching!

Browsing the World Wide Web: Using Directories

There are two basic ways to find information on the World Wide Web: You can browse directories by subject, or you can search by keyword in search engines. While search engine databases are created by computer programs, directories are created and maintained by people. Directories don't cover the entire Web.

Browsing directories can be a very effective way to find the resources you need, especially if you need general information on a subject, such as recycling. If you are at the beginning of your research, or if you are searching for an overview of the topic at hand, it may also be helpful to use a directory. Some of the most popular directories are in our annotated list of selected directories.

Directories, or subject catalogs, are topical lists of selected Web resources that are arranged in a hierarchical way. By hierarchical, we mean that the subject categories are arranged from broadest to most specific. For example, the following is a hierarchy:

Ecology is a subcategory of science, and ozone depletion is a subcategory of ecology.

In a hypertext environment, such as the World Wide Web, browsing from one subject to a more detailed part of that subject is quite simple. We click on science, which is the top-level category or heading, and the computer screen fills with a list of subject categories that are narrower than Science. This might include, for example, biotechnology, or health and medicine, or, in our case, ecology.

When we click on ecology, the screen fills with even more subject categories, and we choose the subject we want, which is ozone depletion. In this case, the hierarchy ends here. After we choose ozone depletion, the screen fills in with a list of Web pages that we can now choose by clicking on their titles. This process is referred to as a structured browse.

Activity Using a Directory to Browse for Information

Overview

In this activity, we'll access the Open Directory Project and use its directory to find resources on opera.

We'll follow these steps:

Go to the home page for the Open Directory Project.

Browse the Open Directory.

Bookmark a Web page or add it to your list of favorites.

End the session.

Don't forget to practice using the Back and Forward buttons to avoid losing your place.

Details

We're assuming you've already started the browser.

1. Go to the home page for Open Directory Project.

Point to the location field and click the (left) mouse button.

The URL of the current Web page will change color. Now you can type in the URL for Excite.

Type http://www.dmoz.org in the location field and press Enter.

2. Browse the Open Directory.

Take a look at the list of subjects in the directory. We're looking for resources that focus on opera, so a logical choice is Arts.

Click on Arts.

After the screen fills, you'll see more detailed subject categories, or subcategories, appear on the screen.

Click on Music, which is a subcategory of Arts.
Click on Styles.

Click on Opera.

Take a look at it and follow a few hyperlinks. Click on the Back button in the menu toolbar if you want to return to the page before.

3 Bookmark a Web page or add it to your list of favorites.

After you've found a Web page or site, you may want to return to it again someday, so let's put it in your bookmark list (if you're using Netscape) or the list of favorites (If you're using Internet Explorer.).

(Netscape) Click on Bookmarks in the location toolbar and select Add Bookmark.

(Internet Explorer) Click on Favorites in the toolbar and select Add to Favorites.

The title of the URL is automatically added to your bookmark or favorites list.

5 End the session.

To end the session now, click on File in the menu bar and select Exit from the pulldown menu.

Several times throughout this book we'll be asking you to make bookmarks to save the URL locations of valuable Web pages. You'll need to know how to delete bookmarks, especially if you're using a public computer. Follow these steps:

Netscape:

Click on Bookmarks (which is located on the Location toolbar).
Select Edit Bookmarks.
Highlight the bookmark you want to delete by pointing to it.
Click on Edit and drag the pointer to Delete and let go, or press the Delete key.

Internet Explorer:

Click on Favorites (which is located in the Standard Buttons toolbar).

Your favorites will appear on the left of your screen. Place your mouse over the favorite you want to delete and click with the right button on your mouse.

From the menu that appears, choose Delete.

Browsing Versus Searching a Directory

It may be helpful to think of browsing a directory on the Web as similar to going through subjects in a card catalog. You may find exactly what you are looking for by browsing through many pages or cards filled with information, but then again, you may not. You may miss some related information, because your subject may appear in many different categories.

Browsing a directory requires that you think categorically about the subject you are researching. You have to be careful about the direction in which you are going when you do a structured browse. Many directories have simple keyword-searching ability for just this reason. Keyword searching was created to help people find information without having to know ahead of time the category in which the information lies. Keyword searching helps us find Web information more quickly, just as computerized library catalogs have helped us find books more quickly.

Finding Information Gems in Virtual Libraries

Virtual libraries are directories that contain collections of resources that librarians or cybrarians have carefully chosen and organized in a logical way. The resources you find in a virtual library have been selected and placed there for their excellence and usefulness. The Web pages included are usually evaluated by someone knowledgeable in that field. Typically, virtual libraries provide an organizational hierarchy with subject categories to facilitate browsing. Most include query interfaces in order to perform simple searches. Virtual libraries are great places to begin your research.

Some of the best-known virtual libraries are in our annotated list of virtual libraries. The main difference between virtual libraries and the directories is that virtual libraries are much smaller, because the resources included are selected very carefully. The people who organize virtual libraries are usually on the lookout for three major types of information: subject guides, reference works, and specialized databases.

Activity Finding Resources in a Virtual Library

Overview

We'll use the Internet Public Library (IPL), a virtual library maintained by librarians at the University of Michigan to find the answer to a typical reference question: "What is the population of Egypt?"

The IPL is organized much like a traditional library. It has a reference section, a youth section, and many others. If you can't find what you're looking for, you can submit the question to a real librarian who will email the answer back to you. You can browse the IPL or search its contents. Browsing is the easiest way to find information, however, because the search tool doesn't search the contents of the resources, only the titles of the resources and annotations attached to them.

In this activity, we'll first browse the IPL by subject. Because we're trying to find an answer to a reference question, we'll open the Reference Collection. Then we'll go to the Geography section, as the population of Egypt would likely be found in a geographic resource. We'll also open a reference work and look for the statistic we want by using the Find option of the browser. After this, we'll show how to perform a keyword search in order to demonstrate the difference between searching and browsing in the IPL. We'll follow these steps:

Go to the home page for the Internet Public Library.
Open the Reference Collection.
Browse the Reference Collection.
Open the CIA World Factbook.
Find the population of Egypt.
Search the Reference Collection.
Browse the results of the search.
End the session.

You'll see how quickly we can find not only the population of Egypt, but also other current information about that country. Let's get started!

Details

1 Go to the home page for the Internet Public Library. (We're assuming your Web browser is already started.)

Use the mouse to point to the location field and click the (left) mouse button.

Type www.ipl.org in the location field and press Enter.

2 Open the Reference Collection.

First, click on Reference under the Collections heading.

3 Browse the Reference Collection.

After the window, move down the list of subdivisions in the Reference section.

Click on Geography.

Why geography? This is the most logical subcategory to look under to find information on population. After your screen fills, scroll down the list to find the most appropriate source that would contain the answer to this question. By reading the annotations attached to the reference sources, we determine that CIA World Factbook would be a good choice, because it provides "quick facts on countries of the world." CIA World Factbook, authored and published by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, is updated annually. It's also available in printed form.

4 Open CIA World Factbook.

Click on CIA World Factbook

The information is separated into several categories. We'll go to the Country Listing as it seems to be the most direct route to information about Egypt.

Click on the Country Listing .

Now you'll be asked to click on the first letter of the country's name.

Click on E.
Click on Egypt.

5. Find the population of Egypt.

You could scroll down through the chapter on Egypt until you found population and other demographic statistics in the People section. A more direct way is to click on the button labeled People.

Click on People.

This will take you right to the statistic you want.

6 Search the Reference Collection.

Now we'll show you how to search the Internet Public Library. We're going to type in the word Egypt first.

Click on Back in the toolbar at the top of your screen until you are at the page that lists the resources in Geography.

At the bottom of the page, there is a form that you can use to do a search. You'll be searching only those Web pages in the IPL's Reference Collection.

Type in the word Egypt in the form provided. Click Search.

The search tool responds with some Web pages, but none of them is CIA World Factbook.

Highlight Egypt and try typing in populations. Click Search.

We may be tempted to type in population (without an s at the end), but if we go back and look at the annotation for CIA World Factbook, we notice that the word used is populations, not population.

7 Browse the results of the search.

The search tool responds with a collection of URLs that may be useful. Move down the list until you notice CIA World Factbook.

8 End the session.

Searching the World Wide Web: Using Search Engines

Search engines are tools that use computer programs called spiders and robots to gather information automatically on the Internet. With this information, they create a database. Each of the major search engines attempts to do the same thing-namely, index the entire Web-so they handle a huge amount of data.

There are advantages to computer-generated databases. They are frequently updated, give access to very large collections, and provide the most comprehensive search results. If you are looking for a specific concept or phrase, a search engine is the best place to start. And you would be smart to look in more than one, because each engine gives different results.

Some of the most popular search engines are in our annotated list of selected search tools.

Finding databases on the World Wide Web.

If you want to look for other databases on the World Wide Web, or want to keep up-to-date with the new ones that have been added, there are two excellent places to go:

Librarians' Index to the Internet
Direct Search

Both of these sites provide access to many search engines and are usually referred to as meta-search tools, or more specifically, all-in-one search tools.

Search Engine Similarities

All of the major search engines are similar in that you enter keywords, phrases, or proper names in a search form. After you click on search, submit, seek, or some other command button, the database returns a collection of hyperlinks to your screen.

The database usually lists them according to their relevance to the keyword(s) you typed in, from most to least relevant. Search engines determine relevance in different ways.

All search engines have online help to acquaint you with their search options. Two common search options that most search engines support are Boolean searching and phrase searching. We will briefly discuss these two options below.

Boolean Operators

The Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT.

The use of AND placed between keywords in your search expression will narrow the search results.

For example, hiking AND camping would narrow your search so that you would receive only those sites that have both the words hiking and camping in them.

Placing an OR between keywords broadens your search results.

For example, hiking OR camping would retrieve those sites that have either the word hiking or the word camping in them.

The NOT operator will also narrow the search.

For example, hiking NOT camping would narrow your search so you would get all hiking, but not camping.

In some search engines, if nothing is typed between two words, you can assume an OR is between them. This is what we'd refer to as a default setting.

In order to override this setting, you'd either have to type AND between the words or put a + before both words.

Here are a couple of links to other Web pages dealing with Boolean expressions:

Phrase Searching

Searching by phrase guarantees that the words you type in will appear adjacent to each other, in the order you typed them.
Let's say you are searching for information on global warming. If you typed in the two words global warming separated by a space, the system you're using may assume that you are in effect saying global AND warming, or in some cases (depending on the search engine), global OR warming. Your search results would not be very precise, because the words global and warming could appear separately from each other throughout the document.
Most search engines support phrase searching, requiring the use of double quotation marks around the phrase. We would type "global warming" in our example.

Search Engine Differences

The major search engines differ in the following ways:

Size of the index.

Search options (many search engines support the same options but require you to use different syntax in order to initiate them).

Speed.

Update frequency.

Relevance of the search results.

Overall ease of use.

It is important to know these differences, because in order to do an exhaustive search of the World Wide Web, you must be familiar with the different search tools. You cannot rely on a single search engine to satisfy every query.

Activity Using Boolean Search Operators

Overview

Let's try to find Web pages on recycling plastic products. We'll use a search engine to find more specific information, specifically about the recycling of plastics.

We'll use the search engine WebCrawler, which was one of the first to appear on the Web. To start, we will type in the keywords we want the Web pages to include. We'll examine the results and then check the help screen to find out how WebCrawler handles advanced search options. Then we'll do the search again using Boolean operators. We'll note how our search results were narrowed in size and how the contents of the pages were more relevant.

We'll follow these steps:

Go to the home page for WebCrawler.

Type in keywords and start the search.

Examine the search results.

Consult search help.

Modify the search by typing in a new search expression.

Examine the results.

End the session.

Ready? Let's start the engine!

Details

1 Go to the home page for WebCrawler. (We're assuming your Web browser is already started.)

Use the mouse to point to the location field and click the (left) mouse button.

Type http://www.webcrawler.com in the location field and press Enter.

2 Type in keywords and start the search.

Type the keywords recycling plastic products in the search form next to Search.
Now click on the Search button.

3 Examine the search results.

Notice the large number of hyperlinks retrieved by WebCrawler. They are listed according to their relevance to the search query, from most relevant to least relevant. After scrolling down and checking out some of the Web pages retrieved by this search, we start to think of other possibilities. What if there are some perfect hyperlinks out there that use the word plastics instead of plastic? How would we construct a search so we would get Web pages that included the words recycling and products and plastics or plastic? We're identifying the need to use Boolean operators, and we need to know whether WebCrawler supports Boolean searching. We hope that by using Boolean operators, we'll retrieve not only more relevant results but also fewer results. We could most easily find out whether WebCrawler supports Boolean searching by accessing its online help.

4 Consult search help.

Click on the help button.

A partial list of the search help topics appears.

Click on Advanced Searching.

We discover that WebCrawler does support Boolean searching. We can use AND, OR, and NOT. Farther down on the "Advanced Searching" page, we also learn that if there are ANDs and ORs in one search statement, then parentheses must be used to guarantee good search results.

Click on the WebCrawler icon at the top left of the screen.

You should now be back on the WebCrawler home page.

5 Modify the search by typing in a new search expression.

Type recycling and products and (plastic or plastics).

This search expression will retrieve hyperlinks to those sites that have the words recycling AND products (must have both words) AND plastic OR plastics (must have either one).

Click on Search.

6 Examine the results.

Take a few minutes and explore the first Web pages retrieved. Notice that we received significantly fewer results by using the Boolean search operators.

To read the summaries or annotations of the Web pages, click on summaries.

Note that you can also click on Similar Pages at the end of each annotation. This will lead you to other pages that are related to this particular page.

7. End the session.

Wasn't that easy?

Activity Using Phrase Searching to Find Information

Overview

In this activity, we will open InfoSeek and look at the online help before we begin searching. We will type in the phrase decompression sickness and then narrow the results to those which have the term symptoms included. We'll use the syntax that is particular to InfoSeek, and we will examine the results. We'll have you bookmark the best site we find so that you can start building your own reference library. We'll follow these steps:

Go to the home page for InfoSeek

Read the help pages in InfoSeek

Use the search form provided and type in a search expression.

Search the results by adding another term.

Examine the results and click on a hyperlink that appears to have the information you need.

Add the Web page to your Bookmark or Favorites list.

End the session.

Once you see how easy it is to find an answer to a reference question on the World Wide Web, you may never want to comb through newspapers or journals again. And after you make a bookmark to the site that provides the answer, you'll be able to flip to the information whenever you need it in a few seconds. Let's go find it!

Details

1 Go to the home page for InfoSeek

Use the mouse to point to the location field and click the (left) mouse button.

http://infoseek.go.com

2 Read the help pages in InfoSeek

Click on How to Search

After your screen fills, click on Using search operators. Scroll down until you see the section titled Phrase search.

3 Use the search form provided and type in a search expression.

close window

+"decompression sickness"

Find

4 Search the results by adding another term.

You can add terms to the search using the form at the top of the results page.

Type symptoms in the search form provided and click on the radio button next to Search within results and click on Find.

5 Examine the results and click on a hyperlink that appears to have the information you need.

Click on a relevant Web page (in our case, DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS (Caisson Disease; "The Bends")

6 Add the result to your Bookmark or Favorites List

After finding this informative Web page, you may want to locate it again quickly.

7 End the session.

Click on File in the menu bar and select Exit from the menu.

Using Several Search Engines Simultaneously: Meta-search Tools

We have mentioned the importance of looking in more than one search engine when trying to find relevant Web pages. Each search engine varies in size, indexing structure, update frequency, and search options. It can be confusing and time consuming to do your search in several databases, especially if you have to keep track of all of their differences.

To solve some of these problems, database providers have come up with meta-search tools. If meta-search tools allow you to use several search engines simultaneously, they are often called parallel search tools or unified search interfaces. Instead of building their own databases, meta-search tools use the major search engines and directories that already exist on the Internet and provide the user with search forms or interfaces for submitting queries to these search tools. Simply by submitting a query, the meta-search tool collects the most relevant sites in each database and sends them to the screen. Some sites merely list World Wide Web search tools with their search forms so you can search one at a time. These are called all-in-one search tools. Check our annotated list of popular meta-search tools.

It can be interesting to do a search in one of these meta-search tools and to notice what different hyperlinks the various search engines return to you. What is most relevant in one database is not considered as relevant in another. The following example will illustrate how a meta-search tool performs a search in several databases at once. We'll discover how and when these tools can be useful.

Activity Using a Meta-search Tool to Find Information

Overview

We'll be using Dogpile, a meta-search tool that includes not only the major Web search indexes and directories, but also indexes of Usenet news, people, entertainment, and other databases. Some of the search tools Dogpile searches are AltaVista, Lycos, InfoSeek, Open Directory, Deja.com, and Yahoo!

In this activity, we'll try to find information on campaign contributions to congressional candidates in the last national election. We want to keep the search simple, because we will be searching several databases at once, and meta-search engines have difficulty performing complicated searches in more than one database at a time. We will be typing in the words congressional campaign contributions.

We will take the following steps:

Go to the home page for Dogpile.

Type the search expression in the search form.

Follow some of the hyperlinks returned by the databases.

Bookmark the Web page or add it to the list of favorites.

End the session.

Details

1 Go to the home page for Dogpile.

Type http://www.dogpile.com in the location field and press Enter.

2 Type the search expression in the search form.

Before typing a search expression, it's always a good idea to check the help page of the tool you're using. By clicking on Help, located on the lower left side of the page, we find out that you can use quotes and parentheses and other search features but that since not all search tools support each feature, they will be automatically removed in those tools that don't support them. We also find out that the Dogpile search tool searches three search engines at a time. If Dogpile doesn't get at least ten documents matching your search request, it will automatically move to the next three and so on until ten matches are found.

congressional campaign contributions

Click on Fetch to start your search.

3 Follow some of the hyperlinks returned by the databases.

After you submit your search expression Dogpile, results from two or three databases will come back and fill your screen. In our case, the two are GoTo.com and the Dogpile Web Catalog. You may notice that your search brought back results from different databases. Look at the results that the services found for you. Notice that the Web pages that GoTo.com brought to your screen aren't the same ones that the other service generated. This proves that the search services have different ways of determining the relevance of documents that search tools find.

After looking at the results, we decide that the most promising one is on the GoTo.com list. You'll need to scroll down a bit to find it. It is the home page of the Federal Election Commission. If you don't find this Web page, click on another one that looks promising. Take a look at this Web page. If you click on Campaign Finance Reports and Data you'll find lots of information about campaign finances for members of Congress.

4 Bookmark the Web page or add it to the list of favorites.

After you've looked through the initial search results that Dogpile returned, you could then ask the service to search more databases. They are listed at the bottom of the results screen. At this point, feel free to see what the other search engines have to offer, or go back to the earlier results (by clicking on the Back icon in the toolbar) and check out other Web pages that look interesting. Note that you can also search through Usenet archives.

Search Strategies

With all the different types of tools available for your research and searching needs it's useful to think about which are best for specific types of needs. Hers are some links to resources ont he Web that address that issue.

Topics

Using Directories	Finding Information Gems in Virtual Libraries
Searching the World Wide Web: Using Search Engines	Using Several Search Engines Simultaneously: Meta-search Tools
Search Strategies

Activities

Using a Directory to Browse for Information & an introduction to bookmarks/favorites	Finding Resources in a Virtual Library
Using Boolean Search Operators	Using Phrase Searching to Find Information
Using a Meta-search Tool to Find Information