Finding Web sites

The World Wide Web is a terrific resource for finding information on some topics, but may be inappropriate for others. When you have an assignment, be sure to ask your professor what types of resources you may use.

This page will discuss the information you can and can't get on the Web, and offer some tips for searching and navigating. Other Library pages offer links to Internet search engines and advice on evaluating the information you find on the Web.

Happy Searching!

Contents: Why use the World Wide Web? What you (usually) can't find on the Web Top ways to find relevant Web sites Hints and tips for searching the Web Just for fun

Why use the World Wide Web?

The Web is one of the favorite Internet services used by people today. Some of its many features include long-distance communication, remote searching, hyperlinked pages, and the availability of music, pictures, video, and text documents.

There are many millions of pages and documents on the Web. It is especially helpful in finding:

Information provided by state, federal and international government Facts, statistics, reports, studies and other educational works News, current events and press releases Information on organizations, educational institutions, and companies Selected electronic journals, texts and books out of copyright Reference works, such as encyclopedias, directories and dictionaries

Unlike a library, where the resources are carefully selected for quality and organized by subject, the Web makes available a variety of information sources. The quality of these sources will vary widely. It is your responsibility as a student and researcher to determine if the Web is a good place to find information on a topic, or to assess the quality of a particular Web source. Read more about evaluating Web sources below.

What you (usually) can’t find on the Web

Periodical articles

Using the Web, you can frequently find current news stories and a few scholarly articles. Generally speaking, the majority of articles published in newspapers, journals and magazines are not available to the average Web user. Sure, you may find references to these items and even complete citations, but unless you are using an index or database to which the CSC Library subscribes, you will usually not find the full text of these articles. The Library pays yearly fees to access journal articles for use by our students, faculty and staff.

Books

Generally speaking, you will not find the full text of books on the Web. Yes, Google Book Search allows you to retrieve many books that can be read or downloaded. Most of these books are older and out of copyright, while some of them have been published on the Web with the permission of the publisher. These are exceptions rather than rules. Most of the books found by way of Google Book Search must be ordered (from a publisher or bookseller) or borrowed from a library.

The CSC Library does “own” many books that are available online to our community, again, on a subscription basis. You can identify these books using CLICnet, the online catalogs of the ACTC private college consortium. (Read more about e-books.)

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Top ways to locate relevant Web sites

• Use a search engine such as Google, Alta Vista or InfoSeek. Learn how to enter searches most effectively and how to use the advanced search features to filter out unwanted results.
• Use a subject index or directory such as Yahoo!
• Visit the Blackboard site for your course and check the syllabus or “External Links” area for sites recommended by your professor.
• Visit the homepage of your department. They may list good sites for your field.
• Visit the subject guides on the Library’s Web site. Librarians search and collect sites that our students may find useful.
• Visit the homepage of a professional or research organization that ties to your topic. They may link to research findings, publications or other Web sites on the topic.
• Follow the links from one reputable Web site to another. Look for language such as “Resources” or “Research.”
• Look for Web sites in the text or on the reference lists of journal articles. Authors often include the URLs of Web sites they use.

Hints and tips for searching the Web

By improving your skills as a Web searcher, you will increase the likelihood of finding relevant information -- and save yourself a lot of the time it takes to shift through unwanted, commercially-oriented pages.

Here are some search tips when using Google and other search engines:

• Learn about how your search engine works. When you enter searches, does it combine the terms using AND? OR? SearchEngineWatch is a site where you can find comparisons of search engines and info on search techniques.
• Focus on nouns as keywords. Using terms such as "causes," effects," and "trends" are not as effective.
• Use enough keywords to zero in on your topic. Find out if there a limit to how many terms can bel searched -- Google searches ten terms and ignores the rest.
• Think of synonyms for your term; put them in parentheses and join them using OR. For example, (hispanic OR latino)
• Put phrases in quotation marks. For example, "campaign finance reform"
• List your most important term first.
• Use the Advanced Search option when you can. This will often allow you to apply certain limits, such as specifying or eliminating certain domains (eliminating the .com results will help keep commercial sites from appearing in your results lists).
• Advanced search will also allow you to search for terms in different areas of the Web page. A term that appears in the title of the page is usually highly relevant to your topic.

How are your Web searching skills? Take a quiz and find out! Links to the answers are at the bottom of each quiz. Even experts can learn new skills!

How to evaluate the Web sites you have found

Found some Web pages that look good? Great!! Your job as a scholar is only partially done, though, since you now now need to carefully select those that you will use in your paper.

Unlike journal articles and books that go through an editorial process and possibly peer review, just about anyone with a computer can publish a Web site. Read now about how to evaluate and select the Web pages you will use.

Just for fun....

What have you learned about evaluative criteria that you can apply to the pages linked below?
Would you use any of them as sources in a paper? Why or why not?

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