Digital Literacy

1. Constructing the search - Answering your research question

Brainstorming or webbing words or ideas is a great way to start.

Write down general ideas and subject areas. Determine exactly what it is you want to be find and jot down terms to either narrow or broaden your search. Once you have decided exactly what you want to find out you can develop a "Search String," exactly what you are going to type into the search field. You might want to think about keywords you would use to broaden (make more general) or narrow (make more specific) your search.

Rules to remember when developing your search string:

Assignment #1 - complete the boxes on your sheet.

2. Where to look -

Index or Subject/Topic Search Engines/Subject Directories: Best used for browsing subjects and finding quality web sites.

Internet Public Library, Librarians' Index to the Internet, and Open Directory

Someone has searched the Internet, located the resources, evaluated them and classified them. Although these give you only a handful of sites, subject directories are a good place to start.

Word or Database Search Engines: Best used for finding specific sites or specific information.

AltaVista and Google

These use software called bots or spiders that follow links from page to page, indexing all or part of the contents of each page as they go, gathering words and collecting them into a database. These indexes can be searched. When you search using a search engine, you are not searching the web - you are searching the index of web pages collected containing the same string of characters you have just typed in.The documents are retrieved randomly and are not organized. For more information regarding how different search engines work look at Search Engine Watch.

Hints: Use more than one when searching, look at the advanced option for searching, if you don't find something within the first 25 hits you need to broaden or narrow your search.

Combination or Meta-search Engines: Best used for comparing results from different search engines and directories.

Metacrawler, DogPile, HotBot and Search.com

These do not create or reference any databases, they simply combine the searches of many different search engines so that you get more of a sampling of information. Note which particular search engines each use.

Portals: Best used for finding the most popular types of information (weather, stocks, entertainment, etc.)

Yahoo!, Excite, and Lycos

Portals attempt to provide everything you could possibly need so you don't go anywhere else. The advertisers are counting on this. Portals are designed for the general public not for academic searching. Most include a basic search engine as well as a search directory.

Deep Web: The Invisible Web Information stored in searchable databases for non-textual information. These databases usually search a targeted topic. These files are usually in pdf format (printable document format). Many search engines have separate options for locating these files. Some databases can be found at Invisibleweb.

Interesting Sites: Kartoo.com, Quintura, KidsClick!, and SurfWax. Kartoo and Quintura use webbing to relate different subject areas, KidsClick is organized using the Dewey Decimal System. SurfWax is org

Assigned Web Site: CIA factbook

Subscription databases:

             Facts on File – lasallehigh/falcon                        Gale databases - lasalle
                        → World News Digest                                    → Global Issues in Context
                              → Country Profiles                                         → Country

3. How to evaluate the tons of information you find:

Remember the following:

Anyone can publish anything on the web.
A complete list of Web sites does not exist.
There are no offical organizers or evaluators for information on the web.
Sites constantly change: sites appear and disappear.
There are no standards for Web search tools.
Never assume that it is faster to use the web, that the information is more current on the web, or that the information is reliable.

Look for Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency, and Coverage.

Assignment 2

Site for all to evaluate: The Pacific Northwest Octopus or Google Job Opportunities

Assignment 3

Searching - follow the directions on the Search Process.

5. Citing source from the Internet - MLA

Note:When creating a works cited page always list entries alphabetically and double-spaced. Do not number the entries. The first line of each entry is flush with the left margin and each line after that is indented five spaces. Do not put a period after the Access Date or the name of a periodical. Underline titles. Abbreviate all months except May, June and July.