Using the Internet for Research
Key Steps in Using the Internet for Research
- Understand Your Question
- Choose the correct search tool for your question
- Construct a Search Statement
Links to More Information
Understand your Question
The first step in any search for information is to understand the nature of your query. Below are the basic three types of queries.
- Broad/Browse
- This type of query is the most unfocused. Typically, a searcher knows a little about his/her topic and needs to obtain more information and narrow the scope of their search. An example of this might be "I need to find information on Paris, France." (If you can narrow you search in multiple ways, in this case I could want to know about Paris hotels or Paris museums, etc., then you are doing a broad/browse type query.)
- Specific
- A specific query is very focused. The searcher has a very narrow topic and needs to find information on that. An example of this might be "I need to find the website for the Louvre Museum in Paris, France."
- Focused
- A target query is somewhat focused, though not as narrowly defined as a specific query. The searcher has narrowed their topic but not to the point that he or she is look for a specific person, place or thing. An example of this would be "I need to know all of the hotels in the 4th district of Paris."
Choose correct searching tool for your question
Once you determine what type of search you are performing, you need to choose the correct type of tool to do your search on. The three main types of tools for Internet searching are listed below.
Subject Directories
Subject Directories are a selected collection of links to Internet Resources organized into subject catagories. There are two different types of Subject Directories; Academic/Professional Directories and Commercial Portals. Academic/Professional Directories are created and maintained by subject experts and librarians. They meet the needs of researchers with high quality sites. Conversely, Commerical portals are for the general public. They emphasize, entertainment, commerce, and hobbies. Commercial Portals are not appropriate for research.
Note: Yahoo is not an appropriate source of information for research because it is a commercial portal, which does not select the sites it places in its directory.
When should I use a subject directory?
- When you have a broad topic or idea to research
- When you want a list of sites on your topic reccomended or annotated by experts
- When you do not want to view lots of irrelevant documents
Examples of Academic/Professional Subject Directories
Search Engines
Search engines are searchable databases of Internet files collected by a "spider" without selection criteria and indexed by title, full-text, size and URL.
Search engines can be individual search engines or "meta" search engines. The difference between these two is very simple. A meta-search engine searches multiple individual search engine indexes at once. In contast, an individual search engine searches only its index.
Examples of meta-search engines include:
Search engines are also divided into "first-generation" and "second generation" search technology. The main difference in these two is how they rank and/or group results.
"First-generation" search technology is machine mediated. Results are ranked "on the page"; the number of times a word appears in the document and where it appears, such as in the title, dictates how it is ranked. Documents where the search term appears repeatedly or in the title are ranked higher.
"Second-generation" search technology is human mediated and often meaning based. Often such systems use peer ranking (how many other sites link to a particular page), or concept clustering (results are grouped by concept). Because of their superior ranking strategies, "second-generation" search technology gives the user more relevant results. Most search engines today utilize some form of "second-generation" search technology.
When should I use a search engine?
- When you have a narrow or obscure topic or idea to research
- When you are looking for a specific site
- When you want to retrive particular document types
- When you want to search full-text of many pages
- when you want to retrieve large numbers of documents on your topic
Examples of search engines:
Deep Web
The deep web is made up of dynamic pages, non-textual file formats, and databases of information. It is often referred to as the "invisible web" because it is "invisible" to search engine spiders. Experts on the Internet estimate that the deep web may be 500 times larger than the indexable web.
Some deep web sites provide direct access to parts of the deep web allowing you to search databases. Others provide listings of deep web databases. In addition, databases that are part of the deep web can be accessed via directories.
When should I use the Deep Web?
- When you want dynamically changing content such as news, job postings, flight information, etc.
- When you want to find information normally stored in a database
Examples: - Phone listings
- Searchable collection of laws
- Geographical & company data
Examples of Deep Web resources
Note: Most good directories (LII, BUBL, Argus Clearinghouse) provide links to deep Web sites. In addition, some search egines offer deep Web content (AltaVista, and Google).
Construct a Search Statement
The final step in the search process is to construct a search statment. While each search engine has its own features, some common ground exists betwen search engines. Below are several tips to creating a good search statement.
Implied Boolean Logic
Most search engines use some form of Boolean logic. Typically, this is "implied Boolean logic". In "implied Boolean logic" use following:
- For the Boolean AND use +
- For the Boolean NOT use -
- For a Boolean OR simply place a space between the terms
Examples:
| Search Question | Query in Implied Boolean Logic |
|---|---|
| I need to find a website on cats and dogs. | cats + dogs |
| I need to find a site about cats not as pets | cats - pets |
| I need information about all felines. | felines cats |
If you do not understand the basics of Boolean logic, please read the Boolean Logic tutorial.
Quotation Marks
If you are searching for a phrase it is important to put the phrase you are searching for in quotation marks.
Example:
If you needed to find information on Yellowstone National Park. Then you would
enter "Yellowstone National Park" into the search engine.
Field Searching
Searching by fields can be used to narrow your result. Common fields include "title" and "site". For example if you want information on health education from US government website then you would execute the following search
"health education" + site:.gov
References and Links to More Information
For more in depth information on Using the Internet for Research and Internet Searching see the following:
- Casting your Net 2nd ed. (2001) H. Eric Branscomb
- This book provides excellent information to students on how to do research using the Internet.
- Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques
- This is an extensive tutorial on Internet Searching created by Laura Cohen, Network Services Librarian at SUNY Albany. I would reccomend all of the "Search the Internet" pages on the library site at SUNY Albany.
- The Spider's Apprentice
- This is a good site which explains how search engines work, how to create a search strategy, and analyzes some of the popular search engines.
- WebQuester: A Guidebook to the Web (2000) Robert Harris
- This book provides exercises and tutorials which teach readers how to search the web effectively.