Unit 5 Alternative Resources Search Tips

Pre-Search Activities	ask yourself what type of information you need - general vs specific, scholarly vs popular, brief vs in-depth, current vs historical develop a list of key words or synonyms related to your topic establish off-campus access connection using your NVCC student user identification and password visit your online environment and identify a few reference sources to begin your search
Search Techniques	Every search tool is different, but these represent basic guidelines: read help screens before you search to better understand search syntax procedures identify default search method type in lower case unless you need an exact match verify spelling accuracy double quotation marks group words as a phrase, be specific keep phrase short, simple, and unique avoid stop words "in" "at" "the" "a", check help for more use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) or other symbols (+,-)to connect phrases review advanced help features to nest statements, truncate, limit search by source/date/ file type or combine ideas use more than one search tool
Gateway Sites	Gateway or portal sites offer links that have been reviewed and evaluated by information professionals and subject specialists. Advantages of using a gateway site are: fast access to to active,quality sites sites organized by subject or category sites have been evaluated Disadvantages of using a gateway site are: site might not contain the information you need sites are limited to prior selection search is too restrictive
Direct Method	Entering Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) The advantages to this method are: if you found the site within a gateway site, it has been reviewed and evaluated for inclusion you go directly to a site you heard or read about you know the site is of interest to you because you selected it The disadvantages to this method are: you find a very limited amount of what might be available the site may be so popular that you cannot get access you may reach a "dead-end" if the address for the site changes, the site has changed its content or the site is no longer active
Subject Directory Method	Internet-based subject directories offer the best starting point for Internet resources if you have only a vague idea of what you want, or you are more interested in "surfing" the Internet for what is new or what is on the world wide web in a limited number of categories. The advantages to this method are: helps users to browse broad topic areas: arts & humanities, business & economy, recreation & sports, society & culture, health, and entertainment browsing subject categories assists users in finding ideas and terminology for more in-depth searching menu-guided searches provides links to other search engines if the directory has no information on your topic The disadvantages to this method are: there is no control or uniformity on how a web page is categorized, subject directories typically index a relatively low number of selected Internet sites compared to the millions of sites indexed by comprehensive search engines such as Alta Vista, Excite, or HotBot, and subject directories are not well-suited for complex searches menu-guided searches can be frustrating for some users people-generated - individuals submit sites and other individuals approve inclusion of the site
Subject Directory Results	Users can expect to find the following types of information: top level sites for organizations general topics indices - lists of links commercial products current events
Search Engine Method	If you are looking for specific information on the world wide web, a search engine may be a better tool because the search engines are larger databases, and index more of the actual content of the web pages. The advantages of using a search engine are: user determines search terms sites are automatically generated using spiders, robots or worms answer very specific, focused questions results returned as a collection of hyperlinks The disadvantages of using a search engine are: the search often results in an overload of information the user must be familiar with the various advanced search options in order to structure the search so that only the most relevant web pages are located, and search engines take longer to work than subject directories or going directly to an Internet address
Search Engine Results	Users can expect to find: unique keywords combinations of unique keywords field searching and linking pages buried deep within a web site
Web Site Evaluation Checklist	Web Site Evaluation can be done by considering six issues: Authority - Can you determine who is responsible for the site? Is there an e-mail contact link? Purpose - Is the purpose of the site stated? For what audience is the site intended? Content - Is the information unique or a simply a collection of links? Is the information fact or opinion, how can you tell? Has the site received any awards for content? Bias/Objectivity - Use the URL to determine sponsorship (.gov - government, .edu -educational institution, .com-commercial, .mil-military, and .org-organization Currency - Look for date of last revision. Organization/Ease of Use - Was it easy for you to find information on the site? Do all the links work? Do the pages load quickly? Additional web evaluation tools may be found at the following site: How to Evaluate Information on the Web
Trouble Shooting	Problems you may encounter and solutions: Error 404 - host will not connect, unable to locate server, server doesn't have DNS entry SOLUTION - verify the URL; try again later site could be overloaded Host can no longer be found-file not found SOLUTION - delete URL after domain type and follow links from the root site For example: www.vatech.edu/jegan/horticulture/trees doesn't work, try www.vatech.edu and use the directory to find jegan too many or too few search results SOLUTION - refine search, try a different search tool gross irrelevancy - SOLUTION - review search syntax procedures in help section, watch for SPAM
Post Search Activities	did you find the information that you needed? what information do you still need to locate? what resources have you not yet tried? repeat the presearch activities and keep searching if you need assistance, consult a librarian