WEEK FOUR – Lecture
This week, there
will not be any homework – instead, I will hand out a take-home quiz. I expect
you to complete the quiz and email the answers to me at birdesq@ix.netcom.com. Please note, that at the bottom of your quiz
I have listed an Internet site which I hope will help you while you are
considering your end-of-the-term presentation.
I am going to go
around the room and ask for a brief description of the topic you have chosen
for your presentation.
Tonight we will
compare search engines, directories, meta-engines, spiders,
indexes, and virtual libraries.
As we discussed
the first week, the Web is a section of the Internet through which you can send
e-mails, hear music, and watch animations. Anyone can use, or misuse, the Web.
What this means
to you is that when you locate what you feel is a “terrific” site, with earth-shattering
information – take a deep breath – and think about what you are reading, and
try to analyze the source of the information.
You’ll find
hints – such as: a “designed by” or year, or corporation’s name at the bottom
of the page. Reread the page to see if what you are reading is really
informative or is an advertisement – is it advocating a certain political,
religious, or legal position? Look at the construction of the URL.
Just as you
would not believe the news-worthiness of every headline in newspapers you read
while on a check-out line – don’t be naive when reading a Web page – even if it
has beautiful graphics – it still may not be giving to the whole truth.
Later in the
course, we will conduct some exercises where we will evaluate some Web pages,
but, for now – let’s talk about just finding the pages you will need for your
class project. – REMEMBER – finding is not evaluating!!!
Use
Synonyms, Homonyms, and misspelled words
Keep in mind that the computer only knows
what you type, not what you are thinking:
Bat - can mean either baseball bat
or the furry rodent
Car
and Automobile mean generally the same thing
Different
areas in the United States (and in the world) use a variety of terms to
describe things. For example, In
England
the word Holiday is used instead of Vacation, and lift instead of elevator; a
sandwich could be a hero or
a
sub, some say soda – others say pop.
Case
Sensitivity
Most search engines are case sensitive:
If
you search for cars - most Search Tools will look for cars, Cars, CARS
BUT,
If
you capitalize the first letter, most Search Tools will look for Cars, CARS,
but won't look for words
If
you search for CARS - most Search Tools will look for CARS and not look for
cars or Cars
This
can be very helpful when you're searching for proper nouns such as: Washington
Senators, United Nations, etc.
DIRECTORIES: Anyone can design and maintain a
directory. List of categories that you have to “drill” through. The categories
become more and more narrow as you continue to drill.
INDEXES: Most often are designed and maintained
by librarians. Indexes give the most reliable information.
BOOKMARKING
SEARCH RESULTS: If you do a search and it brings you back
results that you like – bookmark the results. Then, if you have to do the
search again, or if you can’t finish going through the results, you can go back
to where you left off.