The Information Specialist's Guide to Searching and Researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web

Ernest Ackermann, Karen Hartman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781579582890
• eBook ISBN: 9781135967055
• Topic: Filología
• Subtopic: Biblioteconomía y ciencia de la información

Written by a professor of computer science and a reference librarian, this guide covers basic browser usage, e-mail, and discussion groups; discusses such Internet staples as FTP and Usenet newsgroups; presents and compares numerous search engines; and includes models for acquiring, evaluating, and citing resources within the context of a research project. The emphasis of the book is on learning how to create search strategies and search expressions, how to evaluate information critically, and how to cite resources. All of these skills are presented as within the context of step-by-step activities designed to teach basic Internet research skills to the beginner and to hone the skills of the seasoned practitioner.

1

Chapter

Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web

Every day millions of people around the world use their computers to access the information on the Internet that makes up the World Wide Web. They search for and retrieve information on all sorts of topics in a wide variety of areas. The information can appear in a variety of digital formats, such as text, images, audio, or video. Individuals, companies, research labs, libraries, news organizations, television networks, governments, and other organizations all make resources available. People communicate with each other using electronic mail; they share information and make commercial and business transactions. All this activity is possible because tens of thousands of networks are connected to the Internet and exchange information in the same basic ways. The World Wide Web (WWW) is part of the Internet, but it’s not a collection of networks. Rather, it’s the information that is connected or linked in a sort of web. Never before has so much information from such a wide variety of sources and in so many formats been available to the public.

Using a Web browser—the computer program or software that lets you access the World Wide Web—you can find information on almost any topic with just a few clicks of your mouse button. Some of the resources on the Web have been classified into directories that you can easily browse by going from one category to another. Several search tools (programs that search the Web for resources) are readily available. When you type a keyword or phrase into a form and click on a button or icon on the screen, a list of items appears in the browser’s window. You simply click on the ones you want to retrieve. The amount and variety of information available are astounding, but it’s sometimes difficult to find appropriate material.

This chapter covers some of the basic information and concepts you need to begin finding information on the World Wide Web. The sections in this chapter are as follows:

* The World Wide Web as an Information Resource

* Hypertext and Hypermedia

* Key Terms and Concepts

* Information Sources Available on the Web

About This Book

This book is designed to help anyone who uses the World Wide Web and the Internet to find information or research a topic. We’ll cover the tools and methods with which you search for resources on the WWW, and we will explain how to access and use those tools. We’ll go over the methods and techniques to use so you can be effective and efficient in your searching and researching. We’ll also talk about how to evaluate and cite resources within the context of a research project. The text and activities are designed to give you the experience you need to tap the cornucopia of information on the Web, find the resources you want, and—just as important—evaluate the material you’ve found.

Each of the chapters contains at least one detailed activity in which you work with a Web browser to access information on the World Wide Web. These activities demonstrate concepts and techniques. As you read the activities and follow along, you’ll receive step-by-step instructions for working with the World Wide Web. Remember, though, that these activities reflect the WWW at the time of writing. Because some things change frequently, they may not appear to you on your screen as they do in this book. The Web and the Internet are constantly changing, but don’t let that hold you back. Be persistent and use your skills to work in this important environment. Change is one of the things that make the Internet and the World Wide Web exciting, vigorous, and useful.

At the end of each chapter, we provide a chapter summary and a list of terms. The terms are defined in the chapter and also appear in the glossary at the back of the book.

Click and Double-Click

We’ll be using the term click on regularly. To click on something, you use a mouse to point to it and then press the mouse button. If your mouse has two buttons, press on the left button. The left button is also called the primary mouse button, and the right button is called the secondary mouse button. To double-click, press the (left) button twice in rapid succession without moving the mouse.

This book assumes you have Microsoft Windows. If you’re in another windowed environment, on a workstation that uses X Windows, or on a Macintosh, you’ll find that most of the instructions are the same.

The World Wide Web as an Information Resource

You can think of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a large collection of information that’s accessible through the Internet. The Internet is a collection of tens of thousands of computer networks that exchange information according to some agreed-upon, uniform rules or protocols. Because of this uniformity, a computer connected to one of the Internet’s networks can transport text and images and display them on a computer connected to another part of the Internet.

Whether you’ve worked on the Web before or not, you’ll be pleased with how easy it is to use. It’s also enticing. The World Wide Web gives a uniform means of accessing all the different types of information on the Internet. Since you only need to know one way to get information, you can concentrate on what you want, not on how to obtain it. The Internet is commonly used throughout the world, so there is easy and relatively quick access to information on a global scale. That alone is remarkable, but it gets better. The information on the Web is often in a multimedia format called a Web page, which may combine text, images, audio, or video. This format lets us take advantage of modern computers’ multimedia capabilities. A Web page can also contain links to other resources or information on the World Wide Web. This is why it’s called a web: one page contains links to another, and that one contains links to another, and so on. Since the information can be anywhere in the world, the term World Wide Web is most appropriate.

Tim Berners-Lee, credited with the concept of the WWW, made the following statement in the document “About The World Wide Web”: “The World Wide Web (known as ‘WWW’, ‘Web’ or ‘W3’) is the universe of network-accessible information, the embodiment of human knowledge.” (By the way, you can find that document on the WWW b...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web
• 2 Browser Essentials Surveying a Browser’s Features
• 3 Managing and Using Information from the Internet and the Web
• 4 Using the World Wide Web for Research
• 5 Directories and Virtual Libraries
• 6 Search Strategies for Search Engines
• 7 Using Search Engines
• 8 Specialized Databases
• 9 Searching Library Catalogs
• 10 FTP: Searching Archives, Downloading Files
• 11 Finding Email Addresses, Phone Numbers, and Maps
• 12 Searching Email Discussion Group Archives and Usenet Newsgroup Archives
• 13 Evaluating Information Found on the WWW
• 14 Citing Web and Internet Resources
• 15 Putting It All Together: A Sample Research Project
• Appendix A Annotated List of Selected Search Tools
• Appendix B Selected Directories
• Appendix C Virtual Libraries
• Appendix D Ways to Stay Current
• Appendix E Privacy and Security on the Internet and the Web
• Glossary
• Index