The Web is not like a library
| in the Library... |
on the Web... |
| ...most material has
been published, so it has been evaluated, reviewed and corrected by editorial
boards. |
...most material does not have to go through
a publication process, so there may be errors or outright misinformation. |
| ...everything was evaluated and selected
by librarians. |
...some domains and websites have selection
standards and others do not. |
| ...every item has a record, and the records
have standard subject headings. |
...there are no complete indexes and no
standard subject headings. You can't even search for author or title
of web pages. |
| ...you can do the same search over and over,
and you'll get the same results. |
...the amount and contents of your search
results will be different depending on the search engine you use. |
| ...once an item
is in the library, it doesn't change. |
...pages can be changed overnight, so the
information you quote one day may not be there the next. |
Learn to use the best of the Web
You wouldn't just walk into a library and start
randomly looking at books, would you? Same thing with the Web!
Using the Web for research requires some of the same skills and planning
that you use in the library.
RESEARCH SKILL: Use reference
sources to get an overview of your topic and to see how the information
is organized.
In a library, you might start with an encyclopedia
or a specialized bibliography. The web also has reference sources:
-
Ready reference sources (quick look-up tools)
-
for example: IPL
Reference http://www.ipl.org/ref/RR/
-
Indexes to journal articles
-
for example: Access
Michigan databases http://mel.org/databasesubjects.html
-
Bibliographies
-
for example: National
Election Studies Bibliography http://www.umich.edu/~nes/resources/biblio/bibintro.htm
-
Research guides and compiled sources pages
-
for example: Turkey
Resource Guide http://www.emunix.emich.edu/~lklopfer/html/turkeymain.html
-
Web directories
-
for example: Google
Directory http://directory.google.com/
-
Online books
-
for example: BUBL
list of online books http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/types/books.htm
RESEARCH SKILL: U.S.
Government on the web - an underused treasure trove of reliable information!
In a library, many people shy away from U.S.
Government documents because they seem difficult to use. No
longer! The U.S. Government has created some of the best Web resources
available.
U.S. Government Web pages have URLs that
end in .gov, such as the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress
(http://memory.loc.gov/), or Nutrition.Gov
(http://www.nutrition.gov/home/index.php3)
which is an informaton source provided by a number of different agencies
of the Federal Government.
State Government Web page URLs usually end
in .gov, but sometimes they end in .org or .mi.us, such as the Michigan
Legislature (http://www.michiganlegislature.org/),
or the Department of Transportation (http://www.mdot.state.mi.us).
U.S. Government Starting Places:
Michigan Government Starting Places:
-
Michigan
Electronic Library (MEL) http://mel.lib.mi.us/government/GOV-index.html
-
Michigan.gov
State Websites http://www.michigan.gov/gov/1,1431,7-103----A,00.html
-
UM
State and Local Government on the Web http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/mich.html
RESEARCH SKILL: Use search
syntax to improve Web searches
Search engines can never get a complete grasp
of the Web, but you can force them to produce better results with a few
basic search tricks. For example, search for school
psychologist,and you'll get Web pages
that have both words in them, but in different locations; but if
you force the search engine to search for the phrase "school
psychologist" you'll get pages which
only contain the phrase. Similarly, some search engines will
let you limit your searches to particular domains, or to particular kinds
of files.
Search
Engine Watch is a commercial site with useful information on mastering
search engines: http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/index.html
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