Checklist of Internet Research Tips 1. The Internet is a self-publishing medium. It is not a library of evaluated publications selected by professionals. Rather, the Internet is a bulletin board containing everything from the definitive to the spurious. Everything must be analyzed for its appropriateness for research use. 2. Before you select a search tool, always think about your topic and what you are trying to find. Don't rely on a single site or type of site.
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3. Don't just Google everything! Google is great, but there are other useful tools on the Web, too. Google has become so popular that many people use this tool exclusively, and miss out on others that might be more useful for their particular search. 4. Three major resources for locating Internet materials are the subject directory, the search engine, and content on the deep Web. These are useful for different types of queries. Be sure you understand the differences.
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SUBJECT DIRECTORY For general, research oriented queries, involving an exploration of a topic, and when you want to view sites often recommended by experts, use a subject directory. Definition: A subject directory is a service that offers a collection of links to Internet resources submitted by site creators or evaluators and organized into subject categories. Directory services use selection criteria for choosing links to include, though the selectivity varies among services. Most directories are searchable.
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There are two basic types of directories: academic and professional directories often created and maintained by subject experts to support the needs of researchers, and directories contained on commercial portals that cater to the general public and are competing for traffic.
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Directories differ significantly in selectivity. Consider the policies of any directory that you visit. One challenge to this is the fact that not all directory services are willing to disclose either their policies or the names and qualifications of site reviewers. This is especially true of directories located on commercial portals.
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SEARCH ENGINES For targeted, multi-concept, and sometimes general queries, use a search engine. Definition: A search engine is a searchable database of Internet files collected by a computer program (called a wanderer, crawler, robot, worm, spider). Indexing is created from the collected files, e.g., title, full text, size, URL, etc. There is no selection criteria for the collection of files, though evaluation can be applied to the ranking of results.
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A search engine might well be called a search engine service or a search service. As such, it consists of three components: Spider: Program that traverses the Web from link to link, identifying and reading pages
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Index: Database containing a copy of each Web page gathered by the spider
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Search engine mechanism: Software that enables users to query the index and that usually returns results in relevancy ranked order
Google is a famous example of a search engine.
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DEEP WEB For targeted queries, when you are looking for non-textual information, use the DEEP WEB. Definition: The deep Web consists of information stored in searchable databases mounted on the Web. Information stored in these databases is accessible by user query. These databases usually search a targeted topic or aspect of a topic, though entire Web sites may be contained within a database. Search engine spiders cannot or will not index this information. The deep Web also consists of multimedia and image files, and files created in non-standard (non-HTML) file types such as Portable Document Format (PDF). Many search services offer separate search options for locating these files. AlltheWeb, AltaVista and MSN Search are just a few examples of services that offer specialized media searches, while Google integrates searches of PDF and other non-HTML files into its general search service.
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HOW THE USERS FIND INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET There are a number of basic ways to access information on the Internet: 1. Go directly to a site if you have the address 2. Browse 3. Explore a subject directory 4. Conduct a search using a Web search engine 5. Explore the information stored in live databases on the Web, known as the "deep Web" 6. Join an e-mail discussion group, Usenet newsgroup, forums, etc.
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Evaluating Internet Resources Purpose Audience Consider the intended audience of the page, based on its content, tone and style
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Does this mesh with your needs?
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Consider the Source Web search engines often amass vast results, from memos to scholarly documents
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Many of the resulting items will be peripheral or useless for your research
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Source
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Author/producer is identifiable
Author/producer has expertise on the subject as indicated on a credentials page. You may need to trace back in the URL (Internet address) to view a page in a higher directory with background information
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Sponsor/location of the site is appropriate to the material as shown in the URL
Examples: o .edu for educational or research material o .gov for government resources o .com for commercial products or commercially-sponsored sites
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~NAME in URL may mean a personal home page with no official sanction Mail-to link is offered for submission of questions or comments
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Content Accuracy Don't take the information presented at face value • Web sites are rarely refereed or reviewed, as are scholarly journals and books • Look for o point of view o evidence of bias
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Source of the information should be clearly stated, whether original or borrowed from elsewhere Comprehensiveness • Depth of information: determine if content covers a specific time period or aspect of the topic, or strives to be comprehensive • Use additional print and electronic sources to complement the information provided
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Currency • Look to see if o Site has been updated recently, as reflected in the date on the page o Material contained on the page is current
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Links • Links are relevant and appropriate Don't assume that the linked sites are the best available. Be sure to investigate additional sites on the topic
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Style and Functionality
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Site is laid out clearly and logically with well organized subsections Writing style is appropriate for the intended audience Site is easy to navigate, including Clearly labeled Back, Home, Go To Top icons/links Internal indexing links on lengthy pages Links to remote sites all work Search capability is offered if the site is extensive
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http://www.w3schools.com/html/ Introduction to HTML
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HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language An HTML file is a text file containing small markup tags The markup tags tell the Web browser how to display the page An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension An HTML file can be created using a simple text editor
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Title of page This is my first homepage. This text is bold Example Explained: The first tag in your HTML document is . This tag tells your browser that this is the start of an HTML document. The last tag in your document is . This tag tells your browser that this is the end of the HTML document.
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The text between the tag and the tag is header information. Header information is not displayed in the browser window. The text between the tags is the title of your document. The title is displayed in your browser's caption. The text between the <body> tags is the text that will be displayed in your browser. The text between the <b> and </b> tags will be displayed in a bold font.
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Note on HTML Editors: You can easily edit HTML files using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor like FrontPage, Claris Home Page, or Adobe PageMill instead of writing your markup tags in a plain text file. But if you want to be a skillful Web developer, we strongly recommend that you use a plain text editor to learn your primer HTML.
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HTML documents are text files made up of HTML elements. HTML elements are defined using HTML tags.
HTML Tags
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HTML tags are used to mark-up HTML elements HTML tags are surrounded by the two characters < and > The surrounding characters are called angle brackets HTML tags normally come in pairs like <b> and </b> The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
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The text between the start and end tags is the element content HTML tags are not case sensitive, <b> means the same as <B>
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HTML Elements Remember the HTML example from the previous page: <html> <head> <title>Title of page This is my first homepage. This text is bold