google and beyond… hatch library bay path college / spring 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Google™
and Beyond…
Hatch Library Bay Path College / Spring 2010
Overview1. Classifying and Evaluating
Websites
2. Google Scholar
3. Subject Directories
4. Reference Universe
Critical EvaluationWhy Evaluate What You Find on the
Web?
Anyone can put up a web
page about anything Many pages not kept up-to-date No quality control
most sites not “peer-reviewed” (less trustworthy than scholarly publications)
no selection guidelines for search engines
Before you click to view the page...
Look at the URL - personal page or site? ~ or % or users or members
Domain name appropriate for the content? edu, com, org, net, gov, ca, us, uk, etc.
Published by an entity that makes sense? News from its source?
www.nytimes.com Advice from a valid agency?
www.nih.gov/
Scan the perimeter of the page
Can you tell who wrote it?name of page authororganization, institution, agency you recognize
e-mail contact by itself not enough
Credentials for the subject matter? Look for links to:
“About us” “Philosophy” “Background” “Biography”
Scan the perimeter of the page(continued)
Is it recent or current enough? Look for “last updated” date -
usually at bottom
If no links or other clues... truncate back the URL
From: http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/faculty/nute/FScareers.html
To:http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/
Web Evaluation Techniques
Indicators of Quality Are sources documented?
Examples: links, footnotes, etc.-Are they as detailed as you expect in
print publications? Do the links work?
Is the information altered or forged?
What about the links to other resources?
Are they biased, slanted?
Web Evaluation Techniques
What Do Others Say? Search a URL in alexa.com
Who links to the site? Who owns the domain?
Which sites are getting the most visits?
What information are people seeking?
See what links are in Google’s “Similar
Pages”
Look up the page’s author in Google
Web Evaluation Techniques
Does it all add up? Why was the page put on the Web?
To inform with facts and data? To explain, persuade? To sell, entice? To share, disclose? As a parody or satire?
Is it appropriate for your purpose?
Looking for articles but want to use Google?
Try this instead…
Search a controversial topic in Google:
"illegal immigrants" crime
Now compare your Google
search results to your Google
Scholar search results ...
But first, setup your Google
Scholar Preferences
Access the site at scholar.google.com
Click “Scholar Preferences” – and search
for Bay Path in the Library Links box and
save your changes
Now, when you search, you can see if
you have instant access to Full-Text
articles right in your search results
Which search results would
you rather use in your
research?
Use Subject Directories to find good web
sites
Small Directories Built by information specialists Selected, evaluated, annotated Organized into subject categories
examples: ipl2 (http://www.ipl.org)
Hosted by The iSchool at Drexel, College of Information Science and Technology, with major support from the College of Information at Florida State University
Infomine By UC consortium of library professionals
Academic Info By a librarian in Arizona
Larger Directories Google Web directory
http://directory.google.com 5+ million pages - less than 0.04% of Google
web
About.com – a collection of specialized directories search by subject
Yahoo’s directory http://dir.yahoo.com
4 million unevaluated pages - about 0.06% of Yahoo! search
Try Some Sample Searches
ipl2http://www.ipl.org
INFOMINE http://infomine.ucr.edu
Google Web Directory http://directory.google.com
Reference Universe Use Reference Universe
to find the right authoritative,
introductory article and establish a solid foundation for your research. Your research will be better, and you'll save time.
Access Reference Universe throughthe Hatch
Virtual Library to search for
authoritative
information in electronic
reference books
Google™
is just the tip of the iceberg, so don’t forget to search deeper!
Visit these sites to learn more:
Evaluating Information Found on the Internet
Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet
Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools
Need more assistance? We’re
here to help!Email us directly at
[email protected] or through
our Ask a Librarian page.