Guide to Library Research in Science

Lesson 10: Searching the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is an increasingly valuable source for all kinds of information. The Web has made enormous quantities of information accessible that previously would have been unavailable. At the same time, the Web makes it possible for almost anyone to share ideas, information and opinions with others around the world. It is important to learn to search this vast network efficiently and to evaluate everything you retrieve.

Much of the information on the Web was created specifically for the Web environment. This information, found in personal web pages, commercial sites, and the like, is freely accessible by the public and is often not subjected to pre-publication evaluation. The reliability of the information presented is often questionable. On the other hand, information in the form of full-text of journal articles or electronic databases such as SciFinder Scholar or MEDLINE is simply delivered through the Internet and viewed using Web browser technology. The content originates from known, reliable sources, is selected by librarians or subject specialists, and is available by subscription only. For more information on recognizing reliable web sources, see Evaluating Information.

Web Tutorials

Web-based tutorials often contain valuable information for both the novice and expert Internet searcher. Created at the University of California at Berkeley, Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial covers all aspects of Web searching, including strategy, search tools, evaluating and citing Web pages, and a glossary of Internet terminology.

Web Search Tools

The size of the Web combined with the lack of a controlled search vocabulary can make it very difficult to find useful information on a topic. Web search tools allow you to search a database of Web pages, and then provide access to those pages. The Berkeley tutorial lists three types of search tools — search engines, subject directories and the Invisible Web (directories of searchable databases) — to facilitate Web searching. These tools differ in the way the databases are created and organized, and in the way answers are retrieved and ranked. While it is useful, for purposes of discussion, to distinguish between these different categories of search tools, the distinctions may become blurred as some tools begin to provide more than one type of search service.

Search Engines

The Berkeley tutorial provides a Table of Features for three recommended search engines. Links are also provided to pages which contain detailed help in constructing and refining searches in each engine.

Google	About	Home Page
Ask.com	About	Home Page
Yahoo! Search	Help	Home Page

Google Scholar is Google search engine that allows you to search specifically for scholarly sources. A Google Scholar search will retrieve citations to peer-reviewed articles, theses and dissertations, books, preprints, and technical reports. Search results are ranked by relevance of the article full text, author, publication in which the article appears and the number of times the article has been cited. Google Scholar also lists citations to articles in bibliographies of scholarly papers and lists them as separate search results, providing access to citations to older works and classic articles.

Google Scholar is a useful starting point when looking for scholarly publications on a research topic, but you should not rely on it as your only source. The libraries subscribe to many general and discipline-specific databases that may provide more comprehensive results. Many of these databases support more complex search strategies and may include thesauri of specialized subject headings that are not available in Google Scholar.

Google Scholar may link to full text of an article, but often the multiple links to the same article will lead to a publisher’s site that requires payment to receive the full text. The library may have already paid for the article. The document may be available locally or through OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center, EBSCOhost, Lexis-Nexis, or other source that does not require a fee beyond what the library has paid in subscription costs. Click on OLinks or search the Wooster eJournals and Journals database to determine whether Wooster has access to the article you need and in what format(s). If the article you need is not available at Wooster, you may request it using the ILLiad Interlibrary Loan request form.

Subject Directories

The Berkeley Table of Features for their six top ranked subject directories provides information on the size of each database and summary search syntax information. The recommended directories are:

Librarians’ Internet Index, Infomine, Academic Info, About.com, Google Directory and Yahoo!

Invisible Web

There are many Web pages that are not retrieved by using search engines. Known as the “Invisible Web,” these include searchable databases of statistical and other kinds of data, sounds, images and streaming media. As search engines become more sophisticated, these sites are becoming more accessible, but many are still “invisible.” The Berkeley tutorial provides more information about the Invisible or Deep Web.

Web Search Strategy

The Berkeley tutorial recommends a five-step search strategy for searching the World Wide Web. Included are tables for selecting the right type of search tool and for matching the topic with the search features needed and the search engines that support that feature.

Karen M. Drabenstott* recommends six possible Web search strategies which do not require searchers to memorize different techniques for different search engines. Each of these strategies begins with “facet analysis,” that is, determination of whether the search topic consists of one or more major concepts, and whether those concepts can be expressed as single words, phrases, or both. The following table paraphrases Drabenstott’s strategies.

Strategy	Number of Concepts/ Words or Phrases	Search Technique
Shot in the Dark	One concept/ One word	This strategy may be useful if your topic can be described in one specific, unique word which will not retrieve many irrelevant hits. Capitalize proper nouns and other letters that are usually capitalized within a word, e.g., SciFinder.
Bingo!	One concept/ Phrase	This strategy is useful for a topic involving one concept that must be described by a phrase. Capitalize proper nouns and other letters that are usually capitalized within a word, e.g., SciFinder. Enclose the phrase in quotes IF you are sure that no additional words will appear in the phrase, e.g. “Human Genome Project.” If it is possible that an intervening word may appear, e.g., Hillary Clinton or Hillary Rodham Clinton, do not use quotes.
Everything but the Kitchen Sink	Two or more concepts/ Multiple words or phrases	This strategy is useful for a topic that has more than one concept which may be described in different terms. Enter words and phrases from all of the concepts, putting the most important ones first. If the answers you retrieve suggest other search terms, add them to your strategy and search again. Entering search terms in a different order also changes the retrieval.
Big Bite	Two or more concepts/ Multiple words or phrases	This strategy can be described as the Kitchen Sink strategy executed in steps. Enter a word (Shot in the Dark) or phrase (Bingo!) for a broad concept. Examine your results. Take a second “bite” by entering a word or phrase for a second concept. Continue, monitoring the number and relevance of the answers retrieved, until satisfied with the results. Some search engines have the option of subsearching, or searching within previously retrieved results. In other search engines, you simply add new terms to the original search query.
Citation Pearl Growing	One or more concepts/ One or more words or phrases	This strategy is useful if you aren’t quite sure of the terminology you need to retrieve information on your topic. Different techniques may be involved in this strategy:  • List terms or phrases from a particularly useful site and use them in subsequent searches;  • Use the “Find similar pages” or “Search for more documents like this one” options when available;  • Use the “Link” option when available to find pages that link a useful site.
Getting a Little Help from Your Friends	One or more concepts	When you are unsure how to structure a search query, what terminology to use, or what aspect of a topic you wish to pursure, Subject Directories can be your “friends.” Select progressively narrow subtopics from a list of broader categories.

* Drabenstott, Karen M. “Web Search Strategy Development.” Online, 25 (4), 2001: pp. 18-27.

Evaluating Information

Critical evaluation of information is an essential part of the research process. Whether the source of your information is a print reference or a web site, it is important to evaluate the information for accuracy, authority, timeliness, coverage, and objectivity. Although print publications are usually subjected to pre-publication evaluation by editors, publishers, and peer reviewers, they still may contain inaccuracies and may reflect the bias of individuals responsible for their creation. Likewise, documents appearing on many web sites also undergo rigorous evaluation before they are launched. However, the openess of the web environment makes it possible for almost anyone to publish information without the quality control that is part of print environment. Therefore, it is important to think about the reliability of the information you retrieve, no matter what the format.

See Lesson 12: Evaluating Information in this guide for a series of questions that will help you to assess the reliability of information from both print and web resources.

The Berkeley tutorial includes a page, Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask, that provides helpful strategies for evaluating web sites and a handy Web Page Evaluation Checklist. In addition, the Berkeley tutorial features a helpful page, Citing Your Sources, that provides links to documents that describe how to cite both print and electronic sources using different styles.