Module Four - Organising search information

Choose the best three sources found in the previous task. Using whatever software or tool you think appropriate, record the following information about those sites:

* URL.
* author,
* institution,
* blurb/ summary / screen shot

Record this information in your learning log, and also detail how you saved this information, what software you used and why

URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
AUTHOR: Joe Barker, Librarian, The Teaching Library, Program Coordinator Internet/Web Instruction
INSTITUTION: University of California Berkeley Teaching Library
SUMMARY: The library provides Internet Workshops year-round. It provides both the beginner and the Advanced Internet user with information on a miriad of sources such as specialised directories, databases, search engines and meta-search engines. Its' pages have extensive information on the Internet & WWW including boolean searching, a glossary of internet & web jargon and how to "evaluate web pages" and much more.

Reference: Barker, Joe Retrieved January 29, 2007
Website:

This site was found using Google Advanced search. Google brought up Vicnet as the second hit. The title shown was - Advanced User's Internet Training Resources.

The Teaching Library FindInfo link was the sixth link of the list on Vicnet. see image below

URL: http://www.thelearningsite.net/cyberlibrarian/searching/ismain.html
AUTHOR: Angela Elkordy, Present: Director of Learning Technologies, MIA (Michigan Islamic Academy?)
INSTITUTION: Previously: Assistant Professor, Librarian & Coordinator of Electronic Resources, The Sage Colleges, Albany & Troy, NY.
SUMMARY: The stated objective of the site is: "To explore a variety of Web tools and search techniques in order to find useful information in a variety of formats." Angela Elkordy states it is "not" an advanced course, although some advanced techniques are used. While it may not be an advanced course it covers many important and useful subjects. Directories, search & meta-search engines, web indexes, evaluating & selecting resources, search techniques including boolean as well as how to find images. It also gives assignments so that users can put into practice what they read about. Both Berkeley Library and the Albany Library at the outdated URL are both given as Internet tutorials that are especially recommended. It seems that the site has not been officially updated since 2000, although the copyright statement is up to 2001.

Reference: Elkordy, Angela Retrieved January 29, 2007.
Website:

It is important to make some effort to substaniate a persons claims, particularly if they purport to be learned on a subject. I do not consider a hotmail email account as an only means of contact, to contribute to being taken seriously. I had to do a little research to track down what MIA was. My best guess is Michigan Islamic Society. On finding this I decided that perhaps due to the political climate permeating the western world and the USA in particular, it would be understandable for Ms Elkordy to be cautious.

This site was found using Google Advanced search. Google brought up Vicnet as the second hit as seen previously. The Web Searching, Sleuthing and Sifting link was the twelfth link of the Vicnet list. see image below

URL: http://www.livinginternet.com/
AUTHOR: William Stewart
INSTITUTION: s.l.
SUMMARY: The Living Internet was written from 1996 through to 1999, posted on the web in January 2000, and last updated August 28, 2006. It provides 700-odd pages of in-depth information on the Internet, Web, Email, Usenet, IRC MUD's (Multi User Dungeon - adventure games with multiple players) and lists. The site covers the history, design, use, advanced features, key features, security, help and more on each of the previously mentioned applications.

Reference: Stewart, William Living Internet Retrieved January 29 2007
Website: http://www.livinginternet.com/

Module Four - Boolean searching tasks

Task: find the following using the search term "advanced internet users" = 'aiu'

To get the biggest number of hits relating to "advanced internet users" I choose to use the boolean or implied boolean operator AND. I did this because the phrase was "Advanced Internet Users' not 'advanced' 'internet' 'users'. Not internet users, but advanced internet users. In looking for "advanced internet users" we are not looking for general internet users, or advanced users of any kind other than of "the internet".

• the biggest number of hits relating to 'aiu'
1. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 45,200,000 English pages for advanced internet users. (0.11 seconds)
2. Clusty - Top 216 results of at least 2,990 retrieved for the query "advanced+internet+users"
3. Dogpile - 1 - 20 of 62 Results for "advanced internet users". Search Engines: Google, Yahoo Search, MSN Search, Ask.
4. Windows Live Academic - advanced+internet+users 1 - 3
5. Seekz - 1 - 10 of at least 54,500,000 results for advanced+internet+users.
   
6. Surfwax - Displaying 27 of about 74,900,000 pages found.

Surfwax Results Stats - Prepare: 12 milliseconds, Search: 5998 milliseconds, Processing: 19 (16 for safety checking)milliseconds, Display: 20 milliseconds, Total Time: 6049 milliseconds.

[Found: 41, Displayed: 27, Invalid: 12, Bandwidth: 1, Duplicates: 1, Stale: 0 ]
Yahoo: source not currently returning results (100)
AllTheWeb: 10 pages found in 367 ms (parsed in 2 ms)
WiseNut: 10 pages found in 336 ms (parsed in 1 ms)
YahooNews: source not currently returning results (6)
CNN: 10 pages found in 905 ms (parsed in 8 ms)
LookSmart: 11 pages found in 2831 ms (parsed in 3 ms)
MSN: source not currently returning results (100)

• sources relating to skills-based information on 'aiu'

This question is a little loose for my liking. What 'skills-based information' on "advanced internet users" am I looking for.

• Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 260 English pages for skills and"advanced internet users". (0.50 seconds)
  

Using Google I've found my own, Dewa's and many other past and present NET11 student blogs.

Now I will look at different types of skills-based information relating to "advanced internet users"

1. Your search - skills-based "advanced internet users" -net11, -assessment, -module, -net -11 - did not match any documents.
2. Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 188 English pages for skills OR based OR ftp "advanced internet users" -net11, -assessment, -module, -net -11. (0.40 seconds)
3. Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 25 English pages for ftp "advanced internet users" -net11 -assessment -module -net -11. (0.06 seconds)
   
4. Google - Results 1 - 10 of about 407 English pages for skills OR based OR email "advanced internet users" -net11, -assessment, -module, -net -11. (0.37 seconds
5. Google - Results 1 - 2 of 2 English pages for "advanced internet users" telnet -net11 -assessment -module -net -11. (0.35 seconds)

I chose to try an eliminate any student blogs, which appear to have been reasonably successful, more so than finding skills based information for advanced internet users.

• information on 'aiu' coming only from university sources

1. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 4,140,000 English pages for advanced+internet+users+university. (0.12 seconds) - the term "university" doesn't mean the results will be from university sources.
   
2. Google Advanced Search Australia - Results 1 - 10 of about 498,000 for advanced+internet+users+university. (0.10 seconds) - the term "university" doesn't mean the results will be from university sources.
3. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 10 of about 376 English pages for college OR university "advanced internet users". (0.07 seconds) - the term "university" doesn't mean the results will be from university sources.
4. Google Advanced Search - Results 1 - 3 of 3 English pages from edu.au for university "advanced internet users". (0.28 seconds) - the search terms "university" & "edu.au" means the results will be from Australian universities.
   

The above results vary greatly. If I did similiar searches on the differing search engines that I used in the previous task I would likely get varied results as above. Any sort of database searching involves constant modification and often narrowing of search terms.

I don't require any results that are not in English. If I require results relating to Australian Universities, I wouldn't use the term "college(s)" as in Australia we call our government run academic tertiary institutions "universities". ie Curtin University.

The term "college" is generally considered to be an American term for their tertiary institutions, or for many of our secondary schools.

If I wanted to cover all tertiary institutions I would then start adding search terms such as "tafe(s)", which would widen the search. I would definitely contain my search to australia and I would also use as a search term "edu.au", which would narrow my search.