Introduction to

Internet Research

PARKWAY CENTRAL LIBRARY

COMPUTER CLASSES
In this class, you will learn to…

 Use A Web Browser

 Use The Free Library’s Website
 Search The World Wide Web
 Evaluate Web Resources
 Stay Safe Online
 But First, Some Useful Terms...

 Internet - A global network connecting millions of computers worldwide. More

than 100 countries use this system to communicate data and information.
Communication can take several forms, such as e-mail, discussion groups, and
information from the World Wide Web. The terms Internet and World Wide
Web are often used interchangeably, but they're actually not the same.

 World Wide Web - One component of the Internet, the Web is a collection of
documents and applications residing on Internet servers around the world.

 Website - A collection of linked documents that contains text and other media
elements, such as graphics, animation, video, and audio.

 Webpage - A single document or ‘page’ on a website.

 Homepage - The main page or ‘front door’ of a website. The homepage typically
provides a table of contents or a site map for the rest of the site.
 Some More Useful Terms...

 Web address - The unique address of any Web page. Also called a Uniform
Resource Locator or URL.

 Hyperlink - An element in an electronic document such as a webpage that links

to another place in the same document or to an entirely different document.
Typically, you click on the hyperlink to follow the link. Links usually appear as
blue underlined text.

 Web browser - Software programs that enable you to view Web pages and other
documents on the Internet. They "translate" Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML) files into the text, images, sounds, and other features you see online.
The a few of the most commonly used browsers are Opera, Microsoft’s Internet
Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome.

 Internet Service Provider (ISP) - A company that provides an individual or

organization with access to the Internet, usually for a fee. The most common
methods of providing this service are dial-up, cable, and digital subscriber line
(DSL). Service providers include Comcast, Verizon, AOL, EarthLink and NetZero.
How To Use a
Web Browser
 How To Use a Web Browser

 Getting started: The Web browser we use here at the Free Library is
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, symbolized by this icon:

 When you first launch the web browser, a preset web page appears.
This page is your start page. At the Free Library, the start page is
the library’s homepage, located at www.freelibrary.org.
 How To Use a Web Browser

 The Toolbar: The buttons and boxes at the top of your browser help
you travel through the Web, keeping track of where you've been. Most
browsers have a few of these controls in common.

 The Back button (the arrow pointing to the left) returns you the
previous Web page you've visited.
 Use the Forward button (the arrow pointing to the right) to return to
the page you just came from.
 The Address Bar is the long box on the toolbar. This is where you
type the address of a website you want to visit. After you type it, press
the Enter key or click on the blue arrow on the right to access the site.
 How To Use a Web Browser

 Home takes you to whichever page the PC’s admin has chosen.
 Reload or Refresh does just that, loads the webpage again.
Sometimes all of the elements of a webpage haven't loaded the first
time because the file transfer was interrupted.
 The Stop button stops the browser from loading the current page.
There's a good reason why the Web is sometimes referred to as the
“World Wide Wait” especially if you don't have a speedy broadband
Internet connection. If you can't connect to a site or if the page is
loading very slowly, use the Stop button and try again later.
 Print lets you make a hard copy of the current page loaded in your
browser.
 How To Use a Web Browser

 Internet Explorer’s Page button/menu

 This button makes a pull-down menu appear, which contains useful
functions, most notably New Window, Cut, Copy and Paste, Save As...
and Zoom.
 How To Use
The Free Library’s Website
How To Use The Free Library’s Website
 How To Use The Free Library’s Website

 Find
 Find a Location – Find one of our 55 libraries in the City of Philadelphia
 Events, Programs & Services – Find great stuff to do at our libraries
 Catalog – Find books, journals & movies owned by the Free Library
 Databases – Find reliable information in our vast library of databases
 How To Use The Free Library’s Website

 Explore
 What To Read – Links to the bestseller lists online… and so much more
 Timely Topics – From Recession Tools to Swine Flu, this is the info you
need, when you need it – right at your fingertips
 How To Use The Free Library’s Website

 Ask
 Email – Email us a question and get an answer in 48 hours
 Chat – Live chat with a librarian on Ask Here PA, a 24/7 reference service
 Text – Text us a question from your cell phone and we’ll text you the answer
 How To Use The Free Library’s Website

 Online Account Access

With your Library card number and PIN, you can:
 see the items you have checked out.
 renew items that can be renewed without Library staff assistance.
 cancel any outstanding requests you have.
 view any fines or fees owed to the Library.
How To Search the Web
 How To Search the Web

 Searching the Web can be overwhelming to beginners

who don't know where to start or how to navigate the Web
successfully. The Web is huge and contains vast amounts
of information, and finding information about anything is
easy if you know where and how to look.

 Search Engines are services on the Web where you can

go to retrieve this information. Search engines are
basically huge databases of indexed information. They
don't contain the information, but they have the Web
addresses where you can find it.
 How To Search the Web

 Google is the largest and most popular search engine. Its

address is www.google.com. For the sake of keeping things
simple, we will focus on using Google, the search engine of
choice for many librarians.
 How To Search the Web

Google search basics

 Searching is easy. Just type a few keywords describing your research
topic in the search box, hit the Enter key or click on the Google Search
button, and Google will find webpages that are relevant.
 Usually you will find exactly what you’re looking for with just a basic
search. However, these tips will help you make the most of your searches:
 Keep it simple. If you're looking for a certain company, concept, place, or
product, just type its name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you're
looking for a pizza place, just type pizza and your zip code. Simple is good.
 Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. If you don't get
what you need, the results should give you an idea of what additional words are
needed to refine your results on the next search.
 Choose descriptive words. The more unique the words, the more likely you
are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, such as
‘document,’ ‘website,’ ‘company,’ or ‘info,’ are usually not needed.
 How To Search the Web

How to read search results

Google's goal is to provide you with
results that are clear and easy to read.
There are three features that are
important to understanding the
search results page:

The title: The first line of any

search result is the title of the
webpage. This is also a
hyperlink to the page itself.

The snippet: A description of or

an excerpt from the webpage.

The URL: The webpage's

address. This is always green
text in a Google search.
 How To Search the Web

 Visit Google’s Web Search Help pages for more information on searching
the Web with Google: www.google.com/support/websearch
How To Evaluate
Web Resources
How To Evaluate Web Resources

Who wrote or published the information on the site?

 Because anyone can publish on the Web and say anything they
want – even if it isn’t true – it is very important that you first
identify the author of the information on the site. Ask yourself:
 Who is the author? Is that source clearly identified?
 Can I contact the author through an e-mail, phone number, or mailing
address, or is there a Feedback Form on the site?
 What are the author's credentials? Is he or she an expert in the subject I
am researching?
 Is the site created or sponsored by a reputable organization? If so, is the
organization is a credible, authoritative source of information?
 How To Evaluate Web Resources

What information and resources does the site provide?

 The information you find on a website does not necessarily pass
through the hands of editors or librarians, so it's up to you to determine
the value of the site's content and presentation. Ask yourself:
 What is the site's purpose: To persuade, inform, or entertain? Does the site
achieve its purpose?
 Is the information on the site objective or biased?
 Does the site provide thorough coverage of the topic? Does it reference or
link to other in-depth resources?
 Is the information on the site well written? Are there misspellings or
grammatical errors?
 Does the site provide a Works Cited page or a bibliography? Are the
resources the author consulted reliable, thorough, and objective?
 Does the site feature graphics, video and audio clips, or animations? If so,
do these elements help explain or clarify the site's topic?
 How To Evaluate Web Resources

Navigation and Presentation

 The ability to move around in a website (navigation) and the way it
looks and feels (presentation) are important elements to consider
when evaluating a site. Ask yourself:
 Is the site well organized and easy to navigate? Can I find the information I
am looking for within a few clicks?
 Is the site visually appealing? Does the design suit the purpose?
 Are multimedia elements such as sound and video used sparingly and for a
specific purpose or are they distracting?
 Does the site have any advertisements, banners or pop-ups that might
distract me from my purpose for visiting?
 Does the site take a long time to load?
 How To Evaluate Web Resources

When was the site first created and last updated?

 Is your research topic time-sensitive? Is it important that you locate the
most current, up-to-date resources? Even if you answered ‘No’ to both
of these questions, you should still take note of when the site was
created and last updated. Ask yourself:
 Does the site indicate when it was first created and last updated?
 Do the links work or do they lead to error messages such as ‘Page Not Found’?
Sites that are not up-to-date are more likely to have expired or ‘broken’ links.
 How To Evaluate Web Resources

Where does the site live?

 Look closely at the site's URL, specifically at the three-letter suffix known as an
extension. This provides clues about the source of the site you are viewing.
 Some common extensions are...
.edu = Educational institution
.com = Commercial business or personal website
.gov = Government agency
.org = Organization (usually, though not always, nonprofit)
.mil = Military
 Watch Out! A site with the .gov extension signals a government agency and probably
has reliable and trustworthy information. However, it is harder to determine whether
sites with the .edu, .org, or .com extensions are quality ones. For example, the .edu
extension indicates that a site is associated with an educational institution, but it doesn't
tell you whether it's the official site of the history department – or a site created by a
student with a C minus grade average.
How To Evaluate Web Resources

Why should I use this site?

 Evaluating the credibility, thoroughness, accuracy, currency, and
presentation of a website will help you determine whether to use
that site for your research. Ask yourself:
 Do the resources on this site meet all my needs? Is the information
verifiable, in-depth, and up to date?
 Why is this website a better research source than some of the other
sites I've already visited?
 How To Evaluate Web Resources

Focus on URLs
Just as a ‘snail mail’ address is made up of several components — a house or building
number, street, city, state, zip code, etc. — the address or URL of a website has
components, each separated by a slash (/).

Let's look closely at the following URL:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/american_originals/original.html
 
 http:// - The http notation means that this is a hypertext document. It is not necessary to type
this in the address bar before the URL; the browser will add it.
 www.archives.gov - The second part of the URL is called the domain name. This is the part

of the URL that identifies and calls up the specific computer on the Web that stores the
information you requested. In the example, www.archives.gov is the home page of the U.S.
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
 exhibit_hall/american_originals/original.html - The last parts of the URL indicate

exactly where on the host computer the webpage can be found. These parts are typically referred
to as the directories and subdirectories of the site. Within the NARA website, the requested
webpage lives in the Exhibit Hall section of the site, within the American Originals collection.
The .html notation indicates that the page is written in hypertext markup language.
How To Stay Safe Online
 How To Stay Safe Online

Protecting Personal Information

In our increasingly networked world, protecting sensitive personal data is more important than ever.
Guard personal information carefully, and be picky about what you share and with whom. Here are
some good tips:
 Don't give personal information to everyone who asks. You have a right to ask why your
information is needed and how it’s going to be used. The more sensitive the data, like your Social Security
Number (SSN), the more careful you should be.
 Don't open unsolicited email messages. Email scams are among the most common schemes
criminals use to commit identity theft. Be leery of any messages that ask you to provide personal
information, even if they appear to come from a bank or company you've done business with.
 Surf carefully. Just as you don't wander into sketchy neighborhoods in the real world, you need to be
careful where you surf online. Disreputable sites can be loaded with spyware and viruses intended to crash
your computer and steal personal information.
 Read Privacy Policies. It may not be the most compelling reading, but it's good to know how a website
intends to use personal information before you hand it to them. Never give information to any
website that does not have a clearly posted Privacy Policy.
 Protect your home computer. Make sure you're doing everything you can to secure your personal
computer and your Internet connection at home, such as using anti-virus software, anti-spyware software
and firewalls to make sure you're protected from attackers.

If you fear that you have become the victim of identity theft, go to
www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/ for guidance on what to do next.
 Resources Used

The following Web resources were used to create the content for this presentation:

www.webopedia.com
www.google.com/support/websearch
www.freelibrary.org
www.classzone.com/books/research_guide/page_build.cfm
www.lib.berkeley.edu/teachinglib/guides/internet/findinfo.html
www.staysafeonline.org
www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/usage/website?view=uk

All were accessed between Dec 2009 and Jan 2010.