SEARCHING
You have a choice of using search
engines or subject directories
when searching the Internet for information. For quick help
The
Nueva Search Engine will assist you.
NEED HELP?
Subject directories work best when you have a general
term. Subject directories contain broad categories
you can "drill down" to narrow your search. Think
Yellow Pages. For directories with consistenly
high quality sites, begin with either Britannica
Internet Guide,or Librarian's
Index to the Internet. The sites within these
two directories are reviewed, selected and annotated by
editors, subject specilists and librarians. Though the quality
is not consistenly as high, Yahoohas
broad coverage and is very popular. For specific subject
guides, look in Argus
Clearinghouse; one of the oldest on the Net is The
Virtual Library.
Search engines are larger, more current and best
to use when you have a specific, narrow key word or term.
Start with AltaVista,
one of the largest and most powerful search engines.
In AltaVista,
use a plus sign for required words and a minus sign in front
of words that should be excluded. ( +cancer +treatment -colon).
Place phrases in quotations ("death penalty" "ancient world").
Capitalize proper names (Bill Gates). Use truncation * to
find combinations of words or word fragments (educat* will
retrieve education, educational, educate, etc.) Go
to the advanced
search in AltaVista to use Boolean operators (AND
OR NOT). Northern
Light is another excellent search engine which organizes
results into topical "folders." This has the effect
of narrowing your search.
*See how search engines and subject directories stack
up. Compare them
NEED MORE HELP?
Check out Power Search Tips
for more efficient, effective searching.
To keep up-to-date on search engines and to learn
more about them look at these resources: Spider's
Apprentice or Sink
or Swim. Let KidsConnect,
the online question answering and referral service help
you.
EVALUATING WEB SITES
It is important to evaluate Web sites because unlike books
and magazines there is no editor or publisher that checks
for accuracy and quality. When you use the information from
a Web site it is your responsibility to make sure it is
reliable. We have developed two short forms to help guide
you: Teacher Evaluation Form
and Student Evaluation Form
