Objectives Trainee will be able to: • Limit a search using advanced search options. • Save a site in Internet Explorer Favorites. • Troubleshoot Web searches by looking for common mistakes and problems. Prerequisites Ability to navigate Internet Explorer and a basic understanding of the World Wide Web. Proficiency locating Web sites using a variety of search tools. Duration 50 minutes Handouts Topic Overview Topic Estimated Time Narrowing your Search in a Search Engine 15 Saving Internet Explorer Favorites 10 Troubleshooting Tips 10 Review Activity: Scavenger Hunt 15 Narrowing your Search in a Search Engine Estimated time: 15 minutes  Handout: Internet Cheat Sheet To help you find the right information from millions of Web pages, search engines offer many options for refining your search and narrowing down the number of Web pages you retrieve. Each search engine offers different advanced searching options, so it is important to read the help pages and reviews of the search engines you use. It is also a good idea to become very familiar with the options and features of one or two search engines. The Internet Cheat Sheet contains some hidden tricks to help you using the Internet Explorer browser. Activity Access your favorite search engine or one of the search engines on the InfoPeople Search Tools Chart (www.infopeople.org/search/chart.html), and use the Techniques for Refining Your Search handout to investigate the advanced search features of your chosen search engine. Remember to check the Help pages! Review Questions You'll find the answers at the end of the lesson. 1. Where can you find tips and answers on how to use the various features of a search engine? 2. Explain why you would want to add or restrict keywords or search for a phrase. 3. Did you find features that you could recommend to patrons? Saving Internet Explorer Favorites Estimated time: 10 minutes When you find a Web site your patrons will want to access quickly, it is a good idea to save the site in the Internet Explorer Favorites. Hint: This might be a review if you covered saving Favorites in earlier training. Activity: Adding Favorites Add one of the Web sites you found using the advanced search features in the earlier activity to the Internet Explorer Favorites. If You Have Time • Delete a Web site from the Favorites. • Rename a folder. • Create a new folder. Review Questions You'll find the answers at the end of the lesson. 4. What are the steps to adding a favorite to the all profile? 5. What is one subject area that you might add for your patrons to the Favorites folders currently available? Troubleshooting Searches Estimated time: 10 minutes  Handout: Searching Tips There are some common mistakes made by Web searchers, which can cause frustration and irrelevant Web sites returned with your search. This handout outlines some common mistakes; it can be used by library staff or patrons. Misspellings Google offers a handy feature for misspelling a search term, a very common mistake. If you type a word Google thinks might be misspelled, it will offer an alternative. If you click the alternative spelling next to “Did you mean,” Google will conduct a search based on the suggested term(s). For example, a search for Ernest Hemngway (misspelling the author's name), results in: Stop Words Most search engines have a set of words, called “stop words,” they ignore when conducting a search. For example, the words “the, of, and, a, to, in, is“ are so common that search engines do not consider them useful for finding a Web page and will ignore them in a keyword search. Even if you enter these words in your search, they are not used to find matching Web pages. However, some search engines allow you to search for a stop word by putting it in quotes or putting + before the term. Review Activity: Scavenger Hunt Estimated time: 15 minutes  Handout: Scavenger Hunt Complete the Scavenger Hunt using the advanced search features covered in this lesson. Additional Resources • About.com Web search (Useful articles about virtually all aspects of the Web). http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch • Price, Gary. Web Search Engines FAQs: Questions, Answers, and Issues. Searcher, vol 9, no 9. October 2001. page 38. http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/oct01/price.htm • Search Engine Showdown Features Comparison http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/ • Tutorials on Searching the Web http://dept.sccd.ctc.edu/cclib/Research_Tools/Find_Web_Sites/web_tutorials.asp Review Answers 1. Look in the search engine's Help pages. 2. All these techniques further restrict a search - adding keywords restricts the search to only those Web pages with all the words you entered, restricting keywords removes any Web pages with the keywords you restricted, and searching for a phrase limits your search to only Web pages with the terms in the specific order you put in quotes. You would use these techniques if your search returns too many Web pages or returns irrelevant Web pages.
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| Beyond the Basics - Refining Web Searches |
This lesson will help staff and patrons understand how to limit a search using advanced search options, save a site in Internet Explorer Favorites, and troubleshoot Web searches by avoiding common pitfalls.
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