1. INTERNET SEARCHING
J A N E E L L E N I N N E S
C L E A R Y U N I V E R S I T Y
L I B R A R Y
J E I N N E S @ C L E A R Y. E D U
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2. WHAT WE ARE COVERING
What is research?
Critical thinking
Internet searching (search engines, strategies, tips)
Cleary’s proprietary databases
Proquest, Lexis/Nexis/Mel
Others
Evaluating information
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3. WHAT IS RESEARCH?
Primary versus secondary research
Writing process stage 2: collecting
How does research benefit your papers?
 Credibility
 Professionalism
Where to begin
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4. CRITICAL THINKING
What is critical thinking and why is it important?
Critical Thinking
 Taking what you know, combining with what you learn to
reach new conclusion
Start with broad concepts and narrow
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5. BETTER SEARCHING WITH CRITICAL THINKING
Who is interested in what you are looking for?
Learn about your topic as you search
 Get information from search summaries
Increase your topic specific vocabulary as you search
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6. SEARCHING
Internet Searching
Search Engines
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7. WHAT ARE SEARCH ENGINES?
Large databases
Full text of web pages
 Use keywords matching words in pages you want
Built by computer robot programs
 No selectivity, no evaluation for reliability
Each is different - Minimal standardization
 All accept “quotes” to search as phrase
 Good ones assume AND between words
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8. HOW DO YOU MEASURE A SEARCH ENGINE’S
VALUE?
Size, freshness & unique pages
How comprehensive are they?
Ranking of results
What order are results displayed in?
Default search mode effectiveness
Intuitive and easy to use?
Advanced search options
Can you perform complex searches
Can you limit by date, type of site, etc?
Overall convenience and usefulness
Do you get junk or good stuff?
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9. HOW TO GET THE BEST RESULTS FROM SEARCH
ENGINES
Match words in pages - FULL TEXT
Be as specific as you can
 search on distinctive words - fallujah
 put “phrases in quotes” “affordable care act”
 scan your question for good search terms
Start with one or two words or phrases
 add as needed to focus results
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10. BOOLEAN SEARCHING
Search Engine
Commands
Means What?
AND (+) Must include all terms
NOT (-) Must exclude term/s
“[topic
phrase]”
In quotes - must
include exact phrase
OR Match any terms
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11. META SEARCH ENGINES
Meta Search Engines search multiple sites and
retrieve combined results.
Meta Search Engines Explained
(thanks UC Berkeley)
Multiple Search Engines, Meta Search Engines, or
Metacrawlers (SearchEngineShowdown)
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12. CHOOSING THE BEST SEARCH ENGINE
Check NoodleTools (yes, NoodleTools): Search Engine Advice
http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/advice
engine.html
UC Berkeley Recommendations
 Search Engine Recommendations
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchEngines.html
 Subject Directory Recommendations
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SubjDirectories.html
10 Best Search Engines of 2013 (About.com)
http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/navigatingthenet/tp/top_10_search
_engines_for_beginners.htm
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13. GET A SECOND OPINION
Statistics say no search engine has it all
Only about 60% of pages in Google are also in other
search engines
Only 50% of pages in any search engine database
are also found in all others
Use more than one search engine
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