2. Field Guide to Search Tools:
Databases
Databases: “Warehouses” of information:
magazine, journal, newspaper articles
Subscription PAID FOR BY DISTRICT
Ex: Facts on File, Ebsco
When to use:
ALWAYS have good information
HINT: “Text citation”
4. Field Guide to Search Tools:
Subject Directories
Subject directories: catalogs of websites collected, maintained
and organized by HUMANS
HINT: tree (main categories branch out into subtopics)
Ex: Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/)
When to use:
When you know your topic and want to get to good sites quickly
When you want to avoid all the “noise” of search engines
When you’re having trouble finding reliable sources of online info
5. Subject Directories: Pros and Cons
Pros
Information you can
trust
selective
NOT overwhelming:
may only be a few sites
on your topic
Can be used as a
“springboard” to finding
more good sites
Cons
Limited number of
results
May be too specific or
too broad
Search box will only
search within that site
6. A field guide to search tools:
Search Engines
Search engines: large databases of Web pages,
gathered automatically. Rely on robots, spiders
crawlers to get results.
Ex. Google, Bing
7. Search Engines: Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy to use
“Intuitive”
Lots of results
Ranked by most
popular
Cons
Lots of results
Overwhelming
number (needle in a
haystack)
“noise” distracts
from real results
Paid-for sponsored
sites
8. Pre-search
Organize your ideas BEFORE you start
searching!!
Use your research questions/outlines!
Come up with key words to search
9. Web search in Plain English
http://www.commoncraft.com/search