Eight Ways to Outsmart an Engine
By Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 3/1/1997
back to main article: Lost (& Found) in Cyberspace
Here are a few tips I've found useful when using web search tools to do reference work with students:
1) Check all in-library resources first. Unless you know exactly where you're going, searching the Web is time-consuming, especially if your connection is not fast.
2) During your reference interview, think of three or four potential search terms, which are not necessarily the same as subject headings.
3) Become familiar with at least two search engines and their features (see my recommendations) so that you feel comfortable using them on a busy day when students are lining up.
4) Study the help screens. Boolean fans should use AltaVista, which accepts all standard Boolean operators (, AND, OR, NEAR, etc.), or click on the "Modify" link in HotBot to include or exclude terms. In most search engines you can type a minus sign in front of a word you don't want to appear in your results (e.g., "China -porcelain").
5) Some searches require untypical thinking. For example, I had a high school student looking for information on the sun bear, an endangered animal in Southeast Asia. Some search engines allow you to enter a phrase in quotes ("sun bear") to whittle down unrelated hits. I was about to try the "whole phrase" technique when inspiration struck. In a reference book I had already found the sun bear's scientific name: Helarctos malayanus. I tried those two words in HotBot and bingo! Some great pages, mostlyfrom zoos, popped up.
6) If none of your first 10 hits has anything to do with your request, go back and try a new search. For many topics, it happens frequently -- for example, a student wants information on how a battery works and all you get are corporate catalog pages describing specific models of cell phone batteries.
7) Think local. The Web is the greatest boon on earth to librarians wrestling with homework questions about the cities, states, counties, and features of the places in which we live. Today many areas have community information pages. (Here in the Portland, OR, metro area we have a great one, RITnet).
8) Looking for pictures? AltaVista has a nice feature that can help you find them -- maybe. If you're looking for a picture of a panda, for example, you can type "image:panda.jpg" (no quotes) into the search box. (A "jpg" image is the standard format for photographs.) When I tested it, AltaVista returned more than 10 pages with photos of pandas. You can also look for "gifs," the standard format for artwork, the same way: type"image:panda.gif."
back to main article: Lost (& Found) in Cyberspace
