* Searching

Where to Search | How to Search | Bring Information to You | Keeping Track

Think about...

While most of this page is about searching on the internet, sometimes the best place to look for information is the library. For younger children, especially, the language on the internet is often at too high a reading level. Books may be more appropriate. Not only do libraries have thought out collections, there are librarians available who are information specialists. Librarians can be great resources to help you find what you need.

Books usually contain reliable information as they are edited.
Magazines, newspapers, consulting experts or other people may also be excellent sources of information.
There are also parts of the internet which are not easily found by search engines - this is known as the deep web. Librarians are familiar with databases and can help you learn how to search them.

Information Cycle

How recent is an event. Information reaches us through different media as it gets farther from the event itself. It moves from the Internet and daily news to daily print media to magazines, journals and eventually to books and documentaries. This should be considered when doing research.

Learn more about the information cycle from the University of Illinois

Where to Search

Although many people go straight to Google, this is not always the best option.

Online Tools
Noodle Tools	Choose the best search for your information needs. Place your needs for your task on the questionnaire and see the best search tools to choose.
Noodle Quest	Interactive version of the above link. Go through a series of questions choosing which questions and answers apply to your task. Noodle Quest will recommend the best places to search

Search Engines, Directories, Metasearch Engines

A search engine searches for keywords and matches them to your search string. It uses a mathematical algorithm to find what you need.
A directory organizes information by category. The sites are vetted by people and usually bring fewer results.
Meta-search engines search multiple sites, pulling in results from other search engines and directories.

When conducting a search, it is always a good idea to use more than one search engine. Each has a different way of producing results so using more than one may help you find what you need.

Alternatives to Google:

Searching for specialty sites (e.g. blogs, photographs, videos...)

Do you want to....

Track change over time?	Google Timeline - found on the left hand menu of a Google search. Applying this feature shows the results of a Google search on a timeline. Useful for historical events, natural disasters... To get all the Google tools, click on Show Search Tools in the left hand menu after you perform a search
View the latest developments?	Up to the minute Google - click on Past 24 hours in the left hand menu. You can filter results by date options ranging from past 24 hours to past year. A custom range of dates can also be chosen. To get all the Google tools, click on Show Search Tools in the left hand menu after you perform a search
Keep abreast of information as it happens?	Set up a Google Alert Google Alerts allows you to get email updates on a particular search query. It is especially helpful for keeping current on a particular subject or monitoring a developing news story. The alert can include news, blogs, web, video, groups. Signing in with a Google account allows you to edit and manage alerts.
Find more scholarly information?	Google Scholar Note: This often leads to abstracts, not full articles. In many cases you have to pay for the full article.
Find videos	YouTube Unfortunately, many school boards block access to YouTube. There are many excellent videos on all kinds of topics, but there are also inappropriate videos which is the reason for blocking. TeacherTube This is a growing source of videos for educational purposes. You can find videos about education as well as videos to use within the curriculum for your students. It is also a place to safely post videos done by your students. Blinkx This is a searchable database of videos on the web. You can turn on SafeSearch to avoid inappropriate videos.
Search Blogs	Technorati Technorati now catalogs blogs, videos and music. You can search by key words (tags) to find what you need. Don't send your students there. Inappropriate sites turn up.

How to Search

Preparing your search

Boolean Operators can help us make sure we get what we need and only what we need. When you do an advanced search the operators are built into the fields.
The more specific your search, the better the results. Use several keywords in your search string.

Online Tools
The Boolean Machine	a simple tool to help you visualize what the operators AND OR and NOT produce
Boolify Project	This is an interesting tool to teach how to use boolean operators. It turns up search results and so students can easily see if their criteria were well chosen

Where to Learn More

From Media Awareness Network (through LEARN, logged in with your username and password

* Passport to the Internet - section on Study Space looks at selecting key words to hone in on searching and using quotes, + -

Research 101 - Searching - Create a Search Query from The Universityof Washington

a good exercice to practice boolean logic

Boolean and Google Search Tips

AND	can be written +term e.g. smog +health You can use the + to force Google to include a stopword in the search	brings links that include both words
NOT	can be written -term e.g. jaguars -cars	should exclude links to sites that have the word cars
words in a phrase	use quotation marks "acid rain"	searches for the whole phrase
* is a wild card	It can be used in a couple of ways philoso* will yield results that start with philoso such as philosophy, philosophic... as a place holder for missing information e.g. Dolly was cloned in *
~	similar words - will search for synonyms of the words in your search
AROUND	"Garneau" AROUND (7) "NASA"	This finds pages in which the word Garneau appears within 7 words of the word NASA *********************** NOTE The search words must be in quotes and the word AROUND must be capitalized.
definition:	definition: philosophy	finds links to sites that define the word
link:	link: http://fluteabecmtl.ca	will find all the pages that link to the site. This is very helpful when looking at the validity of a site.
conversions	e.g. 100 ft in cm
	More Google Search Tips	More Google Search Features

Bring Information to You

Learn about rss feeds
You can use an aggregator to bring a variety of feeds to you automatically.

Keeping Track

Use a bookmarking site like diigo or delicious to keep track of the sites you have visited. Keeping notes as you bookmark will help you decide what to go back to.
Learn more about social bookmarking.

* Photo: Benny the Sniffer Dog, by Duncan Brown, adapted from Flickr licensed under Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic.