MODULE 4: USING THE INFOSPHERE – TAKING AND ORGANISING

1) Searching the Web

Search Engine Tutorial by Pandia – a free guide to web searching
Koch, P., Koch, S. (2007), A short and easy search engine tutorial. Retrieved 12th January 2007, from http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/index.html

Advanced internet users know where and how to find information efficiently. The site presents a general, but thorough tutorial about search engines, and how to get the most out of them. The authors, Per and Susanne Koch, are both owners and editors of Pandia Search Central, which has been running since 1998. The site provides a wide array of internet search resources and tools, including this search engine tutorial. The topics covered are commonly found in other search engine tutorials, but here they are simple and easy to follow, and cleverly compared to how one would order a pizza – with some toppings (topics), but not to include others (words/phrases). There is also a section on the use of wild cards such as *. Also useful is the Q-cards section, which lists the main search engines, and their differences in dealing with Boolean functions – (not all search in exactly the same way). Understanding how search engines work, and realising a key element of internet searching is that it may not be as simple as searching libraries, is the fulfilment of ^concept 32-virtually a library? ^Concept 33-information and attention also applies to this topic. Information users and seekers must be aware of the ‘attention economy’ that seeks to distract and keep your attention, and so, should equally combat this with the skills necessary to source the specific information they want, and not be led off course, wasting time.

^ (Allen, n.d.)


2) Organising Search Information

EndNote
Thomson. (2007), Endnote: bibliographies made easy [computer software]. Thomson. Retrieved 15th January 2007, from http://www.endnote.com/enhome.asp

Advanced internet users realise that time-saving measures and efficiency go hand-in-hand when researching online. EndNote is perfectly suited to students, journalists; and in fact all professional writers. It’s software that builds your citations and bibliographies for you, and according to the pre-selected standard (formatting) you choose. Developed by Thomson, a progressive company with a long history of delivering cutting-edge educational and research material. EndNote works seamlessly with your word processor to both assist, and develop your in-text citations as well as full bibliography from documents you review. It even assists with access to some online databases. Download it for free (30-day trial), or potentially access it at reduced cost through your university. EndNote is a clear example for ^concept 10-automation. Advanced internet users seek out and exploit automation systems, but at the same time, do not use them unwittingly. That is, they should be reviewed from time to time to ensure their performance is both correct and up-to-date. Apart from meeting specific ‘job’ requirements, EndNote also facilitates the building of your own virtual library, even accommodating the ‘deep web’ (online databases), thus effectively using the ‘library-likeness’ of the web to your personal needs – ^concept 32-virtually a library? This product also introduces ^concept 29-the challenge of ‘fast’ data. Consider how you view information – is it purely used to meet an immediate need, or can it hold a longer usefulness? EndNote does both; speedily automating bibliographic lists for specific articles, but also allowing development of an on-going personal reference list, or personal virtual library.

^ (Allen, n.d.)