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San Domenico High SchoolOnline Resources & Web Searching

A practical guide for students

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Plan Your Search

How much time do you have? (For quick searches, use a simple keyword search on any search engine and hope for relevant hits on the first returns page)

Search engines & ‘keyword’ searching. How does it work?– Basic keyword searches cast a VERY LARGE net by searching

for the word or words anywhere on the world wide web whether it appears once or many more times on any given page.

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Pinpointing Your Search

More search terms reduces the number of hits (more equals less)– genocide (12 million+ hits)– genocide sri lanka (730,000+ hits)– genocide “sri lanka” (630,000+ hits)– genocide “sri lanka” tamils (224,000+ hits)– genocide “sri lankan” tamils (150,000+ hits)

Use Quotations (“ “) to search for exact phrases and narrow your search

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Pinpointing Your Search - Continued

– genocide “sri lankan” tamils (150,000+ hits)– genocide “sri lankan” intitle:tamils (24,000+)– genocide “sri lankan” intitle:tamils 2009…2010 (4,600+ hits)– genocide “sri lankan” intitle tamils –site:com (681 hits)

Use intitle: or inurl: with a keyword to reduce hits Use date range 2007…2010 to narrow results Use – sign to discard keywords or domains

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Other tips

Search a single site: site:http://www.tamilsagainstgenocide.org/ Search a single domain: site:org Search a specific country’s websites: site:in (India)

– Find country domains at, http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/

To find a keyword in a long document use Ctrl + F on PC’s or Command + F on Macs with the word(s) you’re searching for

– Go to http://www.tamilnet.com/– Use Command or Ctrl F and search for SLAF (Sri Lankan Air Force)

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Consult a Directory orAsk a Librarian

Has your topic already been indexed or cataloged for you? (use a directory or database vs. a search engine)

Google directory, Yahoo directory, Google Scholar

If you are stuck or need help with a search,

Ask or email your librarian– sfletcher@sandomenico.org

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Online Catalogs & Databases

Library Webpage– Books

OPAC Marinet

– Proquest Platinum– Grolier Online Encyclopedia (World Newspapers)– Bookmarked Web Pages– Cited Works (bibliography) Help

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Evaluating A Web Page

Check for:

– Authority (who wrote or sponsored it?)

– Accuracy (errors in spelling/grammar, citations or bibliography)

– Objectivity (is the language or content biased or hyperbolic?)

– Currency (is the information new, updated, dates?)

– Navigability (is the site well-organized, easy to read, indexed?) One good One not so good