Bomhold_CH5_Scan.docx

INTRODUCTION The Internet, one of the greatest technical innovations of the last century, has had a profound effect on our daily lives. It has revolutionized communication, business, research, and entertainment worldwide. It is a rich source of information that provides access to new and original re...

INTRODUCTION The Internet, one of the greatest technical innovations of the last century, has had a profound effect on our daily lives. It has revolutionized communication, business, research, and entertainment worldwide. It is a rich source of information that provides access to new and original research as well as to secondary sources such as bibliographies, biographies, directories, atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, periodical articles, and books. But it is more than a gigantic library. It is a shopping mall, an entertainment center, a recreation park, a meeting place, a communication device, a virtual classroom. In fact, the Internet is a global community that allows for interaction among individuals at all levels, regardless of geographical location. The Internet is a complex system requiring many levels of expertise to tap the full range of its capabilities. This chapter will introduce you to some of the basic components of the Internet: e-mail, LISTSERVS, the World Wide Web, and Web 2.0. It will also introduce you to some of the search tools and some general techniques for retrieving information. Remember, this is only an introduction; your proficiency in using the Internet to find information will increase as you gain experience. WHAT IS THE INTERNET? The Internet is an elaborate series of interconnected networks linking millions of computers around the world. Originally developed by the U.S. Defense Department in the 1960s for military purposes, it was later expanded to include researchers in universities and other government agencies. As more and more researchers connected to the networks, the system was upgraded to include faster communication lines and faster computers. In the early 1990s. Congress enacted legislation that extended Internet use to schools, junior colleges, and community colleges. The legislation also included provisions for businesses to purchase part of the network for commercial use (Krol 15). Academic research organizations which once dominated the use and development of the Internet were joined by commercial enterprises for providing more universal access. Today, the Internet has become a massive information 129 thousands of Internet service providers competing to provide Internet connections that are faster and more reliable than those of their competitors. A list of Internet service providers may be found at http:// www.isp-guide.com/. The list lets you locate providers by area codes or type of service. You also have a wide choice of technologies: cable television modem, digital subscriber lines (DSL), wireless satellite, and dial-up connection. A dial-up account is the least expensive, but it is also the slowest. ELECTRONIC MAIL (E-MAIL) Electronic mail (e-mail) is a feature of the Internet that allows you to send or receive mail electronically. With e-mail you can send a message to any person with an e-mail account anywhere in the world. Mail delivered in this way is extremely fast, usually arriving at its destination within seconds of having been sent. E-mail functions also support LISTSERV discussion groups where you can share information with people around the world. E-MAILADDRESSES The e-mail address is based, in part, on a user ID assigned to you by the Internet provider within the domain at a specific institution. TOP-LEVEL DOMAINS ON THE INTERNET LISTSERV LISTSERVs are a combination of e-mail and discussion groups. You must formally subscribe to a LISTSERV in order to receive and send mail. Once you have subscribed you will automatically receive mail that is sent by any other member of the list. To subscribe to a LISTSERV you must first find the address of the list to which you wish to subscribe. A list of LISTSERVS is available at: http://www.lsoft.com/catalist.html. Then send a message to that address by placing the following message in the body: subscribe [name of LISTSERV] [your real name (not your e-mail ID)] FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP) File transfer protocol (FTP) allows you to efficiently transfer large files of all kinds from one computer on the Internet to another or to upload files to a Web page. There are special software utilities to handle file transfer such as WS FTP. WORLD WIDE WEB WHAT IS IT? The World Wide Web (WWW or Web) is a facet of the Internet that was developed in the early 1990s. Today the ordinary user tends to think that the Internet and the World Wide Web are the same. How- 0 Social media such as Facebook, Linkedln, or Twitter, applications that allow communication, connectivity, and sharing of photos, videos, and Web links with a group of persons, may be accessed via computer or mobile device. For information about Web 2.0 applications for education visit: http://www.archives.gov/social-media/ http://www.archives.gov/education/regional-resources/connect.html http://edudemic.com/2011/11/best-web-tools/ ACCESSING THEWORLDWIDEWEB The World Wide Web is accessed by means of a browser—a powerful tool that allows you to navigate the Web by pointing and clicking on highlighted words or images (hot links or hyperlinks). The browser then retrieves the selected information from a remote computer and displays it on your screen. This information might be a picture, a movie, text, or sound, or a social media site. The browser uses the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which is the address for the link selected. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox are the most widely used Web browsers. Each can be downloaded free from the Internet. At the top of each screen are a standard menu bar and a tool bar with frequently used commands. Each has a clearly visible form that shows the Internet address (URL) that is currently displayed. A new address can be typed in at any time to go to another page. Each browser allows the user to save frequently used URLs. Other features include downloading, searching, e-mail, and Internet security. URL To go directly to a specific source you must know the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL is a unique global Internet identifier used on the World Wide Web. It allows any document anywhere on the Internet to be accessed by any browser. The URL is comparable to someone's address that gives the country, state, city, street, and house number. URLs are composed of several parts including the Intemet access protocol, the location, and the file. Example 5: The Internet 133 What are meta-tags? They are keywords and descriptive phrases inserted into the heading of a Web page. This information is not seen by those viewing a Web page; rather it is information that some search engines use to index the page and, in some cases, to summarize the page. Although keywords listed in the meta-tags are important, they are not critical since not all search engines use the keywords listed in meta-tags. Authors wanting to make sure that their pages are indexed properly use appropriate keywords in the title and in the text of the document as well as in the meta-tags. When the user enters search words in a search engine, the search engine looks for matching words in its index. The aim of any of the search engines is to provide a list of the sites in rank order, with the most relevant at the top of the list. WHAT SEARCH ENGINES DO NOT FIND 1. Newly created pages One misconception about search engines is that each time a spider goes out, it is looking for newly created pages. In reality, it is following known links from one page to the next. Unless a Web page is linked to another page, or includes meta-tags, it will not be picked up by a search engine. Although some search engines ignore meta-tags, others use them to find new pages. In addition, most search engine companies offer ways for authors to register new pages for inclusion in the search database. 2. Deep Web Search engines retrieve enormous amounts of information on the Web, but there is much more that they miss in the normal Web search. It is estimated that the search engines indexing the largest number of Web pages, such as Google or Northern Light, each index only about sixteen per cent of the pages on the Web (Bergman). The other 84 percent is what is referred to as the Deep Web or sometimes as the Invisible Web or Hidden Web. It includes: 0 pages which are not linked to other pages; o the contents of online databases; o sites that require the user to register in order to access them; 0 sites that deliberately limit access by search engine spiders, and are accessible through direct search. INFORMATION ABOUT DEEP WEB OR INVISIBLE WEB CAN BE FOUND AT: http://www.intemettutorials.net/deepweb.asp http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html http://www.llrx.com/features/deepweb.htm Although information on the Deep Web is more elusive than pages that are retrieved by spiders, it is still accessible. Search engines are constantly improving their search capabilities in order to retrieve more sites. Image files such as maps, videos, and charts, once inaccessible, are now being picked up by search engine spiders. Although the contents of databases are not accessible by spiders, it is possible to retrieve the top-level page. For example, a search in Google for "U.S. laws" brings up a listing for FindLaw. One may then search for specific laws using the FindLaw search engine. There are a number of directories of database sites which are useful for finding specific databases. These include: http://Completeplanet.com . the front door [to thousands of] Deep Web databases on the Web and to the thousands of regular search engines." 5: Figure 5.1 C) Search engines by type. Keyword Search Guidelines Conduct a successful keyword search Analyze your topic and be as specific as possible when choosing your keywords. Be sure to check your spelling when you type your keywords. For example, if you want information on the harmful effects of diet pills, you want to use all the terms in your search statement—diet/pills/harmful/effects, not just "diet" or "diet pills." Use Boolean operator AND (or the plus (+) symbol) to narrow a search. Example Diet and pills and harmful and effects OR diet +pills +harmful +effects 5 : 137 Search results are usually ranked for relevancy with those meeting most of the criteria above ranked higher. Natural language searching is good for beginners and for children, but usually it is not as effective as keyword or subject searching. More Information Some search engines might be case sensitive, and others might not allow certain types of searches. Still others might have advanced search features that allow you to limit your search in much the same way as you would in an online catalog. For a list of search engines and their features, go to the Search Engine List (http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/) or look at the help features on individual search engine pages. SEARCH ENGINE FEATURES Figure 5.2 shows some of the important features for a few of the most popular search engines. Recall that the Intemet is fluid—anything listed here is subject to change. Figure 5.2 0 Search engine features. HUMAN-INDEXED DIRECTORIES While search engines are robotic and use algorithms for relevance ranking (such as Google's technology: http://www.google.com/onceuponatime/technology/pigeonrank.html), there are also human-indexed directories by information specialists who locate and compile relevant Web sites on a variety of topics. One of the best human-indexed sites is the Internet Scout Project (https://scout.wisc.edu/), which contains Web sites recommended by scholars at the University of Wisconsin. Other useful sites indexed by librarians or information specialists include: Digital Librarian—http://www.digital-librarian.com/ Internet Public Library—http://www.ipl.org/ New York Public Library Best of the Web—http://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/ best-of-web The Webby Award annually honors the best of the Web—http://www.webbyawards.com/ 5: false wamings about computer viruses that may disable your computer unless you comply with their requests. 0 Pornography: any material containing sexually explicit pictures or words. Online pornography refers to material which is distributed primarily through e-mail, Web sites, and UseNet groups. Efforts at curtailing pornography on the Internet have failed (except where child pornography is concerned) because of the difficulty in defining pomography and because of freedom of expression issues. PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY There are measures that you can take to ensure your safety and safeguard your privacy in an online environment. Do not give out personal or financial information unless you are certain that you are using a secure Web site or that it is the official site of your bank or other enterprise. 0 Verify that the address that appears on the sender's line of an e-mail is the actual sender. 0 Report unsolicited spam e-mail to the Federal Trade Commission (http://www.ftc.gov/) by filing a complaint form, or forward spam directly to the Commission at [email protected]. 0 Do not respond to phishing attempts. If you have doubts about the legitimacy of the return address, logon to the official site and file a report. Visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group site at http://www. antiphishing.org/to learn more about phishing and how to deal with it. Consult the Hoaxbusters Web site at: http://www.hoaxbusters.org/ to become aware of the many types of hoaxes. 0 Keep your computer's operating system updated as a protection against hackers and viruses. Learn about software that will protect you against unwanted e-mail or popup ads. Above all, keep informed. Information about security and privacy issues changes constantly. Some useful sites for help and information are: http://www.ftc.gov/infosecurity/ (The US Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Information Security site) http://www.cdt.org/ (The Center for Democracy and Technology) http://privacy.org/ (Site for daily news, information, and initiatives relating to privacy) http://www.getnetwise.org/(Includes information on privacy, child protection, hackers, and viruses) http://www.privacyrights.org/ (Nonprofit consumer Information and Advocacy Organization)