??? How can I remember where I was if I don't know how I got there ???

or

Savvy Searching in 2002

Agenda:

1. Definitions of terms and examples
2. Visible versus the invisible web
3. Importance of organized bookmarking
4. Storing on the Web: Backflip

 

Terms and examples:

• Bookmarking = footprints of your visits to the web
  • Organize at the beginning
  • Edit bookmark properties
  • Store them online...later
    
    
• Search tools come in several varieties...all designed to assist the user in making some sense of cyberspace.
  • Engines: crawler-based; engineers approach to organzing the web.
    • Crawler or spider...crawls across the page, gathering "words" upon which searches are most likely performed
    • Index: database of the millions of pages that have been "spidered" lately
  • Directories: depends on humans to submit short descriptions of entire site.
    • Search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.
  • Metasearch tools: searches multiple search tools at same time.
    • Returns list of results "by search tool."
  • Specialized search tools: looks for specific types of information
    • In the case of child-geared search tools, age appropriate materials
      
      

      Engines	AltaVista	HotBot	Google	Fast
      Directories	Yahoo	Lycos	LookSmart	OpenDirectory
      Metaseachers	DogPile	Metacrawler	ProFusion	Vivisimo
      Specialized Tools	Ask An Expert	KidsClick	Yahooligans	Amazing Picture Machine

      
      
• Basics of successful on-line searching: phrase searching; field searching; limitation by date; restriction by language; truncation and use of wildcards
• Experiment with several search tools and familiarize yourself with both the oddities and the strengths of the resource.
• Invisible Web: information stored in databases. Spiders can record the library's address, but can tell you nothing about the books, magazines or other documents it contains.
• Gary Price, Reference Librarian at the Gelman Library at George Washington University: "Both professional and casual searchers should at least be aware that they could be missing some information or wasting time finding what could be found more easily if the right tool for the job is easily accessible."
• Examples of databases containing information yet not searchable with traditional tools:
  • Virtual Gumshoe
  • Infomine
  • Librarian's Index to the Internet

Useful Resources:

Power Searching Challenges and Tips

Search Engine Watc

Backflip

What is Backflip?

Online bookmark manager

Allows access to bookmarks anywhere from any PC

Only free web-based bookmarking service available at present