Basic Approach to the Internet

Contents:

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a way for people to communicate and share information among a group of computers. Information is provided to people who may be some distance away through connections between computers.

There is a tremendous amount of information available on the Internet and more information becomes available every day. It is a constantly changing, international environment. Because the Internet is ungoverned, it is generally uncensored and uncontrolled.

Frequently the terms World Wide Web (WWW) and Internet are used interchangeably. Technically, the Internet is the physical computer network. The WWW is a portion of that network that allows the accessing of documents using hypertext links. These links serve as connectors to documents or sections of documents located elsewhere on the Internet.
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WWW access is provided on this campus through a browser called Netscape. Each document available on the WWW has an address which is called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL of the document that is currently on the screen will be displayed in the Netsite or Address bar near the top of the screen.

• Entering a URL: Click on File at the top of the screen. Choose Open Location. Enter the URL in the box provided. Make sure that you enter its punctuation and capitalization accurately. Click Open.
  
  
• Hypertext links are segments of text, usually a different color from the rest of the text and often underlined, which allow you to move between and within documents on the WWW. Hypertext can also be recognized because the cursor will change shape when moved across it. Use the mouse to click on a hypertext link and follow that connection.

Navigational buttons are available to help you move screen by screen within a document and also between documents. These buttons are located near the top of the screen in the toolbar. Two important buttons are:

• Back: Return to the last screen that you viewed.
  
• Stop: Interrupts and stops the document from loading.

A search engine is a searchable database of sites that helps you locate material on your topic. Some common search engines are: AltaVista, FastSearch, Excite, GO, Lycos, and Yahoo.

A search engine can be accessed by entering its URL. Netscape provides access to a list of common search engines. To get to the list click on the Netsearch button. Netscape will randomly select a search engine for you; to choose another, click on its name from the list.

Understanding how search engines work is essential to uncovering information on the Internet. Many Web sites explain the features and search techniques of the most common search engines. These sites explain how to use different search engines and help you to choose the most appropriate one for your search. The URL for one of these sites is:

Altavista and GO Search Engine Features

Note: Definitions and examples of the features listed in the table can be accessed by clicking on the column headings.

• Combining Terms Using AND, OR, NOT: Terms can be linked with AND to search for both terms, with OR to search for either or both terms, and NOT to exclude words. Most search engines will default to the OR relationship between terms unless you specify otherwise. Most search engines present results in a ranked or weighted order that differs depending on the search engine used. (Return to the table.)
  • AltaVista: (Example: women and history Example: women or history Example: women not history)
  
  
• Using + and -: Use + to precede terms that must be present in each retrieved item. Use - to precede terms that you do not want to retrieve. (Return to the table.)
  • AltaVista: (Example: +women -history Retrieves women, discards documents with history)
  • GO: (Example: +women -history Documents containing history are ranked lower)
  
  
• Truncation: Search multiple forms of a word. (Return to the table.)
  • AltaVista: (Example: educat* Retrieves educate, education, educator, etc.)
  
  
• Adjacency: Specify that words must appear next to each other in retrieved items. (Return to the table.)
  • AltaVista and GO: (Example: "special education" )
  
  
• Proximity: Use NEAR between terms or enclose terms in square brackets to ensure that words are within a specified distance of each other. That distance is determined by the search engine. (Return to the table.)
  • AltaVista: (Example: special near education)
  • GO: (Example: [special education] )

Evaluating the Information Found on the WWW:

If you are using the Internet for academic research you need to be aware that search engines make no attempt to evaluate the quality of the material located. Therefore some material is not necessarily appropriate for scholarly use and will not be as acceptable to your professors. Use the questions below to critically evaluate the material you find.

Criterion:	Questions to ask:
Quality	Is it facts or opinions? How well has the author documented the sources of the information?
Objectivity and Accuracy	How complete is the information? Is it outdated? What is the intended purpose of the information? Is it an advertisement? What is the perspective of the publication? Who wrote, created or published the information? Is the author’s perspective culturally diverse?
Accessibility and Availability	How is the information accessed? Will the information be available again if you need it at a later date? Be aware that some Internet information can be very transitory or short lived.