TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, 2015 1 Online Information Retrieval: Tools & Techniques...

TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, 2015

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Online Information Retrieval: Tools &

Techniques

Rajesh SinghDeputy Librarian

University of DelhiDELHI

[email protected]


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My credentials Information Literacy Program (ILP) at University of

Delhi, since 2006. E-Resource Orientation Programs

Campus DepartmentsColleges

IL Annual Workshops

Sciences

Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Training The Trainers IL Workshop

College LibrariesCampus Libraries

Hands on Training College Faculty Members

Optional short term course ‘Information Literacy for Research Competency’ .

“Online Tutorial on Information Literacy” http://crl.du.ac.in/ot/

Promoting DULS ILP as a model for rest of the Universities in India .


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Features of e-Resources

Huge information reservoir

Up-to-date information

Multimedia format

Interactive

Quick information retrieval

24X7 Availability

Multidisciplinary approach

Peer-reviewed Information sources

Various search options

Special services i.e. SDI, Alerts, etc.

Standardized citations


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Features of e-Resources

Thus it Facilitate : My folder/ my profile/ my settings etc.

Selection of Journals for searching

Download/save/mail search results.

Locate a Publication

Visual Search/Concept Map

Common/Federated Search (Possible Searches)

Number of databases

One subject or a group of subjects

Particular Journal/ Author


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Informatio

n Overl

oad

Rajesh Singh, DULS


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Information Environment

Information made available through web information retrieval tools such as search engines provides thousands of search results which may not be useful if they are not indexed properly.

Information retrieval tools such as Search engines crawl the Web and log the words from the web pages they find in their databases.

Without a clear information retrieval strategy, using a search engine is like wondering aimlessly in the stacks of a library trying to find a particular book.


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Information Environment

Use of information retrieval tools for searches of electronic resources are more effective if you know how to "talk to“.

Communicating with these systems requires knowing certain basic search techniques.

These techniques are very important for getting good search results.

These techniques will vastly improve your search results while searching the Internet.


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Before we begin, we first need a little understanding about how information is stored and accessed on the Web. There are basically three categories of information on the Web:

The Free, Visible Web.

This category includes all the publicly mounted Web pages. These pages are indexed by search engines. To find information from this category, use a good search engine or directory.

Categories of Information on the Web


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The Free, Invisible Web. This category includes the contents of sites that provide their articles or information free to users, but that content may be accessible only by going directly to the site. In other words, search engines cannot index it. Some magazines, newspapers, reference works, and other sites are in this category. Many databases such as legal, medical, and financial are here, too. To find information from this category, you must go to the appropriate database.

Paid Databases over the Web. This category includes commercial databases that libraries subscribe to, containing scholarly journals, newspapers, court cases and the like. Providers like Elsevier, EBSCO, UMI Proquest, JSTOR and others are in this group. To find information from this category, you must have access to the database and search on the database using the particular search engine and its features.

Categories of Information on the Web…


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Information Retrieval Tool Types

Search Engines.

A search engine consists of the interface you use to type in a query, an index of Web sites that the query is matched with, and a software program (called a spider or robot) that goes out on the Web and gets new sites for the index. The robot crawls the Web at certain intervals, in order to index new material. When you use a search engine, you are asking it to look in its index to find matches with the words you have typed in. Many search engines may also have news, weather, free software, picture indexes, ratings of web sites, and other features.

Directories.

Directories are categorized lists of sites picked out by human editors. Directory databases are therefore much smaller than those of search engines. However, the fact that the sites are hand picked often means that you will find very high quality sites or articles in the results. Example directories are Yanza, Look Smart, and intute.


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What is a search engine?

A Tool!


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Search tool most often used. Finds web pages by using small, automated

computer programs called spiders or crawlers.

Advantage – Sites are recorded and updated automatically so the database is HUGE.

Disadvantage – Search engines do not evaluate the web sites for content or accuracy.

What is a search engine?


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Search Engines

Search engines are the preferred tool when you: Are looking for something very specific Need to pin down a quick fact or two Need to know if any information exists at all on a

subject Want mass quantities of links, but are not

concerned about quality control.


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Examples – Search Engines

Google – www.google.com Altavista- www.altavista.com Lycos- www.lycos.com Yahoo! Search – http://search.yahoo.com Excite – www.excite.com Alltheweb – www.alltheweb.com


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Subject Directories

A subject directory is a database of titles, citations, and websites organized by category.

Advantage – Most directories are edited, maintained and created by people. Usually they are carefully evaluated and

annotated for this reason. Disadvantage – Typically include a smaller number

of sites than a search engine due to the great amount of human effort involved.


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Subject Directories

Subject directories are organized and selective.

They are useful when you want to know more about broad-based subjects, such as General topics Popular topics Targeted directories Current events Product information


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Examples of Subject Directories

Bubl Information Services http://bubl.ac.uk/ Infomine http://infomine.ucr.edu/ Intute http://www.intute.ac.uk/ MathGuide http://www.mathguide.de/ Pinakes: A Subject Launchpad http://www.hw.ac.uk

/ SocioSite http://www.sociosite.net/ WWW Virtual Library http://vlib.org/ Yenza http://www.nrf.ac.za/yenza/

Subject Directories


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Metasearch Engines

Meta searches use multiple engines to look for your keywords.

Advantage – You have many search engines all looking for what you need. Great when you are looking for something that is hard to find.

Disadvantage – It’s hard to fine tune your search and narrow things down. Also, Meta searches can sometimes give you more information than what you need.


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Examples - Metasearches

Beaucoup! – www.beaucoup.com Clusty – http://clusty.com Mamma, “the mother of all search

engines”- www.mamma.com Ixquick – www.ixquick.com


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Federated/Meta Search Engines @ DULS


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Overall Structure

Research Topic

Specialist sub-area

RelevantPrimaryresearch

Your research question



Information Retrieval Tips …

Recall,

Relevance, and

Precision



Information Retrieval Strategy

STEP 1: STATE WHAT YOU WANT TO FIND

First, in one or two sentences, state what you want to find. Example:

Cognitive Architecture of the Depressed. Globalization and its impact on the Indian Working

Class.



STEP 2: IDENTIFY KEYWORDS Underline the main concepts in the

statement. Example:

Cognitive Architecture of the Depressed.

Globalization and its impact on the Indian Working Class.




STEP 3: SELECT SYNONYMS AND VARIANT WORD FORMS

List synonyms, alternate spellings, and variant word forms of each. Example:

Alternate terms of Software Reengineering: Computer software reengineering, reengineering of Software, software renovation, software renewal, software engineering, software maintenance, computer software reusability,etc.




STEP 4: COMBINE SYNONYMS,

KEYWORDS, AND VARIANT

WORD FORMS.

Using different searching techniques/ connectors / operators.




STEP 5: GIVE A CONTEXT

Genetic Mutation Human, Animal, Plants

Foreign Direct Investment India, 2010-2014




STEP 6: CHECK YOUR SPELLING

A Search engines return websites with words that match your keywords. If you misspell a keyword, your results will contain websites where that word is also misspelled.




Search

Technique

s

Concept

Map/

Visual

Search

Related Topics Publication

Search



Search Techniques

Phrase Search

Field Search

Boolean operators

Proximity Search

Controlled Vocabulary

Concept Map



Search Techniques

Limiting/ Refining Searches

Publication Search

Visual Search

Related Topics

Online Information Retrieval: Tools &

Techniques

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TTT Workshop on Information Literacy July, 2015 1 Online Information Retrieval: Tools & Techniques...

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