LECTURE NOTES AND LINKS

Internet and Research Overview

LivingInternet.com - detailed descriptions of the Internet and all its services.
Internet and Web Glossary
Overview / History of the Web from the W3C - Web "headquarters"

No single entity runs the Internet, but:
"Official" bodies exist to develop standards, protocols and software
- Internet Society - a non-governmental International organization for global cooperation and coordination for the Internet and its internetworking technologies and applications
- The World Wide Web Consortium - the W3C "develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding."
- The Internet Engineering Task Force - "a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual."
Individual networks may have AUP's - Acceptable Use Policies
"Netiquette

Not composed of material "selected" like a library collection
No standards or criteria for quality - anyone can "publish" a Web page. Need to Evaluate What You Find.
Not always the best source
Periodical indexes, printed reference works may be better sources of information
Not all-inclusive
The vast size of the Internet can give a false sense of completeness - remember the rest of the library! The Internet is ONE resource; the library has many other sources which may be better, quicker, easier places to start your research.

Internet Information Technology

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AltaVista - a large and powerful search engine that supports advanced search techniques (use full Boolean logic in the Advanced Search). mode) as well as simple searches and "natural language" questions.
Google - This search engine ranks results based in part on "link popularity," in an attempt to increase the quality and "importance" of results. Also indexes .pdf documents.
ASK.
Yahoo.

Metacrawler - Keep your searches simple at this fast metasearch engine.
Ixquick - You can use complex searching here: this metasearch engine will transfer your complex queries to the search engines that understand them, and even provide some "translation" to others to optimize results.
Dogpile
Vivisimo

Librarians Index to the Internet - a very well selected and annotated directory.
Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resources - 20,000+ well annotated sites for academic research.
Open Directory - "The Open Directory Project's goal is to produce the most comprehensive directory of the web, by relying on a vast army of volunteer editors."
Yahoo - one of the oldest and largest Internet directories.
Alexa Web Search
Internet Archive
NLM Pathfinder Index - Medical pathfinders produced by the National Library of Medicine.
Internet Public Library Pathfinders - "home-grown guides written by IPL staff which are intended to help you get started doing research on a particular topic, both online and at your local library."
Lexnotes Pathfinders - Legal pathfinders and links to legal collections.
IMAGES:

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Search Engines. Good sites for keeping current on search engine differences, changes, innovations.

Evaluating Websites. While a library collection is "developed" based on reviews, and other criteria for selection, sources on the Internet can come from anywhere and quality, authority, currency, etc. will vary greatly. Therefore:

Evaluate what you find! - as we do in class, train yourself to always think critically about sources of information.
In addition to your own critical evaluation, some search tools provide evaluations/reviews of sites, or claim to have preselected only the "best" sites. Try to find your site, for example, in lii.org.

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Citation, Copyright and Plagiarism

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