Internet Searching Class Outline
Internet Searching: Tackling search engines and the library catalog
Class Description: Struggling to find the information you need on the Internet? The Internet is growing
at an enormous rate and we need the tools to sift through the information available. This class
addresses tools you can use to decrease frustrations in searching for information. Topics covered
include searching the library catalog, using search engines, and search strategies.
Class Length: 2 hours
Objectives:
Be able to locate library materials in the library catalog.
Perform searches using popular search engines and learn effective strategies for obtaining
useful results.
Class Schedule
Searching the Library Catalog
o Title Search
o Author Search
o Keyword Search
Search Engines
o What is a Search Engine?
o How to use a Search Engine
 Single Word
 Multiple Word
Search Strategies
Boolean Operators
Internet Searching Class Outline
Searching the Internet
The Internet can be thought of as a huge library of information. There is an enormous amount of
information on the Internet that is growing daily. In 2008, there was an estimated 9 million
websites…now, years later there are many, many more.
How do we successfully navigate through all that information to find what we are looking for?
Search engines and other search tools allow us to search the internet for the information we need.
Searching the Library Catalog
Learning to successfully search the library catalog can provide a framework for knowing how to search
other websites on the Internet. Searching techniques are fairly standard across different websites.
There are three main ways that you will search the library catalog:
1. Title Search – You know the exact title of the book.
2. Author Search – You are looking for a book by a specific author.
3. Keyword Search – You are looking for a general subject.
Starting Activity
1. Go to the Internet Explorer icon on your desktop and double click.
a. This will open the library’s website.
2. Click on the catalog link at the top of the page.
a. This will open up the library’s catalog.
We are going to work through some search examples together.
Title Search
You can search for books, movies, journals, or music CDs by searching by the exact title of the work.
1. In the search box at the top of the
page, click once to get the typing cursor
symbol in the box.
2. Type “The Hunger Games” as the
search term in the box.
3. Click “Enter” on your keyboard or click
on the Search button to start the
search.
Internet Searching Class Outline
At this point, you will see a list of results for The Hunger Games listed in the middle of the page. If you
click on the first link, you will find a record for the
book. These records have information about when
the resource was published, the author, and also a
brief summary of the item’s contents.
When you scroll down, you can see what libraries in
the Berks County Library System have this book in
their collection. You can also see where the book is
located in the collection and if it is available for you
to check out.
You also have the option to place the book on hold
by click on the “Request Copy” link. This will take you
to a sign in page where you put in your library barcode number and pin number (the last four digits of
your phone number).
Results List
The results list can give you some
important information when you are
searching a topic. The first thing it
tells you is how many results you are viewing. The list tells you that you are viewing results 1-25 out of
44 total results. This means that there is another page to your results list with results 26-44. You can
find the second page by scrolling to the bottom of your results list.
At the bottom of the page, you will find a listing of numbers with First, Previous, Next, and Last next to
them. If you click on the numbers, they will take you to another page of results (i.e. clicking on 2 will
take you to the second page of results). You can use the First and Last links to take you to the first or
last page of results. Finally, you can use the Previous and Next links to take you to the next or previous
results. This is how you can navigate a results list.
Internet Searching Class Outline
Author Search
You can search for authors, composers, directors,
musicians and more in the catalog. For example, you
can search for all the books written by a certain
author simply by searching the author’s name. Here
is how you do it:
1. In the search box at the top of the page, click
once to get the typing cursor symbol in the
box.
2. Type “James Patterson” as the search term in
the box.
3. Click “Enter” on your keyboard or click on the
Search button to start the search.
It shows you that there are 398 hits for the name
James Patterson. He wrote a lot of books!
Keyword Search
You can search for a topic in the catalog. This is useful when you are looking for a specific subject and
you don’t know the exact name of an author or title. Keyword searches can yield a large number of
results, but you can refine your search to get the results you are looking for.
1. In the search box at the top of the page, click once to get the typing cursor symbol in the box.
2. Type “Civil War” as the search term in the box.
3. Click “Enter” on your keyboard
or click on the Search button
to start the search.
As you can see, we got over 3000 results. In order to find what we’re looking for, we need to narrow
down our search.
Refining Your Search
You can refine or narrow your search in order to get less search results. One way you can do this is by
using the right hand column in the library catalog.
1. Select Location –Limit your results to a specific library’s collection.
2. Format – Limit your results to a specific type of item (for example: books, children’s, movies,
DVD, Audio Book etc.)
3. Author – Limit by who wrote the book.
Internet Searching Class Outline
4.
5.
6.
7.
Language
Range – Limit by when it was published
Topic – Limit by the topic
Series – Limit by the series it belongs to
These limits will narrow your search results down so you can have a
more accurate list to look through.
Practice:
Let’s narrow our civil war search down by selecting the following:
1. Select Location: Muhlenberg Community Library
2. Format: Book
3. Topic: Generals
How many results do we have now?
What is a Search Engine?
Search Engines are created by a special computer called spiders. These
spiders locate websites and create an index of words. When a word or
words are typed in the search engine, a list of web sites that contain that
word displays. The words you enter are called a query. The websites
that display are referred to as hits or search results.
Search Engines are best used when you are searching for information on
a specific topic. Popular search engines include Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Starting the Search Process
Before you search:
Think of different words to describe the topic you would like to search.
For example: If you want to search on fishing, it will bring back a lot of search results.
Narrow it down by searching a type of fishing such as fly fishing for more relevant
results.
Using a Search Engine: Google
1. Open Internet Explorer on your computer by double clicking on the icon on the desktop.
2. Go to the address bar and type in www.google.com. Hit enter to go to the page.
a. Google will open on the screen with a large search box in the middle.
Internet Searching Class Outline
Practice: Single Word Search
1. In the search box, type in the
word lake.
2. Click on the Google Search button
or press enter.
3. Scroll down the page and look at
the first 10 web sites.
a. A short description
displays underneath each
link.
4. Click on a link to access the website and click the Back button to return to the results list.
Practice: Multiple Word Search
1. Click on the search box and type in
the words lake Michigan.
2. Click the Google Search button or
press enter on your keyboard.
a. Notice the list of websites
that displays is smaller,
although still quite large.
3. Click on the link titled, Lake Michigan
– Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,
and explore the website.
Phrase Searching
There may be some topics you search that are not single words, but entire phrases such as cinnamon
bread. Typing the two words cinnamon bread will yield a large set of results that have other hits such as
cinnamon rolls or cinnamon raisin bread. In order to search for the phrase you can use quotation marks.
Let’s try it!
1. Type in the phrase cinnamon bread in
the search box.
2. Press the Enter key or click to Google
search button directly below the
search box.
a. There are 21,200,000 results
from this search.
3. Try the search again, but this time type
in “cinnamon bread”.
4. Press the Enter key or click to Google
search button directly below the
search box.
a. Now there are only 519,000 results.
Internet Searching Class Outline
Other Search Strategies
AND: Google automatically adds “and” to your search terms. This means it will search lake AND
Michigan when you type in multiple words.
Case: Google is not case sensitive. It does not matter if you type WISCONSIN or wisconsin.
Keywords: Avoid using broad terms in your search. Narrow your results by choosing more specific
information.
Stop Words: Avoid using common words such as how, where, and the just to name a few.
Spelling: Watch out for spelling mistakes. Google will prompt you if you spell something wrong.
If you are interested in more in depth search strategies, check out:
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861
Practice: Google Searching
Practice doing a few Google searches on topics you are interested in. Keep your search terms specific.
Try doing a single word, multiple word, and phrase search.
Ideas
Fishing
Fly Fishing
“Fly Fishing”
Finding Credible Information Online
Here are some techniques to check on a website:
-
Use sites that end in .gov or .edu.
Avoid information that is out of date.
Make sure the author is an expert.
Look for unbiased websites.
o Ask yourself: Does the site push an opinion or make a point?
Internet Searching Class Outline
Activity:
Try finding answers to these questions by using search engines.
1. What is the population of the United States?
2. Find a recipe for peanut butter cookies.
3. Who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988?
4. What college football team is ranked #1 in the latest AP poll?
5. What are the hours of your neighborhood library?
6. Find out the current weather forecast for Laureldale, PA.
7. Locate the web site for the Muhlenberg Elementary School.
Homework:
Practice what you learned for 15 minutes a day.
-
Practice using a search engine to find information on your hobbies/interests.
Practice searching the library catalog online for books that might interest you.
Works Cited:
Internet Searching Class Outline – Milwaukee Public Library Foundation:
http://www.mpl.org/file/computer_curriculums.htm#computer.