Information Resources on the Web

Objectives
• Session 4.1
– Find current news
– Get up-to-date weather information
– Obtain maps and destination information
– Locate people and businesses
– Purchase items online
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Objectives
• Session 4.2
– Understand copyrights, fair use, public domain, and plagiarism
– Learn how to cite Web resources
– Find library and text resources on the Web
– Locate multimedia elements on the Web, including images, audio, and video
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Session 4.1 Overview
Types of Information on the Internet
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Finding Current and Specific
Information on the Web
• Finding Recent Information
– Search engines usually include more recent listings than directories
– Use a search engine that allows date-range restrictions
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Finding Current and Specific
Information on the Web
• Getting Current News
– The Web has a variety of sources for current news
– You can search a site for specific news stories
– A news aggregation Web site collects and displays content from a variety of online news sources (wire services, print media, broadcast outlets, blogs) and displays it in one place
– A wire service is an organization that gathers and distributes news to newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, Web sites, and other organizations that pay a fee to the wire service
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Finding Up-to-Date Weather
Information
• There are many sites devoted to weather forecasts, including local news sites
• Web sites offer a wealth of other features and information, including live radar, graphs, 10-day forecasts, trip planners, severe weather reports, satellite views, desktop weather apps, and video forecasts
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Obtaining Maps and Destination
Information
• Maps can:
– Show an overview of a region or state
– Be zoomed to detailed maps
• With online maps you can:
– Get directions to a specific location
– Observe current traffic and weather conditions
– Look at a satellite view instead of a street map
– See photos of the location
– Find businesses in the area
– See activities and attractions in an area
– Identify services
– Find information such as gas prices and parking
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Obtaining Maps and Destination
Information
• Travel guide sites include:
– Descriptive and comprehensive information about a location
– Reviews of hotels and restaurants
– Trip ideas
– Travel deals
– Calendars of events
– Discussions, photos, and blogs
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• Can use these sites to plan a trip:
– Select a destination
– Learning about history and attractions
– Find hotels and restaurants
– Make flight and hotel reservations
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Finding People and Businesses
• Most online directories provide access to both people and business contact information
• You can search for:
– An individual by name, postal address, email address, or phone number
– A specific business by name or by category in a geographic area
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Finding People and Businesses
• Some sites provide other features, including:
– Maps and driving directions
– Reviews of businesses
– Area code and zip code lookup
– A person’s age and information about his or her relatives
– A background check
– Property value, sales history, property details, and neighborhood information
• Most directory sites charge a fee to access the detailed information
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Finding Products and Services Online
• E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to the process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing, and paying for products and services online
• Retailers have a presence on the Web
• Some retailers have both a physical location and a
Web site; others are online only without a storefront/brick-and mortar store.
• Individuals also sell their products and services on the Web
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Finding Products and Services Online
• The most prevalent e-commerce site is
Amazon.com
• Individuals sell items on the Web using sites such as eBay and craigslist
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Session 4.2 Overview
Web Page Citation Guidelines
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Understanding Copyright
• Many Web page elements and other items online are forms of intellectual property, which includes all creations of the human mind
• Intellectual property rights include the protections afforded to individuals and companies by governments through governments’ granting of copyrights and patents, and through registration of trademarks and service marks
• Once the term of a copyright has expired, the work is in the public domain, which means anyone is free to copy the files without requesting permission from the source
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Understanding Copyright
• Many Web page elements and other items online are forms of
intellectual property, which includes all creations of the human mind
• Copyrights are granted by a government to the author or creator of an original work
• Creations that can be copyrighted include virtually all forms of artistic or intellectual expression
• The tangible form of the work can be words, numbers, notes, sounds, pictures, and so forth
• Copyright protection exists whether the work is published or unpublished
• In the U.S. (since 1978), the copyright is in effect for the life of the author plus another 70 years
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Understanding Copyright
• Determining Fair Use
– U.S. copyright law allows people to use portions of copyrighted works without obtaining permission from the copyright holder if that use is a fair use
– The fair use of a copyrighted work includes copying it for use in criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research
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• Courts generally consider the following four factors when determining fair use:
1.
The purpose and character of the new work
2.
The nature of the copyrighted work
3.
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4.
The effect of the use on the potential market, or value, of the copyrighted work
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Understanding Copyright
• Works in the Public Domain
– Once the term of the copyright has expired, the work moves into the public domain, which means that anyone is free to copy the work without requesting permission from the last copyright holder
– A copyright can protect a particular expression of a creative work in addition to the work itself
– Authors or creators can place their work into the public domain voluntarily at any time
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Understanding Copyright
• Understanding Plagiarism
– Failure to cite the source of material that you use is called plagiarism
– Plagiarism is a serious legal violation that can lead to a failing grade, being expelled from school, being fired from a job, or being subjected to a hefty fine or prosecution
– Plagiarism can be:
• As simple as including a sentence or two from someone else’s work without using quotation marks or attribution
• As blatant as duplicating substantial parts of someone else’s work and claiming it as your own
• More subtle, such as paraphrasing someone else’s content without the proper citation of the source
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Citing Web Resources
• All works you reference in a report or paper—whether they are protected by copyright, in the public domain, or considered fair use—need to be documented
• To address the issue of documenting dynamic Web pages, digital intellectual content such as online journals, articles, reports, and white papers are assigned a unique alphanumeric string of characters, called a digital object identifier (DOI)
• The DOI identifies the content and provides a persistent link to its location (or locations) as long as the content exists somewhere on the Internet
• The two most widely followed standards for academic research citations are those of the American Psychological
Association (APA) and the Modern Language Association
(MLA)
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Citing Web Resources
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Libraries offer content (books, periodicals, journals, and so forth) in a wide variety of formats
• An increasing number of books are available as ebooks
• Libraries can subscribe to huge databases that offer a wealth of information
• Other print resources—such as periodicals, scholarly journals, and government resources—have become available on the Web
• Web resources can remain current and easily accessible to their audiences
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Online References
– Many references, including dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, quotations, grammar checkers, rhyming dictionaries, and language-translation sites
– Some require a subscription fee, but many free online reference tools exist
– The Web also includes sites that offer full-text copies of works that are no longer protected by copyright
– The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine provides researchers with a series of snapshots of Web pages as they were at various points in history
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Periodical Databases
– Periodicals—magazines, journals, and other articles— related to almost any industry, field, or topic abound
– Originally were available only in printed format at libraries; now thousands are available on the Web
– If you know what periodical you want to search, you could go directly to its Web site
– If you are more interested in articles related to a particular topic, then you can use a periodical database to locate them
– You can browse indexed articles by topic or you can search for articles based on a keyword
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Online and Virtual Libraries
– Most libraries now provide online access to their collections and services; you can:
• Search the library catalog and reserve or hold books
• Access articles from newspapers and magazines
• Search databases to which the library subscribes
• Access general reference resources
– Many libraries also provide access to Web-based books and videos, as well as make available e-books, e-journals, and digital audiobooks
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Online and Virtual Libraries (continued)
– Another way to access library information is through a virtual library, which is a Web site that provides online access to library information services
– Some virtual libraries are also portal sites that link to a variety of library and reference sites on the
Web
– The portal site can be general and provide access to a wide variety of Web sites, or it can be specialized and provide access to related sites
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Online and Virtual
Libraries (continued)
– One free virtual library resource is
LibrarySpot.com; it includes many of the same materials you would find in a public or school library
– Unlike a brick-andmortar library, these libraries are open 24 hours a day and seven days a week
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Government Sites
– The United States government collects and creates a wide variety of information and provides many services
– Much of this information is available on the Web
– You can go to local, state, and federal government agency sites to locate specific information
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Government Sites
(continued)
– The THOMAS section of the Library of
Congress Web site is a serious research tool that provides access to the full text of bills that are before the U.S.
Congress, the
Congressional Record, and Congressional
Committee Reports
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Accessing Text-Based Resources Online
• Government Sites
– You can use a portal site to access any government-related information from a central place
– USA.gov
• The official Web portal for the U.S. government
• Provides access to all official U.S. government services and information in one place
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Multimedia on the Web
• Multimedia is anything you can see or hear, including text, pictures, audio/sound, videos, films, or animations
• The use of multimedia elements on Web sites has, in many instances, improved the functionality and usefulness of the Web
• The Web is also a great resource for users seeking specific multimedia such as graphics, photos, videos, and music to use for their own purposes and entertainment
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Graphic Images on the Web
– Images are commonly in one of three file formats:
• JPEG images for photographs
• GIF images for line drawings
• PNG images for more complex graphics
– To find graphic images on the Web, you can:
• Use a search engine to locate images related to your search term
• Search stock photography sites; Stock images are professional photographs, line drawings, and other graphics that are available for purchase
• Find photographs to use through photo-sharing sites
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Audio Files on the Web
– You can find audio files on the Web
– “Audio” refers to sounds of any type: instrumental music, songs with vocals, speeches, audio books, and sound effects
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Audio Files on the Web (continued)
– You can find audio on the Web in a variety of places
• Some artists and bands sell and distribute their music on their own
• Many online stores sell digitized music
• Digital music subscription services
– Digital audio books are popular download items
• Purchase directly from publishers, from etailers, or on sites devoted to audio books
• Some are in the public domain and have been recorded so that people can listen to them for free
• Some are protected by copyright and must be purchased or used as part of a subscription service
• Some libraries offer for checkout just like printed books in their catalog
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Audio Files on the Web (continued)
– Some sites place restrictions on the number of copies you can make of each song
– A few sites restrict you from converting files into other formats, or they restrict the types of devices on which you are permitted to play the song
– The restrictions are implemented in the files themselves, using systems of encoding called digital rights management (DRM)
• Different online music vendors use different DRM systems
• Their files might not be compatible with each other
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Video Files
– The term video refers to content that has a progression of visual images and can include audio
– In a streaming transmission:
• The Web server sends the first part of the file to a Web browser or a media player program, which uncompresses and then plays the file
• While the first part of the file plays, the server is sending the next segment of the file
– Streaming transmission allows you to access large audio or video files in less time than the download-then-play procedure because the streamed file begins playing before it finishes downloading
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Video Files
– Video files are available in a variety of formats
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Multimedia on the Web
• Finding Video Files
– You can find videos on the Web in a variety of ways:
• Some sites are devoted to video distribution
• Other sites provide stock videos
• You can use a search engine to find video files on the Web
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