INFO 320
Lab 4 Assignment
Name:
Objective:
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Further practice searching
Practice developing search strategies for use in IR systems
Compare/contrast the services of different IR systems
General Instruction:
Finish this assignment during the lab, and turn in by Collect It (see the link on the website).
Useful Links:
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com
CiteSeer: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu
A list of popular search engines:
https://courses.washington.edu/info320/labs/Lab2_SearchEngineList.html
1. Select a classmate and form a team to work together on the following steps.
2. Choose TWO of the following topics for this assignment. You will perform a series of searching
tasks about this topic in different IR systems.
(1) Locate articles in the medical literature on the prevention of Lyme Disease
(2) Locate articles that discuss Insulin resistance/sensitivity linked to racial and ethnic
differences
(3) Find recent journal articles that discuss robot-assisted surgeries
(4) Search for articles on developments in query formulation and reformulation in information
retrieval and/or database management since 2000
(5) MPEG-3, developed by ISO/IEC's "Moving Picture Experts Group,” has proven to be an
extremely popular format for distributing music over the Internet. Development of a new
standard, MPEG-4, for multimedia digital formats such as streaming video, began in 2001.
What is the current status of MPEG-4?
(6) In which countries has the trademark “Legoland” been registered?
(7) Find research articles on the treatment and prevention of anorexia nervosa in the past 2
years. [Hint: Think of ways to limit the search – perhaps by title or descriptor or both)
(8) Find articles from the past 6 months in the New York Times that discuss issues
surrounding Net-phone regulation and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
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INFO320
Lab4 Assignment
3. Working with your partner, conduct a concept analysis on the topic you picked. That is, to
analyze and answer the question “What keywords and/or phrases would I expect to appear in
my ideal document?”
4. Search databases in UW library's Information Gateway
(http://lib.washington.edu/types/databases/E.html) and run searches based on your concept
analysis
(1) Pick 1~3 databases that would be appropriate to conduct your search in.
(2) Prepare searches, run them, adapt them as needed (e.g. change databases,
commands, operators, etc.), and get results.
5. Search in a free Web article database such as Google Scholar and CiteSeer.
6. Finally, try the search using 2 different search engines. (See the first page for a list of
popular Web search engines)
7. Complete this assignment by filling out the following fields.
Note: Both you and your partner will have to submit answers to the following questions to
receive credit for this assignment. So, you can write answers to one topic and your partner can
write answers for the second topic that you both chose to work upon today.
Your NAME:
Your partner’s NAME:
The topic you chose (number):
Your concept analysis:
UW Library Information Gateway
Databases searched:
Successful search terms:
Brief description of operators and/or restrictions used:
Number of articles returned:
Bibliographic info for the best-matching 3:
Free Web Article Database
Database searched:
Successful search terms:
Brief description of operators and/or restrictions used:
Number of articles returned:
Bibliographic info for the best-matching 3:
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Web Search Engine 1
Search engine:
Successful search terms:
Brief description of operators and/or restrictions used:
Number of results:
Brief description of the best-matching 3 results:
Web Search Engine 2
Search engine:
Successful search terms:
Brief description of operators and/or restrictions used:
Number of results:
Brief description of the best-matching 3 results:
Finally, discuss with your partner: Among UW Databases, free Web article databases, and
Web search engines,
A. Which did you find more powerful, and why?
B. Which did you prefer to use, and why?
C. And describe
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