TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute
Ultimo College Library
Hidden Web and Online Learning
Resources
Aim of the session
Accessing “good” information for
academic / research / educational
purposes not accessible via standard
search engines
Presenters:
Beatriz Aroche
R/Educational Services Librarian
Ultimo College Library
9217 4689
Diana Khabbaz
A/Manager Staff Learning
Learning & Innovation
9217 4211
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Hidden Web and Online Learning
Resources
End of the session
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Understand what constitutes the
“hidden web” or “invisible web”
Learn ways of accessing that
information (with particular ref to
Online Learning Resources) using
directories, databases and search
engines
Understand how to use search
engines more effectively
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
The numbers of documents that remain
unindexed?
around 550 billion
The Deep Web
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
What is the visible web?
Content that can be indexed and
searched by ordinary search
engines.
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
What is the invisible (hidden / deep)
web?
Files, images, and web sites,
that for a variety of reasons,
cannot be indexed by popular
search engines like Google.
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Why don’t search engines index
this stuff?
Search engine results are found by computer
programs called spiders or robots and generally
exclude:
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Specialised databases (e.g. ANZRC, Factiva) where
a username and password is required.
Searchable databases where the pages generated
are dynamic (e.g. library catalogues, white pages)
Pages containing a “?” in the URL.
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
So…how do we find these wonderful
“hidden” sites?
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Directories (general or subject specific)
Specialised Databases (subscribed to by
your library or freely available)
Effective use of search engines
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Directories
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General or subject specific
Indexed by real people
Expensive to create
High relevancy, low recall
Can be indiscriminate in quality or
expert created
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Online Learning Directories / Databases
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TALE
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Flexible Learning Toolboxes
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EdNa
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ProveIT
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College
Library
Tale
Teaching & Learning Exchange
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DET NSW schools & TAFE statewide
resources
Access to quality teaching & learning
resources
Professional Learning Communities PLCs
www.tale.edu.au
DET User ID & password
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Flexible Learning Toolboxes
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Australian Flexible Learning Framework
Competency based national resources
available in CD Rom format
http://toolboxes.flexiblelearning.net.au/
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
EdNA
Education Network Australia
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A directory about education and training in
Australia (DEST)
A database of web-based resources useful
for teaching and learning
http://www.edna.edu.au
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
ProveIT
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DET quick and easy toolkit for collecting
evidence for assessment and recognition
Currently a limited list of courses
http://proveit.tafensw.edu.au/
Other freely available course
resources
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Curriki (new)
www.curriki.org
Open source curricula
High quality educational resources
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OER Commons
www.oercommons.org
Teaching and learning network offering a broad
selection of materials for free
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Other directories - Examples
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DMOZ– General Open directory (DMOZ): maintained by volunteers
and in partnership with Google.
http://dmoz.org/
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INTUTE – Web resources across subject areas.
http://www.intute.ac.uk
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PINAKES – Directory of directories / gateways.
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INFOMINE – compiled by librarians for university students and
staff.
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http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html
http://infomine.ucr.edu/
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
e.g. How to find directories when you know the name
but not the URL
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Specialised Databases, examples…
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Specialised databases - no subscription needed
e.g. EDNA , ERIC (education)
http://www.eric.ed.gov/
Specialised databases - subscription needed
e.g. Factiva, ANZRC, AST-FT, Australian Standards,
MasterFile Premier,Infotrac, Proquest,
Subject specific search engines
e.g. SCIRUS (Science), MedHunt, OSTI
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Specialised Databases
How to find them…
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Using search engines
e.g. type Science database or “Australian art” database, education database
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Using subject specific directories of gateways
e.g. BUBL, http://bubl.ac.uk/
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Librarian’s index to the Internet
www.lii.org ,Pinakes
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Using Invisible web directories
e.g Complete Planet www.completeplanet.com
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Using the subscribed specialised databases available in your library
e.g. Factiva, ANZRC, Australian Standards, MasterFile,Infotrac, Proquest
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Search Engines
General:
 Google http://www.google.com
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com
 Ask.com http://www.ask.com
 Live.com http://www.live.com
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Exalead.com http://www.exalead.com
Australian:
 Sensis – www.sensis.com.au
Source:
NetRatingsforSearchengineWatch.com
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
e.g. General search engine - ask.com
Suggestions
to narrow
search
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
e.g. Google - Cheat Sheet
e.g. Google - Cheat Sheet….
Continued …
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Comparison: Yahoo vs Google
http://ranking.thumbshots.com
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Effective Use of Search Engines
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Use ADVANCED SEARCH and search tips
Use more than one word – make it as
specific as possible
Use synonyms, and try different spellings
Use “ ” for phrase searching
Use a minus sign to excluded a word or
term e.g. “Aboriginal art” –galleries
Use -.com to excluded commercial sites,
etc.
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
MetaSearch Engines
Metasearch engines search more than one
search engine at a time
Examples
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Dogpile http://dogpile.com
Clusty http://clusty.com
Metacrawler http://metacrawler.com
Jux2
http://jux2.com
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Search Engines - Academic
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Google Scholar
http://www.googlescholar.com
Yahoo mindset
http://mindset.research.yahoo.com
Live.com academic
http://www.live.com
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Best method for searching? (General)
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Define your needs
Choose the best starting point –
search or browse?
Re-assess your strategy
Useful Guide
 Noodle Tools – Choose the Best
Search
e.g. Noodle Tools – help for online research
http://www.noodletools.com/
e.g. Noodle Tools … continued….
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
WEB 2.0
What is web 2.0?
The technical heart
of Web 2.0 is the
two-way link: ie,
the RSS link.
The Social aspect is
the two-way flow
of information…
Consider these web features:
Web1
Web2
Banner ads
Google ads
Brittanica
Online
Wickipedia
Personal
websites
Blogs - etc
publishing
participating
stickiness
syndicating
directories
tagging
Source: O’reilly
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
WEB 2.0
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RSS
Tagging
Social sites Blogs and wikis
Podcasts, webcasts,vodcasts, etc
Specialised search engines:
http://crossengine.com
TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute, Ultimo College Library
Alert Services
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Google News
also – note the personalization features of Google
and live.com – Google's is shown below
ANZRC
Proquest
Factiva
RSS Feeds
Blogs