
Perspectives on search:
Making the implicit explicit

Sharpening our skills:
› Deep web niche engines
› The social web





Search literacy lesson plans
Search derby
Raising the bar in web evaluation
Free digital collections
Future directions
Searcher
Evaluation
Resources
Principles
Context
Searcher
Evaluation
Principles
USER
Resources
Context
 Most
searches are….
› Done by a unique searcher
› Done in a unique context
› Done for an information need unique
to the user

Search Strategy
› Overall plan to achieve your goal

Search Tactics
› Specific actions taken as you follow the
strategy

Know (or learn) the parameters and
capabilities of the resource.
›
›
›
›
›
What? Type of information or format
Who? Creator(s)
When? Recency or coverage dates
How? Can it be searched?
Why? Key factors for its credibility
Know (or discover) the most effective
search term(s) for the resource you are
using
 Know (or learn) the user’s specific needs

Deep Web Niche Engines
(aka Verticals)
Social Web Resources

The Reference Desk
› www.martindalecenter.com

Health Sciences Guide
› www.martindalecenter.com/HSGuide.html

Calculators On-Line
› www.martindalecenter.com/Calculators.html
Extensive collection of deep web
resources of high quality
 37 broad categories
 Frequent updates
 Maintained by Jim Martindale
 Began in 1994 as project at UC-Irvine

Gateway to over 500 niche engines and
directories
 18 broad categories
 New listings in most categories
 Created and maintained by Internet Oracle
of Littletown, New Hampshire, an enterprise
search company

E-mail & Reverse Look-up (17)
 Video & Image (13)
 Women’s Resources (19)
 Reference & Research

› Biographies (30)
› Dictionaries & Encyclopedias (60)
› Glossaries & Acronyms (24)
› Homework Helpers (25)
› Thesauri & Quotations (28)

People you don’t know
› Wikipedia
› Human-created databases, directories
“I need a few good sites on solar energy”
 Mahalo, Ipl2.org
› Q&A Services
“How do I repair my garage door opener?”
 Yahoo Answers, Answers.com, Mahalo
Answers

People you follow
› Twitter-human created Tweets
“What’s the buzz on Beyonce?”

People you know
› Post a question to friends and family
“What type of Mac should I buy?”
› Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Bing (login via
Facebook)
Access to unfiltered, real-time perspective
on what people are thinking and doing
 Authority (and usefulness) of a tweet
depends on

› Who sent it
› The number and “authority” of their followers
› When it was sent
› Documents/sites it refers to

Public responses/attitudes
› Trending topics and people
› Political candidates and issues
› Companies and products
› Colleges and universities

Locate individuals and their networks
› Who they follow
› Who follows them

Monitor collaborations

Twitter.com
› Requires a (free) account
› Only the latest 2 weeks available
› Searchable by hashtag (#)
Author-designated keyword or significant
term or phrase
 #rochester
 #jobs
 #marketing

Search.twitter.com
› No account required
› Only the latest 2 weeks available
› Advanced search features
 Booleans
 Hashtag
 Language limit
 Author search (tweets from or to)
 “Near this place”
 Attitude – positive, negative, question

Twitter Venn
www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterVenn/view.php
Venn diagrams illustrating the rate of tweets
containing specific terms

Twitter StreamGraph
www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/
view.php
Words most highly associated with a specified
term
Limited to the latest 1,000 tweets containing that
term
google.com/insidesearch/searcheducation
/lessons.html
 Part of Google’s search education initiative
 5 main topics with beginner, intermediate
and advanced levels

› Picking the right search terms
› Understanding search results
› Narrowing a search to get the best results
› Searching for evidence for research tasks
› Evaluating credibility of sources
Focus is using Google, but adaptable to
other sources
 Each plan lists Common Core Standards
addressed
 Include illustrative slides and suggested
assessments of student work
 “A Google-a-day challenge” questions
with answers
 Good strategies for deep web searching
in Advanced Level of Lesson #1

Where we are and how we got here
 Checklists: what they do and don’t do
 Raising the bar beyond the basics
 Using the Social Web in evaluation
 Active learning applications

Transfer protocol/Domain name/Directory &
subdirectory/File name
 TP- hpertext
https-(http secure) Encrypts all traffic to
and from that site
 Domain name
Name unique to the server where the site
is located. Includes domain type and
country if outside the US.
Directory
Specific “folder” on the server where this
file is found
 File name
Actual name and information about the
file

› Markup language used: html, htm, php
› Dynamic content: shtml, asp
› Format: pdf, docx, jpg, mpeg, mp3

Pro
› Structured approach to a complex process
› Useful reminders of what to look for

Con
› Many focus on potential flaws of a site rather
than its strengths
› One checklist does not “fit all” types of sites
› No substitute for critical investigation geared
to the specific site
› Time-consuming and impractical
 Pushing
past superficial generalizations
to think critically and deeply about the
web site
 Domain type is just the beginning of
critical evaluation and analysis
 Effective evaluation may call for an
approach unique to that site

.com
Very high
› Articles from trusted magazines and other
news sources
› Archives of public media sites (BBC, NPR, etc.)
High
› Public-service organizations (many are .org)
› Academic scholarly articles

.com
Medium
›
›
›
›
Advocacy groups/special interest sites
News wires
Company-issued white papers
Company home pages
Low
› Personal pages
› Marketing/sales pages
› Bloggers I don’t know

.gov
Very high
› Federal statistics sites
› Recognized international organizations
High
› Federal government information
clearinghouses
› Governmental public service pages

.gov
Medium
› State/local public records information
› Departmental/agency home pages (may
be subject to political pressure)
› Embassies/consulates

.edu
High
› University administration pages
› Faculty home pages (publication links, syllabi)
› Library guides
› Research center findings and reports
Medium
› Graduate papers
Low
› Undergraduate papers

Currently unrestricted:
› .com
› .info
› .net
› .org

Currently require proof of eligibility
› .edu
› .gov
› .xxx
.coop
.int
.aero
.mil
.museum
.asia
Many social media services offer data on
the sites and topics their users are citing
 Mining this data can be a measure of a
site’s influence and popularity
 Wheeler, Emily and Samara Ormundson
“Evolution In Source Evaluation: Using
Social Media Data” FUMSI Jan. 5, 2010


Check for
› Self-reported web traffic data
› Number of comments (blog)
› Intended audience
› Audience profile
› Incoming links (link:URL in Google)
Description
Associated
Metrics
Reach
Readership or
subscriber base
Unique visitors per
month
Twitter followers
Buzz
Secondary readership
via social media
channels
Popularity metrics
Inbound blog links
Retweets
Engagement
Reader participation or Time spent on the site
dialogue with creators Number of comments or
or other readers
replies
Content
Relevance of source
content to topic
Frequency and depth of
relevant content
Audience
Reader groups
targeted or reached
by the site
Intended audience as
per content
Reader demographics

Alexa

› Alexa traffic rank
› Views
› Sites linking in
› Star ratings
› Time spent on site

Quantcast
› Traffic frequency
› Comments

› Audience
demographics
Technorati
› Authority
Twitter
› Followers
› Est. monthly US visitors

YouTube
› Following

TwitterCounter
› Twitter rank
› Predicted followers
in 30 days

Learning Goals
› Discern 4 key indicators of a website’s
credibility
› Understand the complexity of these indicators
by analyzing a given website and responding
to questions using a 5-point scale
› As a team, agree to a common answer for
each question
› As a team, articulate the rationales for these
answers to the entire class
http://tinyurl.com/refwhs2
 Students work as individuals
 Everyone sees responses and progress
 Serves as springboard for discussion
 Encourages participation throughout the
class
 Adaptable to web evaluation
assignments

Hunter’s Picks:
http://hwshunter.weebly.com
Currently 1097 free, peer-reviewed books
 27 international publishers
 Companion site to Directory of Open
Access Journals (www.doaj.org) with
over 1231 scholarly and scientific journals
worldwide

Portfolio of free MIT courses offered through
an online learning platform
 Features online laboratories and student-tostudent communication
 Certificate of completion awarded by MIT
“for a modest fee”
 MIT’s OpenCourseWare will continue
 “Circuits and Electronics” March-June 2012
 More courses in Fall of 2012


“Answer me” 48%
› Give me exactly what I ask for…

“Educate me” 26%
› Broad, contextual understanding, with
multiple perspectives

“Inspire me” 28%
› Fun, “browsy” search; Looking for surprises,
travel, etc.

How would you define “an expert”?
› 96% include “self-taught “allies with
experience and motivation
› 89% include the wisdom of crowds in
social or outside networks
› 87% include traditional credentialed
experts
Social networks as sources for information
and se ranking data
 Facebook as e-commerce hub (stores
and companies’ fanpages)
 Content packaged in video and audio
 Mobile search apps

› May only search for one thing but it does that
very well

Development of niche engines for
different search modalities (Return of
vertical engines?)