Beyond Boolean
Gina Mannino, Information Literacy teacher
Overview:With
the amount of information available on the Internet, it is sometimes a
daunting task to find what you are looking for in a reasonable amount of
time.Understanding the types of
search engines and how they work will streamline the search process.
Portals:Portals
provide a single point of access to information. They utilize categories
to organize the content.Some examples
are AltaVista, Yahoo!, and Excite.
Search:These
engines do not limit you through a single point of access.They
have different ways of sorting the results of your search.Some
examples are HotBot (indexes every word, link, and media file refreshing
their database frequently), Google (sorts by popularity/number of
hits), and Ask Jeeves (ranks result sites by what previous searchers
have found
useful
in satisfying similar search requests.)
Meta-search:These
sites search multiple search engines at one time (often over one hundred).Examples
include:SavvySearch, Search.com,
Dogpile, and MetaCrawler.
It’s
also important to know what search engines do NOT search:
Content
of Adobe files
log
in sites(Intranets)
Non-Web
resources
Background
information:
Use the
words AND, OR, NEAR and NOT (always capitalized) to connect words and phrases
you are searching for where:
AND
means all words that are connected are present in the document. (you can
also use a
+ sign with
no space between + and the word)
NEAR
means one word must be found within close proximity of the other.
OR
requires that at least one of the words is present.
NOT
excludes any document containing the word or phrase. (you can also use
a – sign with no space between – and the word)
http://kathyschrock.net/rbs3k/boolean/
Phrases“”- When
searching for an unusual phrase or proper name, it is good practice to
put them in quotation marks.This
alerts the search engine to find documents that contain the exact same
phrase within the quotations.
For example
a search on George Washington would retrieve all documents containing the
word George and all the documents including the word Washington.A
search “George Washington” would only reap results with George Washington.
Digital
Journal Question:If you did a search
for the same topic on two different search engines would your results be
the same?Explain your answer.
Lesson:Have
students test their answer to the digital journal question.Discuss
the results.Explain the types of
search engines and the search techniques commonly used to narrow a search.
Activity:
-
In pairs, come up with
one question that you do not know the answer to and wish to find. Using
the appropriate search engine locate the answer.
-
Complete the search
sheet.
Beyond Boolean
Stretch
your search skills
Names:
What
is the question you and your partner want to find?
Search
engine used:
Reason:
Answer/Result
Search
for the answer to each question using the appropriate search engine.
1.What
movie is playing at 7:00 p.m. tonight at the Sony Crestwood Theater?
2.What
is the current price of one share of stock in Disney?
3.Where
is the painting, Composition VI, by Wassily Kandinsky currently located?
4.What
is the purpose of GREY DAY OCTOBER 1, 2000?
5.What
is the name of the library found in the ruins at Ephesus?
6.How
many people are currently living on Earth?
7.How
many bits in a byte?