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Effective Information Retrieval from the Internet: An advanced user's guide

Alison Stacey, Cambridge Regional College and Adrian Stacey, formerly Cambridge University, UK

Chandos Information Professional Series

 - importantly, the book enables readers to develop strategies which will continue to be useful despite the rapidly-evolving state of the Internet and Internet technologies - it is not about technological tricks
 - enables readers to be aware of and compensate for bias and errors which are ubiquitous on the Internet
 - provides contemporary information on the deficiencies in web skills of novice users as well as practical techniques for teaching such users

Effective Information Retrieval from the Internet discusses practical strategies which enable the advanced web user to locate information effectively and to form a precise evaluation of the accuracy of that information. Although the book provides a brief but thorough review of the technologies which are available for these purposes, most of the book concerns practical ‘future-proof’ techniques which are independent of changes in the tools available. For example, the book covers: how to retrieve salient information quickly; how to remove or compensate for bias; and tuition of novice Internet users.

Readership: Librarians and other information professionals who need to retrieve information from the Internet efficiently, to evaluate their confidence in the information they retrieve and/or to train others to use the Internet. It is primarily aimed at intermediate to advanced users of the Internet.

£42.50 / US$70.00 / €50.00

£62.50 / US$105.00 / €75.00

An e-book version of this title is available to purchase as part of a Collection or Pick n Mix. Visit Chandos Publishing Online

About the authors

Dr Alison Stacey works at the Learning Resource Centre, Cambridge Regional College. Dr Adrian Stacey, formerly based at Cambridge University, is a software programmer.

Titles which may also be of interest:
Google and the Digital Divide
Understanding the Internet
Website Visibility
A Librarian's Guide to the Internet
News Search, Blogs and Feeds

Contents

Fundamentals of information retrieval from the Internet
 - Introduction
 - Types of information search
 - Generic strategies for the various types of information search
 - Chapter summary

Query choice: pinpointing information on the Internet
 - Introduction
 - How to pick search terms
 - How to make search terms work together
 - Finding the ‘unfindable’ – pathological searches
 - Chapter summary

Query reformulation, automation and analysis
 - Introduction
 - Reformulation
 - Link following
 - Automation – introduction, overview and potential
 - Automation – further details and case studies
 - Chapter summary

Assessing websites for accuracy and bias
 - Introduction
 - The importance of assessing websites
 - The sources of bias
 - Dealing with inaccuracy and bias on websites and web pages
 - Derived information searches
 - Chapter summary

Teaching Internet searching skills to novice users
 - Introduction
 - Introduction to teaching Internet skills
 - Common pitfalls faced by novice users
 - Teaching Internet searching skills
 - Module 1
 - Module 2
 - Module 3
 - Module 4
 - Module 5
 - Module 6
 - Chapter summary
 - Review

Appendices
 - A Search engines
 - B Directories
 - C Programming guidelines