Virginia (Ginny)
Tanji, MSLS, AHIP, Librarian
tanji@hawaii.edu
www.hawaii.edu/sphlib
Introduction to the
Internet
CONTENTS
Overview and
definition of some terms
-
Internet
-
World Wide Web
-
URL
-
Search Engine
-
Portals/Metasites/Databases
Look up these
terms in PC Webopedia online search engine and encyclopedia re computer
technology
http://webopedia.internet.com/
URL Uniform Resource Locator
URLs are
the addresses of resources available on the Internet.
Anatomy
of a URL:
http://www.hawaii.edu/sphlib/orientation/internetintro.htm
http:// = this part of the URL defines the 'internet protocol' for
the document.
http:// hypertext transfer protocol unique to the World Wide Web.
telnet:// telnet protocol turns your smart computer into a dumb terminal
so it can
access the resources o another computer
example: Hamilton Library's online catalog is still primarily accessed
via the telnet protocol
www.hawaii.edu/ = address
of the machine where the document is stored
.edu = the top level domain
Other domain names and what they mean
edu = education
com = commercial organization
gov = government
mil = military
net = networking organization
org = non-profit organization (though this is not always true)
sphlib/orientation/internetintro.htm
This part of the URL is the directory or path of the document. It indicates
exactly where on the machine
your document is located. There may
be many directory names listed here (thus URLs can be very
lengthy). The very end of the URL is
the name of the document itself. The .html or .htm indicates that
the document is in hypertext. This last
section of the URL may sometimes be omitted.
Evaluation
of WEB sites
-
Authority--who are the authors?
Authors and contributors with their affiliations and relevant credentials
should be given.
-
Source of information--is this
information clearly conveyed? References and sources for all information
should be indicated and
copyright information noted.
-
Ownership of WEB site?
-
should be able to quickly determine
whose site you're searching
-
part of the address giving the
highest level domain name should tell you what kind of organization
owns the host computer
-
sponsorship of the site, advertising,
funding arrangements should be fully disclosed
-
Currency of information and
is site being maintained
-
dates should be clearly posted
as to when site was updated, etc.
-
More information on WEB
site evaluation
Top of
Page
Some useful
search engines
Some metasearch engines
Each search
engine functions a little bit differently; try a topic you're interested
in and search through
several
of the search engines and compare your retrieval. Read the help screens.
The metasearch engines search several
search
engines at once.
Search tasks:
-
For the most part search engines
will search your terms as a phrase if you enclose it in quotes
-
To find an organization's
homepage search organization's name and enclose in quotation
marks. Example:
"office of minority health" Try Yahoo for this type of search.
-
To combine a couple of
concepts, separate with AND (must be capitalized)
-
If you are looking for research
literature, it is recommended that you begin with a database
that indexes this literature
such as MEDLINE for the biomedica/health sciences/ AIDSLINE
for the AIDS literature;
BIOSIS for the biological literature. For more guidance on the appropriate
database,
SPH libraries list of databases
Hamilton's
extensive list of databases available for searching
Some
helpful tutorials
Home
Top of Page
Library, School of Public
Health, University of Hawaii, (808) 956-8666
Please send your comments,
suggestions, or questions to Virginia Tanji, Librarian
tanji@hawaii.edu
updated 7/14/99