Shaping of the Modern World

 

  Search

 

   Contents
   Readings
   Caucus
   Search
   Links
   Glossary
   Portraits
   Movies
Brooklyn College Core Curriculum:
The Shaping of the Modern World

Searching For Information

Contents

Searching the Shaping of the Modern World

From this page it is now possible, to search quickly the local contents of the Shaping of the Modern World course and the Internet Modern History Sourcebook.

To do this we use the Hotbot search engine, one of the biggest on the Internet. It is possible, as here, to "tweak" it, so that it will search only files at specific websites.

  • Choose your SEARCH OPTION. The default is just to search the Core 4 site and related sites, but you can also choose to search the entire internet.
  • Enter KEYWORDS in the second [You can use word like AND, OR, NOT to expand or limit searches.]
  • Click the SEARCH button.
- H o t B o t -  Search for 

Searching the Internet

The Internet is  vast and now contains more, and more diverse information, than any single printed source.

The problem is in finding the information. It is important to understand two points here:

  • That there is no one way to search all of the Internet at once. Much of the information on the web is contained in "static" [unchanging] web pages, and these can be search via the various "search engines. But there is a lot more information in databases and quickly changing websites such as those run by newspapers, information which cannot be found though the usual search engines.
  • The quality of information on the Internet varies. Some websites are of a very high quality and accurate, others are sloppy and inaccurate, and some are deliberately misleading. You need to be able to sort  the quality of the information you locate.

Major Search Engines - good for static pages

Here are links to the best "wide area" search engines on the Web. Yahoo is best, I think, if you are looking for specialized websites. Altavista, Excite, and Hotbot all index many more documents. These engines will always turn up more references, but far more will be dross than with Yahoo. It is useful to start with Yahoo since it has a nice feature - once it tells you everything that it has found, it will automatically plug you in to the other search engines.

  • Yahoo!
    The best for web sites as opposed to specific documents.
  • HotBot
    The most flexible of the search engines - it lets you get 100 hits at a time.
  • AltaVista
    Competes with Hotbot to be the most comprehensive search engine on the web.
  • Google
    A new entry in the search engine field, but valuable since it is very accurate, easy to use, and best of all allows acces to its cache of documents! In other words, sometimes even if a text has disappeared from the net, you will still find it here.
  • LookSmart
    A sort of combination of Yahoo and Hotbot. It has its own list of commented on websites, but also plugs into Altavista.
  • Excite
    Some people love this search engine. I think it loads too much advertising onto your system.
  • Lycos
    Lycos seems to have lost much of its early lead.
  • Search for Lyrics
  • Other Engines
    The following are all online, and you might something useful there. I never do.

Databases - sites which the search engines don't find

In addition to Websites, you need to be aware of the various databases on the net. There are hundred of these, and the distinctive fact about them is that thre information is not collected by the search engines. Some of them are commercial - you have to pay a fee - but many are free. Here are links to a reliable selection.

  • Encyclopedia.com
    Lets you search more than 17,000 articles from The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Third Edition. Free
  • Encyclopedia Britannica Online
    By far the best online encyclopedia. You can search the entire text of the printed edition and more. This is a subscription service, but you can use it freely via   Brooklyn College computers. Subscription
  • ReSearch It
    One very useful page, which lets you search a number of online dictionaries, and many other information tools. Free
  • Deja News
    Allows you to search a database messages posted to usenet/netnews. In general, NEVER rely on anything you find on usenet/netnews.
  • Reference.COM Search
    This lets you search the past postings of mailing lists [rather the usenet newsgroups] Since a higher quality of discussion takes place on such lists, this can be very useful, but again you have to be very careful about the information you find here.

Media Online - sites which update hourly

Many newspapers and broadcast new services are now online. The texts of their websites, which changes each day, are not indexed by the major search engines. The quality of information in these news sites is often very high, and they sometimes maintain databases of past articles that can be searched. Almost all the major media sites remain free [the Wall Street Journal is the big exception], but they often require a Registration before you can read them. Here are a selection of the best and most reliable newspaper sites. In general the US broadcast sites [CNN,ABC, MSNBC] run shorter and less informative stories than the web editions of the print media.

  • The New York Times
    The United States most important newspaper. Registration
  • The Washington Post
    Possibly the best coverage of US politics. Free
  • The Los Angeles Times
    The Third great American paper. Free
  • The Christian Science Monitor
    Excellent international news coverage. Free
  • The International Herald Tribune [Paris]
    International news from an American perspective in the the newspaper for Americans in Europe. Free
  • The BBC
    High quality news from the world's largest news-gathering organization. Free
  • The Times [London]
    The full text of Britains' most famous paper. Tends towards a right-wing perspective. Registration
  • The Guardian [London]
    The full text of Britains' liberal paper. Registration
  • The Independent [London
    Full text of the British paper which is most like the New York Times - i.e. it keeps its comment to opinion columns, and does not mix opinon with news as do other British papers. Free
  • South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
    The best source for online information about East Asia. Registration
  • The Jerusalem Post [Jerusalem]
    Isreal's main English language paper. Tends to be more and more right-wing. Free
  • Haaretz [In English][Israel]
    Another voice from the Israel. Free
  • Jordan Times [Amman]
    A moderate Arab perspective on the news. Free.

Search methods

When you look for information on the web - in search engines of in the database sites - you need to learn how to search.

For the most part, you cannot just enter in to the seach engine a question, or one word. Instead you need to adopt four search strategies. These are quite easy to learn, and you will improve over time.

  1. Know Where to Look
    • If you are looking for a Web Site devoted to a subject, then you are best using YAHOO. 
    • If you are looking a document or text about a subject, you would be best to use one of the search engines such as Hotbot, Google, or Altavista.
    • If you are looking for specific piece of information - for instance a date, or a name, searching one of the online databases makes the most sense.
  2. Know What You Are Looking For
    • It is important to form your "query words" as clearly as possible. For instance, if you are interested in finding information on a particular musician, do not search for "music", but for a style [eg "jazz" or "electronica"] or a name ["Abba", "Bjork", or "charlie parker"].
    • In history, for example, if you wanted to find a website on the the Holocaust, you could just type in "Holocaust" into Yahoo, which will give you a list of of Holocaust sites. If you are looking for more specific information, and type "holocaust" into Hotbot, however, you will get over 115,000 hits!  [The first one is in fact a very useful guide to Holocaust documents, but you will also get many useless documents]. But, suppose you want to find out much more specific information about the Holocaust - for instance about the Holocaust and the destruction of Gypsies, it is better search for "Holocaust Gypsies". Let's go further; suppose you wanted to find out about what happened to Hungarian Gypsies during the Holocaust, you would used "holocaust gypsies Hungary" - and retrieve only pages devoted to that subject.
  3. Use "Boolean" Operators
    • Don't be afraid of the words "Boolean Operators". They is simply a way by which you can expand or limit searches by using the words AND, OR, NOT
    • AND
      If you use the word "AND" in a search query - for example "holocaust AND gypsies AND hungary", the search engines will assume you only want documents which include all three words. Using AND is a way of narrowing your search, and tends to be used when your first effort gets too many hits.
    • OR
      If you use the word "OR" in a search query - for example "holocaust OR gypsies OR hungary", the search engines will find and document that contains any of the words. In the example here, it would find any document about the Holocaust, or about Gypsies, or about Hungary. This would not be very useful. But, for example, imagine you were looking for  information on homosexuals in the Holocaust, then you might want to seach for "gay or homosexual", since both words are commonly used. Using OR is a way of expanding your search, and tends to be used when your first effort does not collect enough information
    • NOT
      Suppose you want to find documents on the Holocaust, but not documenst which include discussions of gypsies or homosexuals, you can use the word NOT to exclude documents with these words in. For example "holocaust NOT gypsies NOT homosexuals" would find all documents on the Holocaust, except those that use the words "gypsies" or "homosexuals". [But documents with "gypsy" or "gay" would still come up.]
    • If you use no AND, OR, or NOT, but just a string of words - "holocaust gypsies hungary", some search engines cases assume you mean AND, and others assume you mean OR. You take charge by using the operators that best suit your needs.
    • By the way, if you search for a word and capitalize it, search engines will only look for that word where it begins with a Capital letter. If you use lower case letter, the search engine will look for any version of the word, including the capitalized version.
  4. Take Advantage of Other People's Efforts
    • "Links" Sites
      There are many "Links" sites on the net. In some cases, an expert or someone with a real interest in a subject, has already searched out a lot of information - websites, documents, pictures, and created a "links" page.
    • When you are looking for information in a search engine, you will often come across a link to such an organized "Links" site. You can save yourself a great deal of effort, by using that site a basis for further exploration. For example, suppose you wanted information on a modern singer such a Bjork, you will find that Hotbot brings up over 16,000 pages, most of which are not very useful - for instance, listings of her album at record store websites. Some of the first pages Hotbat calls up should be avoided by decent people [!], but number six is a link to the Bjork Cafe, a "fan" page with links to a great deal of interesting information. These sort of "Links" pages exist not only for pop stars, but on almost any subject. Try to find sucha  page for the subject you are researching, and you will find locating information is much easier. 

How to Evaluate the Data

You have to be careful about the information you find on the Net. Almost anybody can create a web page, and put anything on it. This is both a valuable aspect of free speech, and a real danger when you are doing research.

Let's continue the "Holocaust" example. Suppose you were loking for information on the Holocaust, what woudl be the most reliable source of information?

  1. Some other student's term paper.
  2. A document written by an Antisemite who was trying to deny the Holocaust took place.
  3. A book written by a respected professor, and published by a major publishing company

The "right answer" is number 3.

When information is published in books, magazines, and newspapers it is usally "vetted" by editors. As a reader this means you can rely, to some extent, on the reputation of the publisher. For example: a book published by Harvard University Press should be reliable; an article in the New York Times is expected to meet certain standards of accuracy. On the other hand, a book published by some political party will probably be less reliable, and most people would not go to People Magazine for political information. In other words, with print media, we have all sorts of guides to the quality of the information.

But on the net, search engines will find all sorts of data, "published" by anyone who wants to. You have to learn how to sort it out. The links below are to some discussions about how you can evaluate web resources.

Make sure to read the first two items. The others are longer and explain in more detail what the issues are.

 

 Shaping of the Modern WorldContents Page

 

 

Site Design: Paul Halsall

©
created/revised 1/27/1999