Web Exercises

Skill Goal: Using the Web to find information
Subject: Barbarians on the Web (although these methods should work for any historical subject).

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 into the search 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.

Search Methods and Guidelines

1. Know Where to Look

• If you are looking for a Website devoted to a subject (rather than a page within a website, or an item in an online database), then you are best using YAHOO.
• If you are looking for 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 a 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 [e.g., "jazz" or "electronica"] or a name ["Abba", "Bjork", or "charlie parker"].
• In history, for example, if you wanted to find a website on the Holocaust, you could just type "Holocaust" into Yahoo, which will give you a list 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 to 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 use "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 are 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 that 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 any 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 search 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 documents that include discussions of gypsies or homosexuals. You can use the word NOT to exclude documents with these words. 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 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 a lowercase 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 as 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 Hotbot 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 such a page for the subject you are researching, and you will find locating information is much easier.

The Exercise

Make sure to read Search Methods and Guidelines above.

Goal: To develop skills in searching for digital data and evaluating what is found.
Assignment: Find Web pages with pictures and discussions of the following items. Try using http://www.google.com, http://www.yahoo.com Explain the kind of problems you had in finding the information and how you rate the sites you did find.

• Theodoric and the Ostrogoths
• The Vandals
• Attila the Hun