# Applications of ICT in Libraries/Net Navigator

This page is designed for the use of students undertaking the
**Diploma** (Diploma ICTL) or the **Advanced
Diploma** (Advanced Diploma ICTL) in
**Applications of ICT in Libraries**.

\-\-\-- CHANGES TO THE QUALIFICATION
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\--
The Diploma and Advanced Diploma have been superseded by the
Professional Development Award in Applications of ICT in Libraries at
levels 7 and 8 (English and Welsh levels 4 and 5). They consist of much
the same content as the Diploma and Advanced Diploma but the PDAs
include two new Digital Culture units.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

These qualifications were developed by the **Scottish Library and
Information Council (SLIC)** and are
validated by the **Scottish Qualifications Authority
(SQA)**

**Carrying Out the Net Navigator Role** is an optional unit in the PDA
in ICTL Level 8 (Advanced Diploma programme).

Information regarding the **background to the courses**, **content** and
**certification opportunities** can be obtained by following the
**Diploma** (Diploma ICTL) or the **Advanced
Diploma** (Advanced Diploma ICTL)
links.

Further information can be obtained from **angela.lees@sqa.org.uk**

## Define the detail of a complex enquiry in conjunction with the client

### Reference interview techniques for complex enquiries

In this outcome we will explore how you should tease out the details of
a complex enquiry posed by a library client. We define a complex enquiry
as one where:

-   the sources to be searched for information are **not obvious** at
    the outset of the inquiry
-   the precise nature of the topic requires to be **teased** out in
    some detail with the client
-   a minimum of 3 **variables** are linked in a Boolean search.

From this we can see that the typical client for such complex enquiries
is likely (but not always) to be a person with some **knowledge or
expertise** in the subject area. Where this is so, you should capitalise
on this at the initial stage and gain as much specific information as
possible from the client.

#### Defining the nature of the enquiry

Defining the precise nature of the enquiry in conjunction with the
client is often referred to as the **reference interview**. However, you
may not be able to carry this out face to face. Instead you may carry
out the interview over the telephone. Whether communicating face-to-face
or by phone, do remember that the reference interview is a **two-way
interaction** or dialogue and you must take responsibility for the
efficiency of the communication process.

You may use e-mails as part of the process, but we would recommend that,
with complex enquiries, the bulk of the reference interview is oral.
With a detailed and complex enquiry, you would find it difficult to
gather from the client the level of detail which you require from the
client through e-mails alone.

By the end of the reference interview you should be confident that the
nature of the complex enquiry has been **fully explored** and that the
information required by the client has been specifically defined.

The reference interview also provides the opportunity to **establish any
special needs** of the client e.g.: visual or auditory impairment. This
requires a **tactful** and **sympathetic** approach. You may need to ask
for **assistance** from a colleague with specialist knowledge on
disability issues.

And finally, do remember to record **contact details** for the client.
In the excitement of exploring the enquiry and establishing the client's
precise needs, it is all too easy to forget this important information.
So check at the end of every reference interview that you have a record
of the client's name, address, telephone, fax and e-mail details, as
appropriate. If you will be phoning the client, it is also polite to
note **when** it is convenient for the client to receive your call.

#### Communication skills

Good communication skills are key to the reference interview. This unit
outcome provides a good opportunity for **practising** and **refining**
your communication skills. These include:

-   Appropriate spoken language
-   Appropriate body language
-   Good feedback, especially on the telephone
-   Note taking
-   Clear and grammatical e-mails

We will briefly examine each of these.

#### Spoken language

You should use language which is **appropriate to the client**, avoiding
talking down to the client or, at the other extreme, baffling the client
with **specialist jargon**. If you do have to use a term which the
client may not understand, e.g. "search engine syntax", be sure to
explain it.

QUESTION TextEntry1: Explain Dark Internet

Conversely a client with expertise in the field they are enquiring about
is likely to use **specialist or technical vocabulary** when describing
the search topic. Such vocabulary can be useful for you when you are
deciding on your search terms (see Outcomes 2 and 3) but make sure that
you fully understand the meaning of any such specialist terms. The
client should be able to explain them to you.

#### Body language

In face-to-face situations, use appropriate body language designed to
set the client at ease and promote effective communication. Smile and
greet the client by name if possible. Lean forward slightly and use eye
contact to show your interest in the conversation. Try to carry out the
interview in a place where both you and the client are sitting
comfortably and at the same level, preferably side by side.

#### Feedback

You should use appropriate **feedback techniques** to ensure
understanding of the client's responses. For instance, you might:

-   **Rephrase** what the client has said and repeat this back to them
-   Read out a **summary** of the enquiry based on the notes you have
    made.

With telephone communications you will have to be careful in order to
make sure that you fully understand what the client says because you
will get no clues from their **body language**. See if you can pick up
clues from the tone of the client's voice. Conversely, make sure that
your tone is positive and encouraging. Smiling as you speak into the
phone generates a **pleasant tone of voice** which encourages helpful
responses.

#### Note taking

In both face to face and telephone interactions, it is essential to take
**written notes** of the main points of the conversation. These notes
are your reference for checking that you have fully understood the
details of the client's enquiry. Full notes are also useful if you have
to put the query on one side for actioning later or pass it on to a
colleague to deal with. The more complex the enquiry, the more
comprehensive your notes should be.

#### Writing e-mails

If you are using e-mails to communicate with the client, it is important
to establish a **cordial tone** while remaining concise and to the
point. Writing **clearly and grammatically** is key to this, as is
structuring your e-mail well so that the client can follow it easily and
respond appropriately. Saving e-mails, both those you send and those you
receive, provides a record of your communication with the client.

#### Open and Closed Questions

In the reference interview, you will use both **open** and **closed**
questions. These have different uses. It is important to be able to
distinguish between the two types of question and to use them
appropriately.

Closed questions prompt yes/no or **short factual answers**, such as:

-   Q. What is the deadline for my getting this information for you?
-   A. Next Tuesday

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   Q. Have you checked this reference already?
-   A. Yes

Open questions encourage **longer answers**, such as:

-   Q. Can you explain briefly what my colleague did last time?
-   A. She started with Yahoo and then tried a couple of other search
    engines as well. I think she was looking it up under something like
    pagan religions in Wales. We got quite a lot of useful stuff.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, explain at
what points during the reference interview and for what purposes you are
likely to use:

-   a\) closed questions
-   b\) open questions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Using open and closed questions

Closed questions prompting yes/no or short factual answers are mainly
used in the reference interview context to:

-   elicit **specific pieces of information** from the client
-   gain **confirmation** that your understanding of what the client has
    said is correct - an important feedback tool.

You are likely to use closed questions

-   at the **start of the interview** when you are taking basic personal
    details of the client
-   at intervals **throughout the discussion** when you want to check
    you have your facts right
-   at the **end of the interview** to sum up and agree on future
    action.

Open questions encourage longer answers and their main uses in the
reference interview context are to:

-   establish **rapport** with the client, especially in the initial
    stages of the interview and with clients who are not already known
    to you
-   set the scene for the enquiry and gain **background information** at
    the beginning of the discussion
-   encourage **input** from the client as the interview progresses.

So you will use both open and closed questions at appropriate times.
When framing a question, always think of the type of response you hope
to generate and word the question so as to encourage either a **brief**
or an **extended** answer.

### Eliciting information and advice from knowledgeable clients

=

The interview is likely to begin with the client asking you a question.
Your task is to probe further until you are fully satisfied that you are
clear **exactly what the client wishes to find out**. Remember to ask
for clarification from the client about the topic e.g. ask them to spell
uncommon words, expand on the topic under investigation etc. This is
particularly important with clients who may be subject experts.

While recognising that some clients may be unwilling to give this
information, it is helpful if you can establish in some detail the
**reasons** why the client wishes the information requested. One
important point to establish is whether they require the information for
themselves or whether they are enquiring on behalf of someone else.

#### Determining the starting point

It is important to ascertain the "starting point" of the enquiry in
order to avoid wasting time on finding information which the client
already knows. This is particularly important with **complex enquiries**
for knowledgeable clients, where it may be relatively easy to access
information at a simple level, when the client actually requires more
sophisticated results.

In a complex enquiry from a specialist enquirer, it is likely that the
enquirer has already undertaken some basic searching on their own
behalf. Equally a well-informed enquirer may well be familiar with some
or all of the **sources of information** in their field. You should
therefore try to determine what research the client has already
undertaken on the topic and what results were obtained. It is often
helpful to ask the client's opinion on the usefulness or otherwise of
particular sources.

A knowledgeable client may also be able to give you some guidance on
successful and unsuccessful information searching approaches. However,
do not make the assumption that, because the client is knowledgeable
about the topic to be investigated, they are well informed about
information sources and search techniques. Remember that you are the
**information-searching specialist** (while the client is the subject
specialist) and so you should critically evaluate any advice on sources
and information searching techniques provided by the client.

### Determining the nature of detailed information to be provided

Apart from the actual topic of investigation, there are other factors
which need to be taken into account before a member of library staff
will embark on the information search, e.g.: the quantity, level and
format of the required information.

#### Quantity

We tend to think that our problem in information searching will be an
inability to find **enough information**. This can indeed sometimes be
the case. But using the Internet often results in the reverse situation
-- an overabundance of results. Providing too much information is just
as unhelpful as providing too little. You must clarify the scale of
information required by the client in order to fully satisfy their
needs.

If the search produces a large amount of information, you should
determine whether the client wishes you to undertake any **filtering**
on their behalf before presenting the information or whether they wish
to see the full search results. If filtering is requested, you must
establish with the client the criteria which are to be applied.
Conversely, if the search results are meagre, you should seek guidance
from the client as to the possibility of broadening out the search.

#### Level

It is essential that the information provided is at a **level of
complexity** which enables the client's full comprehension but does not
patronise the client or tell them what they already know.

The following points give you some guidance as to the likely level of
complexity of information required:

-   the client's age (But remember age does not automatically bring
    wisdom! Remember too that some young people can display astonishing
    knowledge and expertise in subjects which interest them.)
-   the client's educational attainment
-   the client's display of specialist knowledge
-   the client's linguistic ability

Tactful questioning can be used to make an estimation of the points
listed above.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, outline a
situation where you know all of the above but this knowledge does not
tell you the level of complexity of information required.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Other factors affecting level

The most obvious example is where the client is making the enquiry on
behalf of someone else. Typical examples would include:

-   a **teacher or lecturer** looking for material which could be used
    by school or college students
-   **parents** seeking information for use by their child
-   a **specialist** in one field who is a beginner in another e.g.: a
    consultant surgeon investigating horticulture
-   a **therapist or social worker** searching for information for one
    of their clients

Linguistic ability can be misleading. An overseas visitor with a limited
grasp of English or someone with a speech impediment may have
**extensive knowledge** of the topic under investigation.

You have probably thought of other similar examples.

#### Format

The results may include information in various formats. There are many
formats available, including several as a result of the introduction of
ICT.

-   Your search may direct the client to items of library stock, to be
    used in the library or borrowed for home use. This could include:
    -   Printed reference sources or information CD-ROMs
    -   Books, audio or video material for home borrowing
    -   Magazines and journals
    -   Pamphlets or leaflets

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   The search results may be bibliographies or lists of website
    references for the client to follow up.
-   The results may be viewed on screen by client, in the form of text,
    audio or video.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} If the client wishes to view the
results on screen on a computer outside the library, what must you
ascertain before directing the client to websites with audio or video
content?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Other factors affecting format

It will be important to check the **specification of the client's
computer** in order to be sure that it will support audio or video
applications. Another point to ask about is whether the client had a
broadband connection. Downloading photographs, movies or sound on a
dial-up connection can take considerable lengths of time (It may not
even be possible with dial-up technology.) and is costly in terms of
telephone charges.

If the search is not carried out with the client present, you must
ascertain if the client can **visit the library** at a later time to
access the search results or if the information must be in a format
which can be e-mailed or posted to the client.

Difficulties may arise if the client has expressed an initial preference
for a format in which the information is not actually available. If the
information is only available in a **limited number of formats**, you
must alert the client to this and ascertain if any of these formats are
acceptable.

### Constraints

There may be a number of constrains on the material required. These
include:

-   deadlines for completion
-   currency of information
-   language
-   special needs

#### Deadlines for completion

It is important for you to gauge the **urgency** of the enquiry. This
can range from enquiries where information is required immediately
through to those where the results may be presented after some time has
elapsed. You should agree with the client on the deadline for completion
of the enquiry and also on the action to be taken should this deadline
fail to be met for any reason.

If you cannot meet the deadline for completion of the enquiry, clearly
it is important to explain to the client the **reasons** for this.
Perhaps the enquiry has turned out to be much more complex than was
originally envisaged. A specialist member of staff who would normally
have handled the enquiry may be absent through sickness. Technical
problems resulting in Internet access being temporarily unavailable can
also throw your enquiry off schedule.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} You have explained to the client
the reasons for not meeting the deadline. What else should you discuss
with the client?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Difficulties in meeting deadlines

Although the client may well feel more accepting of the situation if you
explain the reasons for your failure to meet the agreed deadline, to
some extent this is water under the bridge. More important to the client
is the action you propose to take in order to **rectify** the situation.
With this in mind you should raise the issue with the client at the
earliest possible stage i.e. as soon as you realise that it is unlikely
that the original deadline will be achieved. This gets the client on
side and enables you and the client to jointly work out how to make the
best of the situation. It could be that it is possible to complete part
of the enquiry within the deadline, in which case you must agree with
the client which aspects should be prioritised. Or perhaps you could
arrange for some or all of the information to be provided by another
organisation.

The key to **client satisfaction** is to prevent such a situation
happening. Be realistic when agreeing deadlines with the client. If you
are unsure of how long the enquiry will take, say so. It is better to
overestimate than underestimate the time required. That way the client
gets a pleasant surprise when the search results are ready earlier than
promised.

#### Currency of information

In your search you will be dealing with two kinds of information:

-   **Dynamic information** changes frequently (e.g.: current
    information on news, weather, government policy, share prices) and
    it is important for you to locate the most up-to-date data or, in a
    historical enquiry, the information as it was at the time being
    investigated.
-   **Static information** is always the same (e.g.: historical dates,
    chemical formulae).

You must also ensure that the client is aware of the need to use
**recently updated sources** for dynamic information and the
implications which this may have in terms of the timescale and cost of
the search. Updating websites to take account of constantly changing
information is costly and it may be that there is a charge or a
subscription cost to accessing such sites. This is especially true of
sites giving financial and performance information about commercial
companies or research results.

QUESTION TextEntry1: Static and dynamic information

#### Language

Some information may only be available in languages other than English.
You should be certain of the client's **fluency** in these languages
before embarking on the search.

Some websites have a facility which permits you to **choose the
language**. This is usually very simple to do.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 1.1**

Go to <http://www.easyjet.com/en/book/index.asp> and view the site in
Italian.Look at <http://www.artis.nl/> and change the site from Dutch to
English.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some search engines permit you to specify the language of the websites.
Some also have a **translation facility** from a foreign language into
English and from English into a foreign language.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 1.2**

Try this out in Google. Go to <http://www.google.co.uk/> and click the
"Search the web" option, then click on "language tools".Search for
websites about **"días de fiesta"** (this means holidays) which are
written in Spanish and located in Mexico.Choose some Spanish text from
one of these websites, copy and paste it into the Translate Box and ask
Google to translate it into English for you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Special needs

The reference interview provides the opportunity to establish any
special needs of the client. Some of the most common examples are:

**Learning difficulty**

For clients with learning difficulties you might have to look for
material of a simpler nature, perhaps with more visual or audio content

**English as a second language**

These clients may prefer material which is not in English. This might
mean having the enquirer at your side while you carry out the search so
that they can provide assistance with vocabulary. Alternatively, you may
be able to pass the enquiry over to a colleague with language skills.
(See earlier guidance on language)

**Physical impairment**

Any material found must be accessible to the client e.g.: websites must
be accessible to a visually impaired client. (See Outcome 4 for more
details of this.)

If you wish to find out more about the skills and knowledge required for
this outcome, the following website may prove helpful.

-   <http://www.hals.lib.tx.us/ref123/2interview.htm>

## Demonstrate knowledge of search logic, search engines and features of the Internet

### Introduction

This outcome looks at a number of aspects relating to web searches,
including the following:

-   Boolean logic
-   Truncation and wildcards
-   Non-obvious search terms
-   Grammar of the Internet
-   Search engine operation
-   Search terms
-   How ranking works
-   Ownership of the web
-   Dark internet and invisible web

#### Boolean logic

Boolean operators are used to **combine search terms** in order to make
the search results more specific.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, can you name
the three Boolean operators?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### The Boolean operators

There are three Boolean operators - **AND, NOT** and **OR**. We will
explore how each of these is used.

**AND** is used to link search terms.

Entering an expression such as **beans AND toast** means that results
will be returned only where both words appear. Using the **AND**
operator narrows your search and gives a smaller number of results.

**OR** is used to indicate that any of the terms may be present.

Entering an expression such as **punk OR hair** means that results with
either one or the other (or possibly both) will be returned. Using the
**OR** operator widens your search and gives a larger number of results.

The **OR** operator is particularly useful where a topic might involve
synonyms or near synonyms. A search for **illness AND felines OR cats**
will be more wide-ranging than **illness AND cats**.

**NOT** is used to exclude terms.

Entering an expression such as **pop music NOT beatles** might be
devised to return results about pop music but excluding results about
the Beatles. Using the **NOT** operator narrows your search and gives a
smaller number of results.

The **NOT** operator is particularly useful when one of your search
terms had more than one meaning. **Telegraph** might refer to electronic
communication methods but it is also a common name for newspapers. A
search for **telegraph development NOT newspaper** will eliminate press
information.

In fact the expressions are pretty close to what you would say in
natural speech:

-   I am looking for references to both beans **AND** toast.
-   I am looking for sites on either punk **OR** hair
-   I am looking for information on pop music but **NOT** including the
    Beatles.

Sometimes this is easier to understand in diagrams, so let\'s have a
look at Logic diagrams \...

#### Logic diagrams: the AND operator

Imagine that we have a number of websites which give information about
children's clothes. Some of these have information only on girls'
clothes, some have information only on boys' clothes and some have
information on both boys' and girls' clothes. In the diagrams the left
hand circle represents all records including the word **girls** and the
right hand circle represents all the records including the word **boys**

**AND** ![](Venn-and.svg "Venn-and.svg")

**girls AND boys**

The shaded area represents the records which have information on both
girls' clothing and boys' clothing.

#### Logic Diagrams: the OR operator

**OR** ![](Venn-or.svg "Venn-or.svg")

**girls OR boys**

The shaded area represents the records which have information on only
girls' clothing, only boys' clothing or on clothing for both boys and
girls.

#### Logic Diagrams: the NOT operator

**NOT** ![](Venn-not.svg "Venn-not.svg")

**girls NOT boys**

The NOT operator excludes all records with information on boys'
clothing, and the shaded area represents the records which have with
information about girls' clothing only.

#### Using multiple Boolean operators

It is possible to use multiple Boolean operators. For example,
**security AND internet AND banking** narrows down a search on Internet
security issues to records which relate only to bank security on the
Internet.

QUESTION TextEntry1: Boolean Search

QUESTION TextEntry1: Boolean Search 2

You can see how the use of Boolean operators allows a very precise
search statement to be constructed. This should produce a smaller number
but a better focused set of hits from a search engine.

Boolean search logic underlies the operation of all search engines but
the various search engines have different systems of entering a Boolean
expression. Some allow straightforward search statements using capital
letters for **AND, OR** and **NOT**. However many do not explicitly
allow this, the much used Google being one of them.

#### Constructing precise Boolean searches

It is important to consult the search engine help pages to understand
how you can create a precise Boolean search.

There are three approaches:

-   1\. Boolean expressions can be **entered directly** into the search
    box.

We have already covered this. Altavista (http://www.altavista.com/) is a
search engine which permits this.

-   2\. The search engine **makes assumptions** about what you mean when
    you enter search terms.
-   3\. There is an Advanced search facility.

#### Search engine assumptions

If the search engine makes certain assumptions about what you mean when
you enter search terms in a particular way. You must understand the
implications of these assumptions.

Basically when you enter more than one term in the search box, the
search engine turns this into a Boolean search. The two possibilities
are that the engine defaults to an AND or an OR.

Most of the common search engines default to AND. So putting in
**carriage clock** should return results with both words included. Of
course the words may appear in any order and not necessarily next to one
another.

Google allows the use of a minus sign (-) to use the NOT operator. Thus
to create the Boolean search expression **sixties pop NOT beatles**, you
would enter **sixties pop --beatles** (Note: You must not leave a space
between the minus and the search term which you wish to exclude.)

Google assumes that some common words and numbers are never included in
the search. Thus if such a word is particularly required, it must be
prefaced by a plus (+) sign. This is essentially the Boolean **AND**
operator.

Using + and -- in this way is not as predictable as you might expect in
many search situations. We recommend that they should be used only when
there is no alternative. You can find out more here
<http://www.google.co.uk/help/basics.html>

There are more features of search engines you can utilise have a look at
Googles help pages on Punctuation and symbols
<https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433> and on Search
Operators <https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861?hl=en>

#### Advanced search facility

Many search engines have an advanced search facility. This allows many
refinements, such as specifying the language, format and age of the
sites returned. Most advanced search facilities however have a set of
choices which allow a Boolean search to be created.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, take a look at
the advanced search facility on Yahoo:
<http://search.yahoo.com/search/options?fr=fp-top&p>

What expressions are used instead of the Boolean operators AND, OR and
NOT?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Advanced searching on Yahoo

Yahoo uses

*With all of the words = AND*

*With at least one of the words = OR*

*Without the words = NOT*

By placing search terms in one or more of these categories, you can set
up most Boolean statements you will need in your searching.

Note that it is not only search engines which provide these advanced
search facilities. They may also be found within a site. The Houses of
Parliament site is an example:

<http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/>

#### Other points on Boolean searching

A good website covering Boolean searching can be found at:
<http://searchenginewatch.com/2155991>

A final point about the grouping of terms is that if you want to find
results which include an exact phrase, most search engines let you do
this by placing the phrase in quotes. e.g. **"knitting for children"**.
In the advanced search facility, you are offered a box title **"With the
exact phrase"**.

This is particularly useful when searching for names where the forename
and surname may not be kept together and in order by a search engine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 2.1**

Try two searches with **land act** and **"land act"** as search terms.
You will see that the first search produces results relating to Acts of
Parliament which relate in some way to land e.g. we found one about
stopping dog fouling on public land. The second search leads us to the
various Land Acts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

### Truncation and wildcards

Traditionally on-line database searching allowed the use of truncation
of search terms. This used a symbol such as \~ to represent one or more
letters at the beginning or end of a word. For example, \~fuse could
lead to refuse, defuse or infuse and refus\~ could lead to refuse,
refuses, refused or refusing.

In Internet searching this symbol would be called a Wildcard. Two types
of Wildcard exist, commonly represented by ? and \*.

-   ? indicates the replacement of one character
-   \* indicates the replacement of any number of characters.

Wildcard symbols can be used in the middle of a word, not just at the
beginning and end, e.g.: *familiari?e* for *familiarise* and
familiarize\'\'.

You must keep in mind the pitfalls of over-enthusiastic use of wildcards
or truncation. For instance, **men\*** would encompass both **men's**
and **menstruate**, the latter term being unlikely to be relevant to a
search on a male-related topic.

Of course the search engines have their own rules. Google for instance
does not have this feature. It carries out its own version of using
extensions of words automatically. Many search engines use complex
algorithms to produce their results which makes the use of wildcards or
truncation inappropriate.

Most sites which permit wildcard searching will indicate in their Help
section which symbols are to be used for these. One search engine which
does allow this is Exalead at <http://www.exalead.com/search/>

#### Non-obvious search terms

A non-obvious search term is a term from some area other than the main
search subject which may lead to useful information. This is different
from a **related term**, say using a particular country instead of its
continent. A non-obvious search term comes from some sort of parallel
area which is at first sight not clear.

For example, when looking for information about a particular disease,
the name of a **researcher** in a similar field would be a non-obvious
search term. It is likely that you would have to be guided by the
enquirer about the appropriateness of non-obvious search terms because
background knowledge of the topic would be needed in order to think of
them.

Another means of finding non-obvious search terms is to browse in
directories and portals and see what terms appear in associated sites.

You might like to ask your experienced colleagues to give examples of
non-obvious search terms which they have used in the past.

### Grammar of the Internet

The official name for what we commonly refer to as a website address is
URL. **URL** stands for **Uniform Resource Locator**. Certain
conventions apply to the construction of URLs which can give pointers on
their usefulness. (This is also relevant to the validation of website
results -- see Outcome 4). Alan November has called this the Grammar of
the Internet. (see
<http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/information-literacy-resources/>)
or
(http://novemberlearning.com/educational-resources-for-educators/information-literacy-resources/4-how-to-read-a-web-address/)

**http** stands for **Hyper Text Transfer Protocol**. This simply means
your browser is looking for a Hyper Text document. Hyper Text is the
basic coding used to construct web pages

**www**, as we all know, stands for World Wide Web.

The interesting parts are after http and www. The next part is called
the **domain name**. So for instance **amazon.co.uk**

The first part of the domain name may yield useful clues. Is it a
well-known name? If you come up with a page on the site
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/> it has the authority of being on the BBC
website. Is it a 'personal' site giving the opinion of only one person?
The name of the person may be explicit in the domain name e.g.
<http://www.jamieoliver.com/>

BUT be terribly careful here. An individual may set up a website to
promote their own ideas and then a rival may set up a website with an
equally convincing domain name. Remember anyone can set up a domain name
of their choice and load any sort of rubbish onto the website.

#### Using WHOIS

It is often possible to find the owner/publisher of a website by doing a
WHOIS search on the domain name. An easy route to this can be found as a
facility on many website providers sites e.g.:
<http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml>

You can enter the US domain name e.g.: **un.org** will yield the United
Nations Organisation. Any site with a similar name attempting to fool
users into thinking it is the UNO can be checked out in this way.

The UK site for WHOIS searches is:
<http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-domain-names/about-domain-names/domain-lookup-whois/whois-tool>

or go to www.nominet.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 2.2**

Use WHOIS to decide which of the following is the official site of
Glasgow Celtic football club.

-   <http://www.celticfc.co.uk>
-   <http://www.celtic-mad.co.uk/>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### URL extensions

The final parts of the URL (separated by dots) are called
**extensions**. A well-known example, say for Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk)
is **.uk** which indicates that the website has been registered as of UK
nationality. All domain names carry a national identifier as the last
extension, except for those registered as being of USA nationality.

Taking Amazon as an example:

-   www.amazon.com No national identifier signifies the United States
-   www.amazon.co.uk .uk signifies the United Kingdom
-   www.amazon.de .de signifies Germany
-   www.amazon.fr .fr signifies France
-   www.amazon.co.jp .jp signifies Japan

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 2.3**

There are many websites which list these geographical extensions. One of
these ishttp://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm Use this or any other
appropriate site to find the geographic extensions for the following
countries:Indonesia, India, Netherlands, Latvia, South Africa

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let us look further into www.amazon.co.uk The extension between the
company name and the geographical extension describes the type of
organisation involved. "co" is for UK commercial companies.

Each country has its own method for the domain name extensions. Most of
the sites you will be dealing with will be UK or USA based, so let us
look at the most common extensions for these countries.

#### United Kingdom extensions

**.gov.uk** is a national or local government site e.g. www.opsi.gov.uk
the Office of Public Sector Information

**.co.uk** is a company site e.g. <http://www.slc.co.uk/> the student
loans company

**.ac.uk** is an academic site e.g. <http://www.soton.ac.uk/> the
University of Southampton

**.org.uk** is an organisation, often a charity e.g.
<http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/> the National Trust

**.ltd.uk** is a registered company e.g. <http://www.evans.ltd.uk/> the
women's fashion outlet

There will be other domain extensions produced in the future. A recent
introduction is .me.uk which is presumably meant for individuals.

However you must note that only some of these extensions can be relied
upon. Only .gov, .ac and .ltd are strictly controlled. Anyone can set up
a website with a .co or .org extension. In summary, you can use the
domain name extensions as good CLUES (which are watertight for .ac.uk
and .gov.uk) but be very careful.

#### United States extensions

Remember sites registered in the US have no geographical extensions.

**.edu** is an educational institution e.g.: <http://www.wisc.edu/>
Wisconsin university

**.com** is any company e.g.: www.amazon.com Amazon the Internet company

**.org** is an organisation (perhaps non-profit) e.g.:
<http://www.openoffice.org/> the organisation developing Open Office,
the free office software suite.

**.gov** is a Government agency e.g.: <http://www.irs.gov/> Internal
Revenue Service

**.mil** is a military institution e.g.: <http://www.navy.mil/> the US
Navy

**.net** is used by network providers e.g.:
<http://www.discountasp.net/> an Internet hosting company

There are several others and some in the pipeline such as **.info** and
**.biz** which will be used for commercial purposes.

Not all countries use these descriptive extensions. Germany and France,
for example, only have the country extension. Thus we saw:

www.amazon.de for Germany and www.amazon.fr for France.

Another point to remember is that there is no requirement to register
your site under its country of origin. Some British organisations use
the US extensions of .com or .org:

www.debenhams.com/ - the well-known retailer

www.rsc.org/ - the Royal Society of Chemistry

are just two examples.

### Search engine operation

There are essentially three stages involved in search engine operation.

-   1\. Before you come to type in the search terms, there has to have
    been an enormous **gathering of data** about websites carried out by
    the search engine company.
-   2\. The search engine uses your **search terms** to select candidate
    sites for the results.
-   3\. The search engine returns the **results** ranked in some order.

The Internet is continually being scanned by software set up by the
search engine company. This software called a spider or web bot looks
for websites and key words to associate with them. The key words can
either be **metadata** (descriptive keywords supplied by the site
designer) or words in the text. The result is an enormous data bank of
website addresses and their corresponding key words.

#### Search terms

When the user enters the chosen search terms, the search engine uses
complex and proprietary methods to select resulting websites which
should satisfy the search - basically the engine is trying to match your
search terms against its keywords.

Each search engine has its own 'secret' methods, giving weight to
particular words, including extensions to search terms such as plurals
and so on. These algorithms may change with time and so different
results for the same search terms may be obtained if the search is
repeated at a later date.

#### How ranking works

Finally before presentation of the resulting websites, ranking occurs.
Ranking is the process by which a search engine **orders the results**
of a search. You would hope that ranking presents the websites most
likely to have the most useful information first.

However you should be aware that in some cases, commercial sites can
**buy** a place near the top of a list of websites in a search engine's
results. The implications of this are that the "best" sites do not
necessarily appear at the top of the list. Also the results may appear
in a different order at a different date due to ranking changes

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 2.4**

A useful exercise is to look at the information pages of search engines
to understand how they work. There is usually a section on how to notify
the search engine about your website which will have interesting clues
as to how the search engine treats new websites.

For each of:

-   Google <http://www.google.co.uk/>
-   Teoma <http://www.teoma.com/>
-   Yahoo <http://www.yahoo.com/>

look for the "about" pages and find out how the engine works and how you
submit a website to it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is important to remember that a search carried out by a particular
search engine will return only a sub-set of all the possible results.
This is because, due to practical constraints, the engine cannot index
all the pages available in the web. An issue here is also how quickly
the engine reacts to new or altered web pages. Thus it is always worth
using several different search engines for any particular reference
enquiry. Of course, there are sites returned in a search, which when
clicked upon do not appear at all because the website has been
rearranged or removed since the last indexing.

### Ownership of the web

The questions 'Who owns the Web?' or 'Who owns the Internet?' come up
from time to time. The implications of the answers are crucial to a good
understanding of the nature of information on the Web.

First, let's get the nomenclature correct. The Internet is the physical
network over which information can flow. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a
collection of sites where we can access information via the Internet.

So the question is now in two parts. Who owns the Internet? (i.e.: the
physical network) and Who owns the Web? (i.e.: the collection of
information we can access)?

#### Who owns the Internet?

The Internet is an enormous network which has spread throughout the
world. One could say that it is owned by many, many organisations but
that is not quite correct. It would be more accurate to say that many,
many organisations own their particular part of it.

Consider how the Internet evolved. There were a number of scientific
**research organisations** each with a network of computers and
terminals. It was agreed to connect these together. Each organisation
owned its own network. Gradually more and more commercial and
organisation networks were created and joined together. The idea can be
likened to the road network on the European Continent. Each country
builds and pays for its own roads but it is possible to drive between
any two points on the continent because the road network of each country
is connected to the next country.

Luckily it is worthwhile for each part of the Internet to pay its own
way to get the benefit of being connected to the whole network.

### Who owns the Web

The other part of the question, who owns the websites, is similarly
answered. Each website is owned and financed by an **organisation or
person**. They alone have the rights to place their own information on
the website.

So Governments will want to have websites to put up information for
their citizens to be able to access. Commercial organisations will want
to put up websites with information about their products to encourage
sales. Other information providers will similarly create sites to
distribute knowledge. Then there are millions of websites which are paid
for and run by individuals who want to present information about their
hobbies, favourite pop stars, family history etc.

So there is no one person or body responsible for what exists on the
web. It is really quite difficult then to enforce laws proscribing
offensive matter because there is no overall control and the offensive
site can be situated anywhere in the World.

Tim Berners-Lee was the originator of the web and he saw it as a
cooperative space for the sharing of information among researchers. He
was working at CERN. It still can perform that purpose but the main
driving force is now by **commercial interests**. On-line shopping is a
very valuable sector nowadays and in the future there will be more and
more commercial uses.

However you should be aware of the very different forces influencing
what is seen in the search results. There are individuals, organisations
and companies attempting to present their own version of the truth,
often in an even-handed way, but occasionally in an insidious and very
dangerous manner.

You must hone your validation techniques so that you can recommend
websites which really are what they purport. The concepts of the
'grammar of the internet' can be put into practice here. Note that there
are some truly shocking websites which lurk under the most inoffensive
names. We are not going to supply any examples of these!

### Dark internet and the invisible web

Search engines have become the main means of accessing information on
the Internet. In the early days directories were used but these have now
relinquished first place to the search engines. This is due to the
enormous number of websites. Their number has grown exponentially and
Google tells us that today there are over eight billion of them. There
is no way that all these sites could be viewed by a human reviewer and
placed in a directory. Our ability to find information on the Internet
is now very much dependent on the qualities of the chosen search engine.

This does mean is that, if there are websites which contain information
which cannot properly be accessed by the search engine spider, then we
will never see it listed in the results. Indeed there are areas of the
web which are never found at all by the searching spiders. A current
problem is with search engines being unable to index **databases** and
other websites which generate **dynamic content**. In other words, the
content is not set out on the pages of the website but is generated each
time in response to a user accessing the site via a browser. Websites
with some content not in HTML also cause difficulties. Examples are
proprietary text formats or multimedia. PDF files have also been
problematic.

If the search engines are not able to find the information then the only
hope of finding its existence is by using a Directory. There are
specialised portals to 'invisible' websites. One example is
www.invisible-web.net which includes a directory of some of the best
resources the Invisible Web has to offer.

You can read more about the Invisible Web here:

<http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/invisible-web/>

<http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html>

## Create and implement a complex search strategy

### Designing a complex search strategy

In Outcome 2 we looked at the theory of search logic -- Boolean logic,
wildcards, non-obvious search terms, grammar of the Internet, search
engine operation and syntax, ranking, ownership of the web, the Dark
Internet and invisible web. In Outcome 3 we consider how to apply all of
this knowledge in order to design the best strategy for any inquiry. If
you are not confident of your knowledge and understanding of the Outcome
2 topics, you will find in beneficial to revise that section before
proceeding further with Outcome 3. You can return to the ICTL home page
by clicking on the ICTL logo at the top left of the page and navigate to
Outcome 2 from there.

Complex searches fall into two broad categories:

-   1\. You may want to locate a **single piece** of specific
    information.
-   2\. You may be asked by the enquirer to retrieve **everything you
    can** on the topic.

#### Locating a piece of specific information

What makes the search complex is that this information is not easy to
find. For this type of search, you are likely to use one or more search
engines. The skill lies in **choosing your search terms** and combining
these into a search statement which will yield the required results.

Alternatively, you may know of an **authoritative site** on which this
information will definitely be found. In this case, you will use the URL
of the site and then carry out a search within that site for the
required information. You should bookmark sites which you find
especially useful. You can arrange these in your "Favourites" in topic
related folders.

#### Retrieving everything on a topic

You may be asked by the enquirer to retrieve everything you can on the
topic. In many cases, to carry out this instruction to the letter would
mean presenting the enquirer with an **overwhelming** mass of material.

The skill lies in designing your search so that it results in a number
of the most useful and representative sites, which present sufficient,
but not too much, information in the format and style best suited to
your enquirer.

For this type of search, in addition to search engines, you may need to
use **directories, portals and databases**. With practice you will learn
which to use first in specific types of enquiries.

#### Useful Search Techniques

The key to efficient searching is to construct an appropriate search
statement by choosing and combining search terms. You will develop your
skills in this with practice. Here are some tips from experienced
Internet searchers.

1\. Enter what you consider to be the most important search terms first.
For example, **rover cars** rather than **cars rover**

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 3.1**

Enter **rover cars** and **cars rover** into a search engine and compare
the first 20 sites listed. You will find the results differ, although
some sites appear in the top 20 listed in both searches. **rover cars**
is more likely to lead to sites which deal solely with Rovers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

2\. Enter phrases in quotes (or the equivalent syntax as specific by the
search engine). Quotes instigate a search for the exact phrase e.g.:
**"internet search techniques"** will search only for these three words
next to each other and in this order. Without quotes, your search will
also look for all three words but they could be anywhere in the document
e.g.: **internet search techniques** could lead to sites discussing
police **search techniques** for suspected **internet** crime.

3\. If you are specifically seeking UK information, either ask to search
UK sites only (if the search engine permits this) or add **uk** as a
search term

4\. Do not limit yourself to what we, as library staff, think of as
indexing terms. Searching the Internet is different from consulting a
printed index. So enter as search terms words that you would expect to
find in the text. For example, in a search on teenage health problems,
you might use search terms such as **bulimia, anorexia**, or **eating
disorder**.

#### More useful search techniques

5\. Look for distinctive, specific words or phrases which apply to your
search topic. This is the best way of narrowing the search to relevant
sites. **agoraphobia, English madrigals** and **peregrine falcon** are
examples.

6\. Remember synonyms and variant spellings. As much of the Internet
content originates from the United States, it is particularly important
to remember Americanisms e.g.: **trunk** instead of **boot** of a car;
**checking account** instead of **current account**.

7\. When searching on names of individuals or organisations, put these
in quotes so that they are a phrase -- **"Melvyn Bragg"; "Royal Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals"**

8\. When searching for information on an organisation, especially
commercial companies, using the organisation's name as a search term
often does not lead to the organisation's own web-site but to other
sites in which the company is mentioned. (This is a result of the
ranking methods used by search engines.) You may be more successful by
using the organisation's **postcode** and/or **telephone number** as
search terms.

9\. Use **nouns** rather than verbs as search terms, wherever possible.
The reason underlying this is that nouns are frequently more specific
than verbs.

10\. If you are aware that one of your search terms is ambiguous, add
additional terms which define the area in which you are interested. You
will find that **"michael jackson" "wine critic" uk** leads to sites
which are less likely to have a connection with the well-known pop
singer.

### Reviewing search terms in the light of results -- broader/narrower/related terms

It is important to keep reviewing your search strategy and, in
particular your search statement, as the search is underway. Ask
yourself: Am I finding too much or too little information?

-   Is the search generating a number of sites which are unconnected, or
    only loosely related, to the topic?
-   Is there a slant to the topic which my search does not appear to be
    including?

In order to refine your search, you must be able to use terms which are
broader or narrower than or related to your original search term. The
words broader, narrower and related are self-explanatory. A good example
which clearly illustrates the concept is:

initial search term - **Great Britain**

broader term - **United Kingdom** (The United Kingdom includes Great
Britain)

narrower terms -- **England, Scotland, Wales** (Great Britain includes
these three nations)

related term - **Northern Ireland** (Northern Ireland is related to
Great Britain in that GB and NI make up the United Kingdom)

QUESTION TextEntry1: Search term terriers

At each stage you should review the search statement, considering if it
is appropriate to change the search terms.

#### Changing search terms

Where the key terms selected initially are yielding too much
information, you should move to the use of narrower terms. A
knowledgeable client might be able to advise you here.

Where the key terms selected initially are not yielding sufficient
information, you should move to the use of broader or related terms.

Using a directory may help you identify broader, narrower and related
terms within its structure.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 3.2**

Enter aeroplanes into the search box on Surfwax. When the next screen
appears which summarises the search results, click on **Focus** and this
will show you a selection of Similar, Narrower and Broader terms for
**aeroplanes**.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

### Collection and presentation of results

The results of your search should be presented in a structured way which
facilitates understanding by the client.

This may require you to extract or summarise information from one or
more sites. If you do this, it is important for the client to be
informed of the source(s) of the information found so that the client
may explore the information further if they wish.

The result of the search might be a **bibliography** of web references
or references to information sources in print, audio or video formats.
You must quote any such references using a recognised format, for
example, as in ISO 690. ISO 690-2 specifies the elements to be included
in bibliographic references to electronic documents. It sets out a
prescribed order for the elements of the reference and establishes
conventions for the transcription and presentation of information
derived from the source electronic document.

Here is an example of an electronic citation.

Monibot, George (2014) \"How we ended up paying farmers to flood our
homes\".

Accessed via
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/17/farmers-uk-flood-maize-soil-protection>
(19 February 2014).

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, state what you
think the elements in this citation mean:

Monibot

George

2014

How we ended up paying farmers to flood our homes

<http://www.theguardian.com>

19 February 2014

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Electronic citations

The elements of the citation are as follows:

Monibot - Author's surname

George - Author's forename

2014 - Date of publication of item

How we ended up paying farmers to flood our homes - Title of item

<http://www.theguardian.com> - URL for website on which item was found.

19 February 2014 - Date this site was accessed

Note that because web pages change constantly and can disappear it is
important to give the date on which the site was accessed.

#### Presenting information to the client

You should devise a **logical structure** for presenting the information
to the client. The most commonly used structures are based on these
arrangements:

-   Alphabetical
-   Chronological
-   Geographical (grouped by country, region or town)
-   Topical (grouped by sub-topics)
-   Categories (e.g.: type of organisation -- public, private,
    voluntary)
-   Accepted hierarchies (e.g.: biological taxonomy)
-   Sites presenting one point of view, followed by sites presenting the
    opposing arguments

QUESTION TextEntry1: Traffic Congestion Search

## Evaluate websites located in a complex search

### Evaluating websites

Information on the Internet presents greater **problems** regarding
reliability than information found in reference books and other
materials in public libraries which have undergone a rigorous selection
process. So ALL information found on websites must be **critically
evaluated**. The more complex the search, the more necessary it is to
apply sophisticated evaluation techniques.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, make a list of
criteria you might apply to assess the suitability of a website found as
a result of carrying out a complex information search

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Evaluation criteria

We have noted the following nine criteria:

-   Authority
-   Credibility
-   Accuracy
-   Bias
-   Emphasis
-   Currency
-   Clarity of presentation
-   Use of multimedia
-   Ease of use for visually impaired clients

We shall now look at each of these in more detail.

#### Authority

Here you need to consider the **expertise and reputation** of the
organisations or individuals connected with the website. When the
information is explicitly attributed to an author, you can assess their
reputation. Thus information supplied by an acknowledged expert in a
field or found on the website of a well-known and respected organisation
carries a lot of weight.

Of course a website may give no direct clues as to **authorship** and
hence authority. In this case you can try to find out who owns the site.
In Outcome 2 of this unit, we covered examining the URL of the website
and carrying out a WHOIS search to find out this type of information.

In searching for information about horse breeds you might come across
this site: <http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/>

Remembering Outcome 2, what type of organisation does this URL suggest?

.edu tells us that this site belongs to an educational institution in
the Unites States. In fact, the site is that of the Department of Animal
Science of Oklahoma State University and therefore you can expect an
amount of authority. Note that some colleges and universities allow
their students to create home pages which are not authoritative in the
least. You can usually spot this by the name of the student in the URL.

#### Tracing website ownership

If you were obtaining information about travelling in South Africa, you
might come across this site <http://www.springbokatlas.co.za/>

From the two domain name extensions you can see that it should be a
commercial site (.co) and it is registered as a South African site (.za)
You need to access the **whois** for South Africa. You can do this by
searching for it. You can find it here: <http://co.za/whois.shtml>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.1**

Carry out this whois search.You can see that
<http://www.springbokatlas.co.za/> is registered by the travel company
and at the same address as the travel site in Cape Town. That gives a
bit of confidence that it is a real company and not a fraudulent
'front'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Of course it is pretty rare that a respected organisation's website
would not very explicitly feature its own name.

You may have to either omit the information found on a non-attributable
website or give a strong **health warning** to the client regarding its
usefulness.

#### Credibility

If the author or organisation is unknown to you, you have to check out
their credibility. Regarding a named but unknown author:

-   a\) there may be a section on the **author's credentials**, giving
    qualifications etc. -- you can check out these details.
-   b\) if no credentials are supplied you can simply carry out a search
    on the **authors' name**.

What would you look for in the search results?

You might be convinced by such things as:

-   positive references to their names in other articles on respected
    sites
-   biographical information showing that they have relevant
    qualifications or work experience

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.2**

When carrying out a search on the history of nuclear physics, you have
found a site which quotes extensively from the research of someone
called **Norman Feather**. Carry out a search to determine who this
person was and whether or not he was a respected scientist of his time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

A mark of credibility is in the **citing of sources** for the
information. If the unknown author cites only her/his own sources then
you have no clue.

#### Evaluating credibility

You can evaluate a site to some extent by looking for **references** to
it on other reputable websites. You can check which sites link to or
reference the website being validated simply by searching on its URL.
Enter the URL into a search engine and it should return a list of
websites where the URL is found.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.3**

Try this out by searching on www.qca.org.uk which is the URL for
Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency www.qcda.gov.uk. You
will find links to many respectable curriculum related sites, including
government departments.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have now covered a **variety of methods** which can be used to
establish the authority and/or credibility of websites. With experience
you will know which method(s) are best in any instance. The next
activity provides an opportunity to practice using different methods.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.4**

Check reliability of each of the following web pages for authority and
credibility:

-   <http://www.nasa.gov>
-   <http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/dcb/?anchor=rocket_science_open_standards>
-   <http://www.apogeerockets.com/>
-   <http://www.bbg.org/gar2/pestalerts/>
-   <http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/plant_info/pests_diseases>
-   <http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/outdoors/444>
-   <http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20060711093022/http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Accuracy

Verifying the accuracy on information in a complex search has particular
problems for the information professional who cannot be a subject
specialist for every search area. The accuracy of factual information
can usually be assumed to apply to reputable sites but even then you
need to cross check using more than one site wherever possible. You
certainly cannot supply information from sites with dubious
authority/credibility without a caveat.

You must of course use your **common sense**. You can detect obvious
mistakes e.g. a road-based car is not going to travel at 2000 miles per
hour although it might in exceptional circumstances reach 200 mph. With
more specialised data, you may still be able to get a feel for the
numbers and simple mistakes will stick out.

#### Bias

Here you are looking to see if only one side of an argument is given.
Many websites by their very nature present information from only one
viewpoint and are thus biased. It is worth examining the URL and whois
information. A commercial site is not going to criticise its products
negatively. If the site is a personal one, you may be looking at the
one-sided views of a 'crank'. If the site is sponsored by a dubious
organisation, you may only be able to find this out by looking at the
whois data. Of course even well known experts can be biased in their
opinions.

While such information need not necessarily be excluded from the results
presented to the client, you must **indicate any identified bias** and,
if possible, provide information from another sources which present
opposing points of view. This is particularly important when the client
is seeking information on potentially contentious matters such as
politics, religion, race or issues related to pressure groups.

One of the most obvious areas where bias is shown is **health
information**. Some sites are simply promoting dubious or unproven
therapies with a view to selling their own "medicinal" products. You
must make doubly sure that any sites found as a result of a search on a
medical topic are reputable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.5**

As an exercise in looking for bias in websites, search for a pair of
websites giving opposing points of view on the following topics:

-   Cats make better pets than dogs
-   HRT is the only way to go
-   Why wind farms are bad
-   Petrol is greener than diesel

Have a close look at the arguments. Note how convincing some of these
one-sided views can be.

You may be lucky when searching for information in a contentious area in
that your initial search results in several sites giving the different
viewpoints. However, if not, you must be prepared to actively seek out
websites giving alternative views.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Emphasis

This differs from bias in that it is the omission of information rather
than deliberate over-emphasis of one point of view. For example, US
sites may devote little space to British developments. Another pertinent
example is that sites for UK government departments may include
information only for England on devolved issues.

You should be aware that emphasis can be more difficult to detect than
bias. A solution is to apply the technique of cross checking with other
sites on the same topic.

Health topics are an excellent example of where emphasis can creep in
because of the differing approaches to medicine in different countries.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.6**

Insert the search term **"chronic fatigue syndrome"** into a search
engine. Note how the majority of sites which appear are from the United
States. Examine the sort of information on these sites. How useful would
it be to an enquirer from the UK?

Now repeat the search using **"chronic fatigue syndrome" uk**. Examine
the sites listed. We are sure that you will find them more useful
sources of information for a client in your library.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Currency

In using the Internet you often come across websites which are seriously
**out of date**. In fact some of them are actually abandoned and will
never be updated again. When you use websites in your information
searching, you must make sure that the information is current. Of course
with a reference book you can look at the publication date. However for
websites it is not just so easy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, jot down some
points you could look for on a website to establish its currency.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Establishing currency

We can think of a few possible ways of establishing the currency of a
website. Obviously they depend on finding date information. This can be
explicit:

-   You can check the **"Last revised"** date on a website. Remember
    though that this may only indicate the last time a change was made
    to a particular part of the website and that it does not imply that
    all the content was updated on that date.
-   You can look to see how recent are the **publication dates** of the
    documents referred to on the site
-   You can look out for **dates quoted** within text and make an
    estimate of currency

If there are no actual dates mentioned, you will need to look for
implications of dates.

-   You can look for **regulations or laws** mentioned in the site and
    find their dates of introduction.
-   You can look for the names of **institutions** or Government
    departments. These do change name and can be used to give a date
    range.
-   You can look for the names of **personalities** involved in the
    topic which can show currency.
-   Finally you can simply look for reference to **recent news items**
    which will date the site's information.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.7**

Look at the following websites which all provide dynamic information and
note the evidence which indicates that each has been recently updated.

-   <http://www.bankofengland.co.uk>
-   <http://mascotsuk.com/>
-   <http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/>
-   <http://easyjet.com/en/book/index.asp>
-   <http://www.blenheimpalace.com/>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Currency indicators

We noted the following points:

**Bank of England** -- lists recent working papers, conference reports
etc.

**Mascot** -- states on home page "Site last updated \[date\]"

**This is Money** -- states on home page "latest news on \[date\]"

**Easyjet** -- the earliest date for booking is today's date

**Blenheim Palace** -- the list of events is completely current.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, can you think
of a flaw with the method we used to check the currency of the Blenheim
Palace site?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Problems in establishing currency

In our Blenheim Palace example, we have established that their events
calendar is current. This site also has a section on Properties to Rent.
We cannot assume from the fact that the Events information is up-to-date
that this section too has been updated (although clearly it would make
good commercial sense for Blenheim Palace to make sure that this is
done!)

Previous versions of a Website

The **wayback machine** at <http://www.archive.org> allows previous
versions of websites to be browsed so that the history of a site may be
viewed. This can allow you to get a feeling for how it has developed. It
also allows or will allow changes in thought or policy to be observed by
looking at a website at different points in time. You should, however,
be aware that this site is by no means comprehensive. It is possible for
website publishers to opt not to be archived. Also there is a limit to
the amount of storage for the past websites.

In a complex search, it is likely that the results of the reference
enquiry will consist of a **list of websites**. This differs from a
simpler search which might only consist of information which you extract
from a website.

Since the client will have to browse the resulting sites, some further
points have to be considered as to the suitability of the websites.

#### Clarity of presentation

You need to choose sites where the information is clearly presented.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, list the
factors you would consider when assessing whether a site presents
information clearly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Presenting information clearly

You will want to make sure that the following points are satisfied:

-   Is it easy to **glean specific information** from the site?
-   Is the site easy to **navigate** around?
-   Does the site **avoid gimmicks** such as unnecessary and obscuring
    graphics?

Unless you are in the position that very few websites provide the
required information, you can select the best, which satisfy the above
points.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.8**

Look at <http://www.eca.ac.uk/> It is difficult to find information on
the site because of its emphasis on visual gimmicks and use of multiple
drop-down menus. Unfortunately a client seeking information on this
institution will have little choice but to persevere in using the site.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Use of multimedia

The appropriate use of **multimedia** can enhance understanding and
indeed provide additional information. However, some sites include
multimedia such as Flash introductions, which at best are annoying and
at worst put off the client due to the delays caused. If the connection
to the Internet is not fast broadband, then the delays can be
intolerable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 4.9**

Here is an example of a site from a firm offering web design services

<http://www.transcena.co.uk>

We think its Flash introduction is unnecessary and does not add anything
to the information provided. See if you agree with us.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some sites offer the option of a Flash and non-Flash version. Look at
<http://web.archive.org/web/20050113090553/http://www.blackburn.ac.uk/>
and compare the operation of both versions. Which do you prefer?

For some searches, information in multi-media format is useful or even
essential. You can make this one of your selection criteria. Often just
typing video as one of your search terms will lead to sites which have
video clips (It can, of course, also lead to sites which are selling
videos). We tried jfk, assassination, and video which led amongst others
to <http://www.courttv.com/onair/shows/kennedy/vintage_video.html> where
video clips can be played.

If sound files or sound tracks of movie clips are used, these may
require loudspeakers to be available or, more likely in libraries,
headsets to be used. Clearly sites where essential information is
presented audibly are not appropriate for the hearing impaired.

#### Ease of use for visually impaired clients

There are two main areas which should be considered for the visually
impaired client.

It may be that a client can use text on the monitor screen if it is very
clear and perhaps large size. Here it is necessary to check that the
website text is not partly obscured by background graphics such as a
**watermark effect**. Other considerations are whether the text size can
be increased by the user and if there is a text only version of the
website.

The colour of the text and the background can also influence visibility.
It is generally accepted that bright orange, yellow and red backgrounds
make text difficult to read.
<http://web.archive.org/web/20040710220451/http://www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/courses/details.php?s=3>
is an example.

Another practice to be avoided is white or pastel coloured text on a
dark background. In a previous version
<http://web.archive.org/web/20040101101704/http://battle1066.com/> the
banner headline above the coat of arms in this site is difficult for
even those with perfect vision. You can compare this with the latest
version at <http://www.battle1066.com/>
<http://www.abelard.org/technology/net-searching.php> Much of the text
here is almost illegible.

At the level where the client is unable to read text from a monitor
screen a **text to speech** accessory must be used. For this to be a
successful experience, the website must be clearly laid out. Also it is
important that all graphics have text descriptions. This is vital when
it comes to the use of graphics in navigation through the website.

There are **guidelines for accessibility** and although you cannot be an
expert in this area, you will find useful information on the following
websites:

Two sites covering all accessibility issues: <http://www.coi.gov.uk> and
<http://www.becta.org.uk/>

A commercial site explains its approach <http://www.santander.co.uk>

The RNIB site
<http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/public_rnib008789.hcsp>

Recent research by the **Museums, Libraries and Archives Council**
tested websites in the museums, libraries and archives sector and found
that only 3% of these met the accessibility criteria set for government
websites. You can read more about this research at:
<http://web.archive.org/web/20050503012040/http://www.egovmonitor.com/reports/rep11278.pdf>

## Reviewing the Effectiveness of a Search Strategy

### Estimating the effectiveness of a search strategy

The **client's requirements** should have been clearly specified during
the reference interview. The first stage in evaluation is to revisit
that initial interview and consider if you did indeed fully explore with
the client all the aspects of the query.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 5.1**

Think of any complex information searches which you have recently
carried out. Look back to your initial reference interviews with the
clients. Could these have been improved in any way? Note down what you
could do better next time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next you must **review the results of the search** against the client's
requirements and consider the success of the search in these terms.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, outline the
criteria which you would use to judge whether your search strategy has
been successful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Criteria for success

We suggest that you would consider:

-   Did the search produce results which were **relevant** to the
    client's needs?
-   Did the search produce **comprehensive information**? i.e.: enough
    for the client's needs?
-   And conversely, were the search results **sifted** in order to avoid
    deluging the client with information?
-   Did the search produce information which was **reliable,
    up-to-date** and **covered all aspects** of the topic?
-   Did you constantly have to **modify the search strategy** during the
    course of the search? And were these modifications a result of
    **deficiencies** in your original strategy?
-   Did you meet the client's **deadlines** for producing the results?
-   Did your search strategy mean that the search was carried out as
    **quickly and efficiently** as possible?

You should have no difficulty in applying the majority of the above
criteria when considering the **effectiveness** of your search. The
final criteria relating to time and speed may be less familiar to you.

#### Time spent searching

Time spent on a search is a **key evaluation criterion**. Given enough
time an unskilled searcher could probably produce the required results,
but an information professional should be able to produce the requested
information much more quickly.

You should consider if your search strategy produced the results in the
minimum possible time or whether any modifications of the search
strategy would have yielded speedier results. Key to this is the choice
of search engines, directories, search terms and logic.

Finally, do remember that **it may not be possible** in all cases to
fully satisfy the client's requirements. (If this is the case, you will
have explained the reasons for this to the client, e.g. information does
not exist in the format specified, and proposed some alternatives if
this is possible.)

Failing to fully satisfy the client's requirements is not in itself a
criticism of your search strategy. If the information does not exist,
the best search strategy you can devise will not uncover it. It does,
however, give you a pointer for the next time you are asked to carry out
a similar information search. If you have doubts as to the **existence**
of the information requested, share this with the client right at the
start so that they are not disappointed later.

### Measuring the cost of a search

The cost of an information search arises from two components. The **cost
of staff time** (yourself and colleagues) dedicated to the search and
**direct costs**, i.e.: anything which has actually to be paid for.

An effective search strategy should mean that staff time input is
**minimised**, thus keeping down the cost of the search. It can be easy
to overlook the cost to the library service of staff time because public
libraries do not normally charge for this. Commercial libraries often
ask library and information staff to log the time spent on information
searches and the enquirer's department is then billed for this.

We are not suggesting that you formally log time spent -- merely that
you keep aware of roughly how much time you are devoting to any
information search and whether this is justified. If you find yourself
devoting an **inordinate amount of time** to any search, ask yourself
whether you should:

-   modify your search strategy
-   ask advice from a more experienced colleague
-   ask a more experienced colleague to take over the search for you
-   abandon the search at this point, explaining the reasons for this to
    the client.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](T_cap.gif "T_cap.gif"){width="50"} Before proceeding, note down any
direct costs which you think could be associated with an information
search on the Internet?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Direct costs

Direct costs could include:

-   Telecommunications charges
-   Fees for subscription sites
-   Charges to download particular documents
-   "Pay-per-view" costs for commercial sites

Telecommunications charges will have been paid by your library service.
They represent a **fixed overhead** and so you do not need to try to
calculate them for any search.

Where a library service, has decided to subscribe to a particular
information source, there will be good reasons for this. A knowledgeable
person has decided that the subscription site provides better
information than is available on free sites. Indeed the subscription
service may provide the only information available. You should therefore
familiarise yourself with the **content of subscription sites** and
their **charging structures**.

**Downloading** and **pay-per-view** charges can mount up. Before using
such information, always consider if there is an appropriate alternative
source which is free of charge. An interesting article on the
development of \"pay for content\" Internet provision is found at
<http://web.archive.org/web/20040206000441/http://www.demonatthus.net/news/n-a030407a.html>

Another cost which can be considerable relates to **printing** and/or
copying the search results. This can be minimised if you supply the
results to the client in electronic format wherever possible.

## Use ICT to set up current awareness and alerting services

### Determining current awareness requirements of clients

You should begin by establishing an **information profile** for the
client. This will provide information about what information the client
needs and the quantity, level and format of the required information. It
will also specify any constraints, such as deadlines for completion,
currency of information and language and note any special needs that the
client might have:

**Example Information Profile**

The following information profile might suit a client who wants to be
kept up to date on happenings in the Scottish Parliament:

**Client name:** Joseph Grant

**Email address:** jgrant@btinternet.com

**Age:** 35

**Education:** Completed six years secondary school

**Information Required:** Regular updates re Scottish Parliament

**Quantity:** Brief summary with links to full stories

**Level:** Literate adult

**Format:** Daily digest

**Deadlines:** Wants to start ASAP

**Currency:** Updated daily

**Language:** English

**Special Needs:** None

You can find an example of online profile form at:

<http://web.archive.org/web/20060705204606/http://sciweb.lib.umn.edu/general/profile.phtml>

#### Establishing an information profile

Establishing an information profile uses essentially the same skills and
techniques as the first part of this unit, i.e.:

-   Reference interview techniques
-   Eliciting information and advice from clients
-   Determining the nature of detailed information to be provided--
    quantity, level, format
-   Constraints -- deadlines for completion, currency of information and
    language
-   Special needs of the client

If you want to review these topics, you can click the ICTL logo at the
top left of the page to return to the Unit 6 home page and navigate from
there to Outcome 1 of this unit.

In addition to establishing the nature of information required, what
else would you need to agree with the client in order to provide a
satisfactory current awareness service?

It is also essential that you should agree the update frequency with the
client. e.g.: weekly, monthly, whenever a change occurs, on-demand etc.

#### Costs

You should take into account the **costs** (in staff time or
subscriptions to commercial services) of providing updates and should be
realistic about their frequency. Remember that your time costs money and
it is unrealistic to spend disproportionate amounts of it in meeting the
needs of a small number of clients.

Also, commercial services can be **expensive to use**: if you do not
already subscribe to a service, it may be uneconomical to do so to meet
the needs of a small number of clients. Some commercial services also
incur a usage charge, in which case you must ensure that this is not
excessive.

### News services

A news service is one which provides regular updates on topics commonly
regarded as news, i.e.: those topics covered in newspapers and
television or radio news broadcasts, such as current events, politics,
sport etc.

News is a distinct category for current awareness because of the need
for **immediate notification** of breaking events as well as **regular
summaries**. There are a wide variety of news sites to choose from.

Three **methods of delivery** may be distinguished:

-   **daily digest** via e-mail. This gives the subscriber a brief daily
    summary of newsworthy events, usually with links to more detailed
    stories.
-   **breaking news events** by e-mail. This lets you receive instant
    details of new stories, more or less as they break
-   **online news ticker** permanently visible on the computer monitor.
    This scrolls news headlines continuously across the bottom of the
    screen and is updated with new stories as they happen. It often
    provides hotlinks to more detailed coverage.

All three have their own advantages and disadvantages. The daily digest
is non-intrusive and allows you to follow up such stories as you choose,
but you only receive updates once a day. The breaking events coverage
lets you know as soon as something happens, but you have to check your
email to see it. The online news ticker lets you know about new stories
instantly, but some people find it an annoyance having it on the screen
all the time.

Some e-mail delivery services allow the use of filters, which give an
element of choice of news topics delivered. If you are setting up a news
delivery service for a client, it is vital that you use this filtering
in order to tailor the service to the client's needs.

#### Daily digests

You can obtain a daily digest from the following sources:

-   **BBC:** <http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/email/news> OUT OF DATE try
    this.. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news>
-   **Google:** <http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en>
-   **The Scotsman:**
    <http://auth.jpress.co.uk/login.aspx?ReturnURL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.scotsman.com%2ftemplate%2fEmailPreferences.aspx&SiteRef=SCOT>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.1**

Choose one of the above services and sign up to receive a news digest.
Remember, you can always cancel it later if you don\'t like it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Breaking news

You can obtain breaking news alerts from the following sources:

-   **BBC:** <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3533099.stm>
-   **Google:** <http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.2**

Choose one of the above services and sign up to receive breaking news
stories. Remember, you can always cancel it later if you don\'t like it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### Online tickers

Online tickers are available from the following sources:

-   **Reuters:**
    <http://www.microsite.reuters.co.uk/ticker/uk/godownload.htm?src=marketing>
-   **BBC:** Currently being upgraded, but check at
    <http://news.bbc.co.uk> TRY
    <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/4801459.stm>

You can find a list of news tickers at:
<http://www.journalismnet.com/choose/newstickers.htm>

It\'s unlikely that you could install these on library machines due to
security restrictions, but you might have to explain to clients how to
put tickers on their own PCs.

\-\-\--

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.3**

Go to <http://www.journalismnet.com/choose/newstickers.htm> and look at
the tickers. Which ones look as if they might be useful to you and why?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

#### News aggregators

**news aggregators**, use an XML format such as RSS, to receive relevant
news headlines.

**XML** stands for **eXtensible Markup Language** and is a standard
format for computer-readable documents which makes it straightforward to
process them automatically.

**RSS** stands for **Really Simple Syndication**. It\'s a method of
describing news or other Web content that is available for syndicating
(i.e.: feeding or distributing) from an online publisher to Web users.
The term "syndication" derives from the newspaper industry practice of
sharing content between different papers. A column or a cartoon (such as
Peanuts) which appears in numerous different papers is described as
"syndicated".

There is a useful introductory article at:

<http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/w-rss.html?dwzone=web>

and another at:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm>

To read rss feeds sign up to a free account at netvibes

A **news aggregator** is a software application that collects syndicated
content from a variety of sources and displays it as a single web page.
A website may incorporate aggregator features by republishing syndicated
content on one or more of its pages. Aggregator features also can be
added to other client software, such as Web browsers, e-mail clients,
weblog creation programs, or media player programs, to allow these
programs to display syndicated content.

You can get more information from:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_aggregator>

#### News providers

Another way to make the topic choice more focused is by the choice of
provider. The FT ticker would be a good choice for stock market data. If
you carry out a simple search on Google, an array of sites providing
specialised news will be found, e.g.: www.bunkerworld.com offers both an
e-mail delivery service and a news ticker devoted to the happenings in
the world of bunker fuel.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.4**

Use Google to find specialised news providers on the following topics:

-   The Middle East
-   ComputingTake a note of the two most interesting ones in each
    category.

The ones we found included the following:

**The Middle East**

-   Globalvision News Network: <http://www.gvnews.net/html/index.shtml>
-   AME Info: <http://www.ameinfo.com/45876.html>
-   Gulf in the Media: <http://www.gulfinthemedia.com>

**Computing**

-   SearchMobileComputing: <http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com>
-   News.Com <http://archive.is/20121208135346/http://news.com.com/>
-   Network Computing <http://www.networkcomputing.com/netnews/>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

### Website updating services

Some commercial websites offer an alerting service detailing new
products. Of particular interest to library professionals are the
alerting services of journal and book publishers. For journals, it is
possible to get the table of contents and sometimes abstracts of the
articles. One example is the content alerting feature in
<http://www3.oup.co.uk/jnls/> for Oxford University Press Journals.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.5**

Go to <http://www3.oup.co.uk/jnls/> and sign up for alerts for one or
more of the OUP journals.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

For book publisher alerting services it is possible to include filters
to receive information on particular types of books. An example is the
Mailing List feature on www.heinemann.com Booksellers also offer
alerting services, with www.amazon.co.uk being an obvious example.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.6**

Go to www.amazon.co.uk and subscribe to their alerting service by
clicking on the New for You link in the left-hand column.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can find links to the website alerting services of many major
publishers and vendors at:
<http://www.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/information/publisher.htm>

------------------------------------------------------------------------

![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.7**

Go to <http://www.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/information/publisher.htm> and sign up
for one or two alerting services which look useful to you.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alerting services are not confined to books and journals. For example,
Stay Smart Online
(http://www.ssoalertservice.net.au/view/80956e10461f4446acbcab5cae348a0c)
is an Australian Government service, designed to provide small
businesses with accurate, plain English advice to help protect
computers, mobile phones and other devices from malicious attack.

#### Monitoring websites

The contents of websites change and often do so at unpredictable
intervals. If you want to be notified when the contents of a website
change, without having to connect to it frequently to check, you can set
up an **alert** to notify you of any changes. If an alert can be set up
it can solve two problems. Firstly if there is a substantial change to
an often-recommended site, you can check up to see if must be
re-evaluated for recommendation. Secondly, if data contained in a site
is updated at say annual intervals, it is useful to know when the new
data becomes available. This is similar to knowing that a new edition of
a reference work has been published and needs to be purchased.

Some websites offer to notify subscribers automatically if changes are
made, but there are a number of tools available which allow you to
monitor changes on any website, e.g.:

-   Website Watcher <http://www.aignes.com/features.htm>
-   Check and Get: <http://activeurls.com/en/>

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![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.8**

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Download an evaluation version of the software from one of the sites
given above and use this to set up alerts fro two or three websites you
visit frequently.

### Creating a current awareness system for your own organisation

A **current awareness service** is a service or publication designed to
alert scholars, researchers, readers, customers, or employees to
recently published literature in their specialist field(s). Current
awareness systems are usually available in special libraries serving
companies, organizations, and institutions in which access to current
information is essential. Such services can be tailored to fit the
interest profile of a specific individual or group. Some online
catalogues and bibliographic databases include a \"preferred searches\"
option that allows the library user to archive search statements and
re-execute them as needed. Current awareness services are sometimes
referred to as **selective dissemination of information (SDI)**.

Internal **current awareness systems** have traditionally involved the
physical circulation of print materials to clients. These have now been
replaced by electronic versions. This includes identification of
relevant materials which match the client's information profile. The
materials might include internal documents in electronic or print
format.

You should be able to identify relevant print or non-print materials
from journals, reports etc. Where such are available only in print
format, you should give a reference and a brief description. You should
be able to operate a system for e-mailing information to clients within
the organisation at agreed intervals and set up web-sourced current
awareness services for internal clients.

You can find lots of links relating to current awareness services for
librarians at the following sites:

<http://www.city.academic.gr/special/libproject/LIBRARY_SITE/information_services/LIBRARY_SERVICES/alerting_services.htm>

<http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/dis/disresearch/ascas.html>

Although these are university library sites, much of the content is
applicable to public libraries.

You can find a long list of available current awareness and alerting
services at the following location:

<http://www.tru.ca/library/guides/current_awareness/current_awareness_a-z.html>

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![](A_Cap_Digital.svg "A_Cap_Digital.svg"){width="50"} **ACTIVITY 6.9**

Draw up information profiles for one or two of your colleagues and set
up current awareness services for them by using some of the resources
mentioned in the sites listed above.

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