One-day course for library users and librarians on how most effectively to
search the web
Are you being misled by what you find on the internet? Do you too easily trust
what Google "tells" you? Compare the following statements, all found within a
minute of one another on Google in summer 2007:
The floods are the worst since 1954
The floods are the worst since 1988
The floods are the worst since 1958
The floods are the worst since 1997
The floods are the worst since 1982
The floods are the worst since 1993
The floods are the worst since 1947
The floods are the worst since 1625.
Might you have been deceived if you had looked at just one of these? And is the
topmost one necessarily the best? Searching effectively with Google or any
other search engine does not need to be a hit and miss affair: these search
engines have mechanisms like other engines. Learn how they prioritise or rank
the information they hold and you are part way to the solution. The other part
of the secret is to build your search around answers to four simple questions.
Rewley House, the Continuing Education arm of Oxford University, is running a
Day School on Saturday 5 December 2009 ("Resounding Results for Resourceful
Researchers") to offer you ways to distinguish between more and less reliable
www-information in any subject area, and to enable you to search more
effectively. For information and details visit
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/results.php?Category=800#a_togg_O09P215COJ
or contact the Day School Administrator, Oxford University Department of
Continuing Education, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA; tel 01865-270368;
email [log in to unmask]
Apologies for any cross-posting.
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