Effective Search and Research Strategies

 

Most students and teachers use the Internet, but research indicates most utilize simple keyword searches to find information and rarely go beyond the first few pages of search results. This session explores a variety of websites and search strategies learners of all ages can utilize to search smarter and better online. Copyright-friendly websites for locating multimedia (including images and audio files) will be addressed, along with free web tools for citing references and creating properly formatted source bibliographies.

Search Tools

  1. del.icio.us social bookmarks (example from Wesley)
  2. Clustering Engines
    1. Vivisimo
    2. Grokker
    3. Clusty
  3. NoodleTools: Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need
  4. MetaCrawler (used to be Dogpile)
  5. Tools from IMSA 21st Century Information Fluency Project
  6. Soople: Easy advanced Google searches
  7. Google web search tips for educators
  8. netTrekker (commercial)
  9. More Tools for Searching
  10. WorldCat - lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world
  11. New York Times' Cybertimes Navigator
  12. Librarians' Internet Index
  13. Search Engine Showdown comparing search engine features and options

Image Searching

  1. YotoPhoto
  2. Creative Commons
  3. Flickr Creative Commons Image Search
  4. New York Public Libraries Digital Image Collection
  5. Other Internet image sources

Free Wiki Projects related to Research (English language versions)

  1. Wiktionary (free dictionary)
  2. WikiPedia (free encyclopedia)
  3. WikiSource (free library)
  4. WikiBooks (free textbooks)

Video Searching

  1. Dabble.com
  2. Article explaining Dabble search

Validation

  1. The Quality Information Checklist
  2. How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? from Consumer Reports
  3. Social bookmarks for evaluating websites
  4. Alan November's Presentation: Fearless Learners, Courageous Teachers
  5. GoogleGuide's suggestions for evaluating searches
  6. Principles for Evaluating Websites by Stephen Downes

Research Tools

  1. Using Google Notebook, Google Reader, and Firefox
  2. Googlepedia - Shows you a relevant Wikipedia article beside Google search results.

Citation Help / Tools

  1. Citation Machine (David Warlick's free MLA and APA Citation wizard)
  2. Zotero zoh-TAIR-oh: free, browser-based extension to help you collect, manage, and cite research sources.
  3. Comparison of Free Bibliographic Managers by S M Mahbub Murshed

Other Resources

  1. Digital Information Fluency (DIF) is the ability to find, evaluate and use digital information effectively, efficiently and ethically.
  2. Kathy Schrock's Guide for Internet Searching
  3. Google Guide


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