This event was on May 2, 2017 at Wesley University, Ondo State, Nigeria. I trained the university's staff (academic and non-academic) on "Information Discovery and Search Strategies for Evidence-Based Research" in an information/digital literacy session.

1. AND SEARCH STRATEGIES
FOR EVIDENCE-BASED RESEARCH
by
David Ofili
Information and Digital Literacy Trainer
INFORMATION DISCOVERY

2. Welcome!
Welcome!

3. Why Are We Here?
•Learn
•Discuss
•Exchange Ideas
•Practice what we learn
•Network

4. This presentation will focus on
…
• Definitionof Terms
• Search engines – types
• The Invisible/Deep Web
• Evaluation of Internet Resources
• Boolean Operator / Advance Search Strategies
• Hands-On

5. “It is not the strongest
of the species that
survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the
one most responsive
to change.”
—Charles Darwin

6. Quote
“Twenty years from now you will be more
disappointed by the things that you didn’t do
than by the ones you did do, so throw off the
bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the
trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream,
Discover.”
–Mark Twain

7. Information is key…
• We need information:
- to make decisions
- for educationaland research activities
- professionalactivities
- for personal development
- Job searching, health care information
- others?

8. Technology

9. Reality of information search on the Net
• No two similar searches on the Internet will
show the same hit results.
• The information on the Internet changes by
minute and Web sites that is available today
may not be there tomorrow.
• You can not believeeverything that is
posted on the Internet.

10. Does the Internet make you feel like this?

11. What is a Search Engine?
• Search engine is a software program
you can use to find Web sites, Web
pages and Internet files.
• A search engine is a program that
searches the web for sites based on
your keyword search terms.
• The search engine takes your
keyword and returns search engine
results pages (SERP), with a list of
sites it deems relevant or connected
to your searched keyword.

12. What is a Search Engine?
• The goal for many sites is to
appear in the first search
engine results pages SERP for
the most popular keywords
related to their business.
• A site's keyword ranking is
very important because the
higher a site ranks in the SERP,
the more people will see it.

13. Types of Search Engines
• You might have heard of search engines like Google, Yahoo! or
MSN. These are some of the most popular search engines.
• There are lots of other excellent search engines on the
Internet that you may never have heard of!
• Let’s look at the different types of search engines available on
the Internet.
• Regular Search Engines vs. Metasearch Engines

14. Types of Search Engines
• Regular Search Engines
– A regular search engine, like Google, Blekko, Ask.com, Yahoo! etc
searches the Internet based on a given search term.
• Metasearch Engines
– A Metasearch can streamline your search.
• A Metasearch has the abilityto search several search engines - it allows
you to send one search to many search engines and tools simultaneously.
– Examples of Metasearch engine are Zuula.com, Yippy.com (formerly
Clusty.com), Dogpiles.com and Pandia Meta-search engine.

15. Types of Search Engines
• Google - Offering everything from image searches, map searches, news searches, etc. With
impressive keyword relevancy and a continuously improving search algorithm, it's easy to see why
Google is still the reigning champ.
• Mahalo - Mahalo is a unique 'human-powered' search engine that employs a group of editors to
manually sift and organize thousands of pieces of content.
• Yahoo - While Yahoo has been suffering as of late, it's still a classic and a popular search engine.
• Bing - The Microsoft powered search engine prides itself on being a "decision engine" by offering
search suggestions on the side column and providing extra search options.
• Ask - Clean layout and handy results grouping.
• AOL Search - AOL continues to be used, primarily by people who still use AOL.
• Blekko - Blekko's clean, minimalist layout is easy to navigate, and /tags allow for grouping searches.
• DogPile - the once alternative to Google is getting a comeback and is a great alternative to bigger
search engines.
• Duck Duck Go - Doesn't track your search history and it avoids spammy sites.
• The Internet Archive - This search engine lets users travel back in time to see how web pages looked
in years gone by. A very fun search engine to play around with.

16. Why use Internet Search Engines
for Research?
• Assumptions:
– The fastest and the best
– Ease of use
• The Fact:
– The largest pool of resources. Paid and Free.
– Not all free resources are suitable for research.

17. Search Engines
• Usually the first point of
call.
• They are in the business
of selling
advertisements
• Lead you to popular
sites

18. When Do Search Engines Work
Best?
• For known items
• Best for finding a site when you can’t remember the
URL
• Best for searching within any known site.
• When you know how to use the advanced features to
narrow your search
– by domain
– file types e.g. PowerPoint…,
– location …

19. Problems with Using Search Engines
• Get huge results
• Misses the invisible web
- which is largely comprised of content-rich databases from
universities, libraries, associations, businesses, and government
agencies around the world.
• User behavior
- unable to think of the right keywords
• Popular sites may not be best, most
authoritative sites vetted by experts

20. “Most of the
authoritative
information
accessible over
the Internet is
virtually invisible
to search
engines”
Sherman, C. and Price, G. (2001) The Invisible
Web: Uncovering Information Sources
Search Engines Can't See
Visible
Web
Invisible
Web

21. Invisible Web vs Search Engines
Hidden Internet, the Deep Web or the Invisible Web.
• The Invisible Web is comprised of information
stored in databases.
• According to Chris Sherman, Webmaster of
About.com's Web Search: “Spiders and robots
cannot enter these databases.”

22. Evaluation of Web Resources

23. Why is it important to evaluate what
you find in the Web?
• Anyone can put information on the Web

24. Always Check for …
• Authority:
– Who wrote the article or owner of the material?
– Check the Domain name .gov, .edu, .org vs .com
• Currency:
– When last was the page updated?
• Accuracy:
– Is the information reliable and error-free?
• Objectivity:
– What is the mission statement?
• Coverage:
– Are there links to other useful sources?
• Copy right

25. Domain Names?
• Several top-level domains (TLDs) are
common in the United States:
– com commercial enterprise
– edu educational institution
– gov Government entity
– org usually non-
governmental
organization
• Country domain codes
– uk United Kingdom
– ng Nigeria

26. SEARCH BASICS
SEARCH BASICS

27. Basics of Searching the Web
• Prepare:
– Analyze your query - think
– Identify key concepts (keywords)
– Any other information
• For instance: “Labour laws in Nigeria”
• Keywords:
– Labour (Labor),
– Laws (regulations, rules, legal, Statutes, …)
– Nigeria

28. ADVANCED INTERNET SEARCH STRATEGY
BOOLEAN OPERATOR SEARCHING
• A common method for specifying your search
is to use Boolean operators.
• Like the Advanced Search option that many
databases have, Boolean operators (AND, OR,
NOT) make searching for what you need
easier.

29. Applying Boolean Operators to
Your Search Terms
Using AND, you can find
Resourcesthat include
information
about vegan and vegetarian
diets
Using OR, you can find resourcesthat include
Informationabout vegan diets,vegetarian diets,
and resources that discuss both
Using NOT,you can find
resources that only discuss
Vegan diet

30. Veggie
Applying Boolean Operators to Your
Search Terms
Veggie
Vegan Vegetarian
Vegan
A B
C

31. MORE SEARCH TIPS

32. for Scholarly Databases
HANDS-ON
EXPERIENCE
CREDIT
Original slides used by Felix Azubuike
(Fmr. Chairman, Nigerian Library Association IT Section)
At LITT 2014