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Click here
to go to a slide show presentation of this tutorial. What is
the Internet?
The Internet is a
worldwide network of connected computers that allows the sharing
of electronic information and resources. It is considered the
largest telecommunications system ever created.
Computer networks
connected to the Internet use a common set of rules, known as
protocols. The basic protocol for the Internet is called TCP/IP
(Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). These rules allow
the transport and viewing of files and documents found on all
computers connected to the Internet.
To
get to the Sullivan University Library web page, go to one of
the Library's computer workstations.
- Press
Ctrl-Alt-Delete on the keyboard. A screen will appear
stating "Do not attempt to log on unless you are an
authorized user." Click OK.
- A log on
screen will appear. Type in your User Name and
Password. Click OK.
- Once you are
logged in, the computer desktop will appear. Click on the
Microsoft? Internet Explorer? icon found on the computer
desktop. (This icon looks like a big blue "e"
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- If you have
remote access to the Internet (or the Library's web page
does not appear), type
http://library.sullivan.edu in the address box and
press ENTER on the keyboard.
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What is a Mouse? |
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The
mouse is an input device for a computer that works by changing
hand movements into electrical signals that the computer
understands. As you move the mouse, you will see the pointer
moving on the screen. When you have the pointer positioned
on an icon or link, you will see the pointer changing into a
hand with a pointing finger. Click or double-click the left
button on the mouse in order to get to a web page.
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Below is an example
of the Sullivan University Library's home page. A home page is a
starting point that can be set by the owner of the computer
workstation. The home page is also a World Wide Web (WWW) page.
What is the
World Wide Web (WWW)? Isn't the WWW just another
name for the Internet?
The World Wide Web is
one of several parts of the Internet. Other parts of the Internet
include e-mail or FTP files.
The WWW is a
hypertext-based system that was developed in 1989. Pictures, text,
sounds, and video can be viewed from the WWW. Before the WWW, the
Internet was mostly text-based and not very user-friendly.
The WWW is unique
because of hypertext. Hypertext allows users to use a mouse to
click on buttons or highlighted text using a mouse in order to get
to other web pages containing text, pictures, sound, or videos.
For purposes of this
tutorial, we will be concentrating on the WWW.
The Browser:
In addition to the
computer, a telecommunications device, the mouse, a keyboard, and
other hardware and software, a browser is necessary in order to
view WWW pages and use hyperlinks.
The web browser is a
software application. The browser "reads" the WWW pages, which are
written in Hypertext Markup Language
(HTML), and converts them into a readable form. The icon you
double-clicked on earlier started the Microsoft?/font>
Internet Explorer?/font>,
a browser.
?/font>
Microsoft Corporation*
This
brings up a screen showing you what the Sullivan University
Library home page looks like in HTML.
?/font>
Microsoft Corporation*
Click on
the X at the top right of the small screen to close it.
Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the protocol used by the
World Wide Web. HTTP specifies how messages on the World Wide Web
are formatted and interpreted between Web browsers and Web
servers.
You will
need to know how to navigate using the Microsoft?/font>
Internet Explorer?/font>
browser in order to access information from the WWW.
- The dark blue bar
at the very top of the screen is the Title bar. It lists
the title of the Web page that you are currently viewing.
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of the Title bar, you will find three small buttons. |
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The minimize button reduces the screen into a small button
at the bottom of the browser screen. Example:
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Click on the small button in order to open the screen back
up on the browser. |
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The button in the middle is the maximize button. Clicking
this button will cause the browser screen to enlarge (or, if
the browser screen is already enlarged, to decrease in size.
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The X button closes the browser and whatever Web site
you are viewing using the browser. |
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- The Content
Area displays the current web page that is open on the
browser.
- The Address
Field shows the Internet address of the web page that is
currently displayed. An Internet address is also called a
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and is unique for each web page.
The URL points to a specific place on the Internet.
- Internet addresses
(URLs) have 3 separate parts: In the address
http://library.sullivan.edu/datainfo.html,
- http
indicates the protocol. On Web pages, Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the protocol used.
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library.sullivan.edu is the domain name. This identifies
the entity that supports the network from which the Web site
comes. It also can identify the type of organization a Web
page comes from. .mil stands for military
organizations, .edu for educational
institutions, .com for commercial entities, .gov
for governmental organizations, and .org for
nonprofit organizations.
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datainfo
is the
filename. In this case, it leads to the Database Information
from the Library's home page.
It is very
important that an Internet address be entered exactly as it is
written. If it is misspelled or spaces are left between letters,
the web site will not come up.
If you see a tilde
(~) in front of a file name, this usually indicates it is
someone's personal web page on a larger site.
- The Toolbar
consists of buttons that can be clicked.
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The Back button "backs you up" to the web page that
you were previously viewing. |
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The Forward button brings you forward to the next
page if you have gone back to a previous web page. |
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The Home button takes you back to the original page
you started on when you started the browser. |
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The Stop button (red in color) halts the loading of
the current web page. This can be useful if you are loading
a web page with lots of pages or graphics and it is taking a
long time to load and appear in its entirety on the screen.
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The Refresh button reloads the current web page that
is being viewed. This can be helpful if you are looking at
a site such as a stock market site that is updated every few
minutes. When you refresh, you receive the current version
of the web page and the new updates. |
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The Search button takes up to a search tool that can
be used to search for items on the Internet. (We will
discuss search tools in detail further on in this tutorial.) |
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The Favorites button contains a list of links to
frequently used web sites that were placed in a list by the
computer owner or others. |
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The Print button allows you to print the current web
document. |
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The History button brings up a listing of web sites
that you have previously visited. |
- The Status
Indicator shows you whether or not the web page has
completely loaded and can be viewed. When the web page is
loading, you will notice the icon in the status indicator
box turning into a spinning globe.
- The Progress
Bar at the bottom of the browser screen indicates how much
of the Web page has loaded for viewing.
- The Status
Message Field tells you the status of the web page. It will
indicate when the web page is being loaded (opened) and will
indicate when the web page is done and open for viewing.
- The Scroll Bar
is used to move up or down on the web page. To use the scroll
bar, put the mouse pointer on the scroll bar (the gray bar).
Press the left mouse button. Continue to keep holding the mouse
button down. Move the mouse up and down and let the button go
when you get to the place you want to view. You can also use
the arrows found at the top and bottom of the scroll bar area.
(*
icons reprinted with permission from
Microsoft Corporation?/font>)
How to
access web sites:
- Type the Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) in the address box.
- Click on hypertext
links on a web page.
- These links lead
to other web sites. They are usually highlighted, underlined,
or are icons.
- When you
navigate through web pages of information, this is known as
surfing or browsing the web. (Don't worry about getting lost,
you can always use the Back button to take you back to a
previously visited site or the Home button to take you back to
the first page you visited when you opened the browser).
- When you return
to a web page with a link you have already visited, the
hypertext words will often be in a different color to indicate
that you have already visited the site.
- Use a search tool
such as a keyword search engine or web directory.
Search
Tools:
Search tools help you
find information on the WWW.
No single search tool
covers all the web sites (there are millions of web sites and more
being added every day!)
Various search tools
are developed by different companies and have different search
features and techniques. They search different and overlapping
parts of the WWW.
All types of search
tools provide hypertext links.
Two main types of
search tools are the keyword search engine and the web directory.
Search
Engines:
Search engines allow
you to search for certain words or phrases found on web pages.
Search engines are
databases that contain some or all of the words appearing on web
pages that have been indexed by the search engine software.
"Robots" or "spiders" scan the Internet and collect information
about web pages. The information is indexed and placed in the
search engine database.
When you search for
information using a search engine, you are searching in the search
engine database, not the entire WWW. You are searching a
database with millions of web pages and retrieving results that
match what you may be looking for.
Search engines are
automated, this means people are not involved in gathering and
placing the information on the search engine database. Depending
on the search engine and what you are searching for, you may get
thousands of hits (results) from a search engine. Some of these
results may not be exactly what you are looking for, especially if
you are using broad or common terms.
AltaVista? is an
example of a search engine.
Later on in the
tutorial, you will learn of ways in which to narrow a search.
Web
Directories:
Web directories are a
collection of web sites gathered by the creators of the directory
or submitted by publishers of web sites.
Web sites in a
directory are classified by subject. People evaluate and classify
the web sites. There may be a higher degree of accuracy using web
directories instead of search engines for researching broad
subjects or topics. However, web directories may not be as useful
for researching specific or obscure topics.
Web directories may
also contain short summaries describing web sites.
Yahoo!? is an example
of a web directory.
MetaSearch Engines:
MetaSearch Engines are similar to search engines
but are used to search more than one search engine at the same
time. An advantage is that you can search several search
engines with one search. A disadvantage is that you may retrieve
inappropriate Web sites depending on how each individual search
engine interprets the search.
The Invisible Web:
The Invisible Web contains Web sites that may be "hidden." These
sites often will not be located by the use of conventional search
engines and directories. Examples of the Invisible Web include
specialized databases and directories.
Conducting a
Search:
Before you start a
search on the WWW, look closely at your subject topic.
- Are there any
unique words, abbreviations, acronyms, or synonyms for your
topic?
- Are there any
organizations or societies on the WWW related to your topic?
- Do any of the
topic words belong together as a phrase?
- Are there any
terms you would want to leave out of a search?
- What broader or
narrower terms are related to your topic?
To Perform
an Effective Search:
- Read the help or
instruction pages for the search tool you are using.
- Avoid using words
such as "a", "of", and "for". These are often ignored in a
search.
- Enter the most
important words first. Often search engines will search and rank
the first term used before any other search words that are
entered.
- Many search
engines allow you to enclose phrases in quotes (example, "United
States"). This keeps the words next to each other.
- Use capitalization
for proper nouns and acronyms. For example, a person's name or
country should be capitalized. If you use AIDS, you will be more
likely to retrieve Web sites about Acute Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS). If you type in "aids" when you are really
looking for AIDS, you will retrieve articles about teaching aids
and hearing aids, in addition to AIDS.
- Use lower case for
words other than proper names. Many search tools will search for
both capitalized and uncapitalized words if the lower case is
used.
- Use wildcard
symbols for irregular plurals (example: child and children) if
the search tool allows wildcards such as an asterisk (*) or
explanation point (!).
- Check for mistakes
in the spelling of your search words.
- If you do not find
what you want, change the search or use another search tool.
- You can try
searching synonyms or using broader or narrower terms. A
thesaurus may be useful for finding synonyms.
- You may want to
use Boolean operators or plus and minus signs to combine words
and concepts if the search tool allows you to use Boolean
operators.
- Boolean
operators consists of "AND", "OR", and "NOT." They can be
used to broaden or narrow a search.
- When "AND"
is used, all the terms connected by "AND" must appear
in the results of the search. (Example: The results of a
search for Ham AND Eggs would have both Ham
and Eggs appear in the results).
- When "OR"
is used, the search will retrieve all records containing any
of the terms connected by the "OR" operator.
(Example: The results of a search for Ham OR Eggs
would have either Ham or Eggs appear in the
results).
- When "AND
NOT" is used, the search will retrieve all records
containing the first term but not containing the second
term. (Example: The results of a search for Ham AND NOT
Eggs would have articles containing Ham only
appearing in the results).
- Some search tools
allow you to search for topics by a particular field (such as
title or subject), a language, a geographical location, or time
frame.
- Use more than one
search tool.
Limitations
of the WWW:
- Web pages can be
updated, redesigned, or removed.
- Not everything can
be found on the web.
- Not everything is
free on the web. Some fee-based web sites may require monthly or
yearly subscriptions.
- The WWW may not be
the best place to start your research.
- You may want to
review encyclopedias and reference books for background
information.
- Then look at
periodical or magazine articles relating to your subject.
- Finally, look
for WWW sites to supplement or update your information.
Netiquette:
Netiquette is the
proper use of etiquette and courtesy on the WWW.
The Computer Use
policy at Sullivan University states:
Users are
expected to use the Internet for educational and research
purposes. Conventional chat room sessions, game playing, and
abuse of e-mail privileges are not considered educational
research.
For more information
about the Internet Acceptable Use Policy,
click here.
Evaluating
Information Obtained From the WWW:
A drawback of the
Internet and WWW is that anyone can publish information. The
information may not be accurate or reliable. In evaluating the
information that you found on the WWW, look at:
- The main purpose
of the web site. Is the site informative or does attempt to
persuade you of something?
- The accuracy of
the Web site. Are there errors in spelling and/or punctuation?
Does the information appear reliable?
- The authority of
the web site. For example, if the site is published
anonymously, there is a possibility that this may not be a
reliable site.
- The point of view
of the site. Does the web site appear to have a bias? Many web
sites are sponsored by companies or groups that have an interest
in promoting a certain viewpoint.
- Currency. Is
there a date on the web site? How old is the web site? Has it
been updated? Are the links current or have they been
discontinued or moved?
- The coverage of
the web site. How in-depth is the material? Are there
references to other reliable sources and can you go to the
source to verify the information?
This completes the
tutorial. Have fun exploring the Internet!
Here
are some web sites that contain instructional information about
the Internet:
- Internet 101: An
Official Internet Starting Point:
http://www.internet101.org
- Searching the
Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques:
http://library.albany.edu/internet/search.html
- Webteacher
Tutorial:
http://www.webteacher.org
Please send your
comments to the library
concerning this tutorial.
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