[Story 8] Literasi TIK | [Semester 1] Part 2 : Searching for Information Effectively and Efficiency

Mata kuliah : Literasi TIK

Tema : [Semester 1] Part 2 : Searching for Information Effectively and Efficiency

By : Mr. Hussein Gibreel Musa, B.A., M. IKom

A. Internet as a Knowledge Repository 

• A knowledge repository is something that captures, packs and stores relevant knowledge.

• Internets & internets offer new ways to manage and communicate data, information and knowledge.

• In this internet world, we can search any kind of information.

• Typing of keyword in the search engine provides a lot of information about it.

• Internet is recognized as a rich source of information.

• Development of ICT has yielded an unlimited variety of database and multimedia platform.

• It supplies multifarious needs, including knowledge, edutainment, entertainment, leisure activities, consumer facilities, interpersonal interaction, etc.

Academic Search Techniques :

B. Search Engine

     A search engine is a tool or a program designed to search for information on the www (world wide web) on the basis of specified keywords. The search of results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits.

C. Identify Keywords

Step 1 :  break down your topic into concepts / parts.

Step 2 : extract important noun and / or noun phrases from your topic.

Step 3 : remove noise words such : as "does",  "a", "the", "and", "in" & "on"  as they're not to the topic. For example : 

For example : if you're interested in finding information on social networking, it is best to search for "social networking" in quotation marks. Otherwise, the computer might search for social AND networking and find many more irrelevant results. 

What is Boolean Searching?

• It is based on a method of logic developed by George Boolean, a 19th century English mathematician.

• Most online databases and internet search engines support Boolean searches.

• It allows you to do effective searches by cutting our many unrelated documents.

D. Knowing About Boolean

Basic Boolean Operators : 

1. AND

    • Using AND narrows your search.

    • It retrieves document that contain both of            the search terms or keywords that you                  specify.

    • The more terms you connect with AND, the          fewer search results you will find.

Example using AND :

Example using AND : Poverty AND Crime

• Poverty AND Crime 

• Documents are retrieved containing both

   search terms.

• Blue shaded area represents search results.

2. OR

    • Using OR broadens your search.

    • It retrieves documents that contain either of        the search terms or keywords that you                  specify, but not necessarily both.

    • The more terms you connect with OR, the             more search results will find. (Remember :           OR gives you more) !

    • Use it to search for similar terms.

Example using OR :

Example using OR : College OR University 

• College OR University 

• Documents are retrieved containing either search them.

• Gold shaded area represents search results.

3. NOT

    Example using NOT :

Example using NOT : Cats NOT Dogs

• Cats NOT Dogs

• Documents are retrieved containing only information on cats, and nothing on dogs.

• People shaded area represents search results.

Advanced Boolean Search Techniques 

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are used around phrases. By using quotation marks, you are telling the computer to only bring back pages with the terms you typed in the exact order you typed them. 

Example : 

"health care reform"

instead of

health AND care AND reform. 

Examples using :

• "global warming"

• "New York City"

• "Sachin Tenduklar" 

• Note : Using "quotation marks" will give you different search results than if you use the AND operator between each word without quotes.