Thursday, June 28, 2007

How to Use Google More Effectively: Part 3


Last week I discussed how you can find news articles online using Google's advanced archive search. This week, I will show you how to use another interesting feature on Google. It is called Google Scholar, and with this tool you can find scholarly articles from a wide variety of academic disciplines. Google Scholar will come in handy when you have to write research papers for your courses.



To get to Google Scholar you will click on the "advanced search" link on the main Google page. Once you get to the advanced search screen, scroll down to "topic specific searches" at the bottom. Under this heading is a link to Google Scholar; clicking on that link takes you to the Google Scholar search page. To see more options for searching with Google Scholar, click on the "advanced scholar search" to the right. This will show you all the options available for finding scholarly articles and books.



The Advanced Scholar Search page allows you to limit your search to specific subject areas, which is useful when trying to find articles within a particular discipline, such as medicine. You can also find articles written by a specific author, or articles published in a specific academic journal.



When Google Scholar gives you a list of articles in response to search terms you have entered, it is important to know how to use the options that come with the search results. For example, if you are looking for articles published on stem cell research, and one of the articles listed seems relevant to your topic, you can click on the "related articles" link below the article to get others like it. Sometimes, if the article is in pdf format, you have the option of clicking on "view as HTML" to get a web page version of it.



As a research tool, I highly recommend Google Scholar.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

How to Use Google More Effectively: Part 2

Last week I discussed how to use the advanced search feature on google.com to find specific topics of interest. There is another feature on the advanced search page that you might find useful: the google news archive search. The link to this feature is under the heading "topic specific searches" at the bottom of the advanced search page, and it allows you to search for news articles that have been published many years in the past.


After clicking on the link for this feature, you will see a web page with a search field. You can enter a topic of interest in the field, such as "Barack Obama" and clicking on the "Search Archives" button will lead you to news stories that have been published about him. Also, you can choose the "Show Timeline" button, and it will give you news articles in chronological order about Barack Obama.


If you want more options to search for news articles, you can click on the link that says "advanced archive search" on the right. This will lead you to the advanced search options that are available. Here, you can limit results to articles by a specific publication, such as the New York Times, or articles published within a certain time period. To get free articles, you can click on the drop down menu next to "Price" and select "no price."


If you are looking for news articles for your assignments, the news archive search is a valuable tool.

Monday, June 11, 2007

How to Use Google More Effectively

Google is one of the most popular search engines on the Internet; it is also one of the most versatile. It is important to know how to use Google effectively, however. Since there are literally tens of millions of web pages on the Internet, an ineffective search could yield many irrelevant results, and the web pages that you're looking for will turn out to be the proverbial needle in a haystack. So a well thought out search strategy can significantly narrow down the results to a manageable amount.

This is where the "Advanced Search" feature on Google comes in. On the main page of google.com there is a link on the right to the advanced search area. When you click on that link, it will take you to all the available options for a more discerning search. At the top of the page, there is a "find results" section. In this section you can find pages:

That contain ALL the search terms you type in
That contain the exact phrase you type in
That contain at least one of the words you type in
That do NOT contain any of the words you type in

For example, if I wanted to find historical information on the Titanic, but wanted to exclude web pages about the movie of the same name, I could type the words "Titanic" and "history" in the "with all of the words" field, and then put "movie" or even "Leonardo DiCaprio" in the "without the words" field. This would find web pages about the sinking of the Titanic, while leaving out web sites about the movie, so you won't have to sift through as many results.

You can also search for web pages according to how recently they've been updated, web pages that are made in a particular file format-such as pdf files-or even web pages created within a specific web site. If you are looking for information on a very specific topic, doing an advanced search on Google is recommended.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Used Magazine Sale

From June 4th to June 8th, the library will be having a used magazine sale. Back issues of the following magazines will be sold:



  • Business Week

  • Consumer Reports

  • Ebony

  • Forbes

  • Jet

  • Library Journal

  • Newsweek

  • Sports Illustrated

  • Time



The cost is 5 cents per magazine or 10 magazines for a quarter.