Space (or give it a more technical name, ‘The Universe’) is big. Really Big. It’s also full of really surprising things……
Douglas Adams, 1979, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Si is the internet. Here are some suggestions to help you find the information you need on the internet.
General Tips
- Start with a specific search query ‘child labour’, ‘industrial revolution’, primary sources
- Use quotation marks to create an exact phrase that you want to find. e.g. ‘industrial revolution’
- Use lower case and a combination of phrases and keywords e.g. ‘child labour’ ‘industrial revolution’ primary sources
- If you do not get enough information, make your query a little broader by removing the least important keyword or phrase ‘industrial revolution’ primary sources
- If you still do not get enough hits, then rephrase query with a different keyword
- Use the advanced search features of your search engine to narrow your search in a number of ways. e.g. you could use these features to just search for ‘industrial revolution’ United Kingdom
- When searching library catalogues enter one or two keywords in the ‘keywords’ field on the search page
- Check your spelling – misspelled words are the major cause of students not finding what they want when searching online information resources
Google Search Education offers lesson plans and activities on teaching students how to search effectively so they can become critical thinkers and independent learners.
Google Inside Search tells you how to use punctuation, symbols and operators in searches. It also has information on how to do an Advanced Search, find images that you can reuse, and filter your search results.
Internet Jargon Explained is a list that explains the meaning of commonly used Web words.