Internet :

A Nursing Resource

How to Search Effectively

Surfing is not
searching.
“Computers download
information—
 They do not teach you to think.
 Computer education imparts technical
skills;
 It does not impart knowledge.”
 John Rosemond
“Not all the information that exists
in the world is on the Internet--
Not all the information that is on the
Internet is accurate.”

Mrs. Kotsch
An hour on the Web may not
answer a question that you could
find within two minutes of
picking up a reference book.
Internet
  is a short form of the technical
term internetwork,
 the result of interconnecting computer
networks with special gateways or
routers.
 often referred to as the Net.
 when referring to the entire global system
of IP networks, has been treated as
a proper noun and written with an
initial capital letter.
Internet
 In the media and popular culture a trend
has also developed to regard it as a
generic term or common noun and thus
write it as "the internet", without
capitalization.
 Some guides specify that the word should
be capitalized as a noun but not
capitalized as an adjective.
Internet 
 a global system of interconnected computer
networks that use the standard  Internet
Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of
users worldwide.
 It is a network of networks that consists of
millions of private, public, academic, business,
and government networks, of local to global
scope, that are linked by a broad array of
electronic, wireless and optical networking
technologies.
Internet 
 The Internet carries a vast range
of information resources and services,
such as the inter-linked hypertext
documents of the World Wide
Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to
support electronic mail.
World Wide Web
 e Internet and the  are not one and the same.
 The Internet is a global data communications system.
It is a hardware and software infrastructure that
provides connectivity between computers.
 In contrast, the Web is one of the services
communicated via the Internet.
 It is a collection of interconnected documents and
other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs.
World Wide Web
 In many technical illustrations when the
precise location or interrelation of Internet
resources is not important, extended
networks such as the Internet are often
depicted as a cloud.
  The verbal image has been formalized in the
newer concept of cloud computing.
Depiction of the Internet as a cloud in
network diagrams
Getting Started Searching
 URL’s
 Searching techniques
 Search engines
URL’s
 Uniform Resource Locator
 The web “address” that connects you with a website
 Goes in the address bar at the top of the screen
 Gives you information about the website
Parts of a URL
http://www.starwars.com/seminars.html
 http://-- hypertext transfer protocol:
the language computers use to “talk” to one another
 www—world wide web:
the body of information connected by the cables and computers of the
Internet
 starwars —domain name:
the structured, alphabetic-based, unique name for a computer on a
network
 .com —top level domain:
gives an idea of where the document is stored
 /seminars —file name:
a folder within a website
 .html —hypertext markup language:
the computer language used to format documents
Top Level Domains
 .edu—higher education
 .k-12—elementary and secondary schools
 .com —commercial
 .gov —government agency
 .mil—military
 .org—general noncommercial organization
 .net—computer network
Who Pays For The Internet?
 Advertisers pay for Internet websites.
 Popups and banners are trying to influence your spending
habits.
 The information on commercial sites--.com—may be
presented in such a way as to encourage you to buy a
particular product.
 Be wary of URL’s with a ~ in the address—this indicates a
personal homepage and does not guarnantee accuracy.
How Do You Find What You
Need?
 Libraries and department stores are planned.
 No one is in charge of organizing the Internet.
 Well-prepared searches will eliminate useless
hits and wasted time.
Before you search, you
need to:
 Prepare
 Organize
 Combine
Prepare
 What do you need to know about your topic?
 Make a list of all the terms connected with your topic.
 Include names, organizations, and phrases.
Organize

Make a list of the words that are critical to your
search.
 Note terms that you don’t want to see appear.
 Discard the rest.
For example…
•If you are looking for information about life on the planet
Mars, you don’t want sites popping up about the Roman
god of war.

•Put that in your list of words you don’t want to

see.

•What other words might be connected with your topic

that will send you to useless sites?
Combine
 Use Boolean operators to combine your most important
terms.
 Most search tools offer some type of Boolean
search option as a way of constructing your
research question, and indicating the relationships
between your search terms.
 Three common Boolean operators: AND, OR,
NOT (it's best to capitalize Boolean operators
because some search tools require it).
Boolean operators
 OR is used to join synonymous or related terms, and
instructs the search tool to retrieve any record that
contains either (or both) of the terms, thus broadening
your search results.
 The OR operator is particularly useful when you are
unsure of the words used to categorize your topic or if
information on your topic is even available.
 If you are retrieving too few records, broaden your
search by adding a synonym with the Boolean
Operator OR.
Boolean operators
 AND is used to join words or phrases when
both (or all) the terms must appear in the
items you retrieve.
 This search query would return a much
smaller set of records, and the items found
would be more specific to your research
question.
 If you are retrieving too many records, try
adding another search term with the Boolean
Operator AND.
Boolean operators
 NOT is used to exclude a particular word or
combination of words from your search results.
 If you are retrieving many records that are unrelated
to your topic, try using the NOT operator to eliminate
a word.
 This should be done cautiously, because as well as
deleting the unwanted items, such a search will also
eliminate records that discuss both the relevant
topic as well as the unrelated topic.
 Complex Boolean Searches
For example…
It is also possible to perform complex
Boolean searches in which more than one
Boolean Operator is used.

To do this, enclose the terms connected

with OR within parentheses.
For example:
(marijuana OR cannabis) AND 
(therapeutic use OR medicinal use)
(Drug therapy NOT Prescription Drugs )
What Do You Use To Search?

 Search engines
 Search directories
 Metasearchers
Search Engines
 Are like the index in the back of a book
 Let you search for specific words and topics

 Use robots known as spiders to search for

information.
Example :
 Alta Vista

 Excite

 Hotbot

 Infoseek
Search Directories--
•Are like the table of contents
in front of a book

•Let you search for concepts or subject

categories

• Go from general to specific.

•Sites are added by people.

Example : Internet Public Library
Instead of looking through the
categories in a search directory, you
can put in your terms in their search
bar, but it will only look through the
sites that have been included within
that directory—not the entire web,
unless indicated.
Metasearchers--
 Sends your search terms to several other search
engines at once.
 Gives an overview of a topic across the Internet.
 Examples:
 Profusion
 Dogpile
 Metacrawler
Remember….
 Hits are returned and ranked according to--
 How many times terms appear on the page
 How often terms appear
 How close terms are to each other
 How near the top of the page the terms are found

 The best results will appear on the first page or two

of hits
 No two search engines are alike. Try another
search engine, or rephrase your terms if you don’t
get good results.
More Searching Help--
 7 Steps to Better Searching
 Evaluating Websites
“Let the buyer beware”

Book publishers weed out inaccurate information.

No one checks the Internet for accuracy.

 Before you start
using the
information--

EVALUATE!
 Who is the author?
 Is he an authority on the subject?
 Does she have an e-mail address?
Is the information accurate?

Can it be verified in an encyclopedia?

 Is it relevant to your topic?

 Does the author indicate where he found the

information?
Is the information prejudiced?

 Is it trying to persuade you to another

point of view?
 Is it trying to persuade you to buy a
product?
Is the information current?
 When was the last time the website was
updated?
 Are the links broken?
Evaluation Website
 Quality Information Checklist

•Benefits of Colloidal Silver

•Burger King Introduces…

Copyright Issues
 What can you copy?
 Give credit to what you have used.
 Copyright
 Is the legal right of an author or artist to control the copying and
use of their creative works.
 Taking something without permission is theft, including text and
pictures from the Internet.
 Using someone else’s words without giving credit is called
plagiarism.
 “Fair Use” concept lets teachers and students use portions of
copyrighted works without permission.
 What is protected by
copyright?
 Literary works
 Computer software
 Musical works
 Dramatic works
 Motion pictures
 Sound recordings
Before you copy, check the
Fair Use Guidelines:
 Am I using this for a nonprofit, educational
purpose?
 Am I only using a small portion?
 Will the creator be deprived of future profits?
 What can students copy?
 A single , hard copy for personal or educational use.
 Limited amounts of websites.
 Copies cannot be used for public or commercial use.
 Students must cite the source of their information.
 For multi-media projects:
 Video clips—10% or three minutes
 Music—10% but no more than 30 seconds.
 Text—10% or 1000 words
For copyright help, refer to:
 The diocesan copyright policy
 COPYRIGHT FOR SCHOOLS, by Carol
Simpson
 Copyright Bay
 Copyright Kids
 Cyberbee Copyright
Citing a website
 Last name, first name of author.
If there is no author listed, begin with the title.

 “Title of article within the website.”

Put quote marks around the title

 Name of website.
Underline the name

 Date article was written.

Put the date first, then abbreviate the month.

 Date you accessed the article.

 URL.
If the URL won’t fit on one line, break it at a slash. Include the entire URL, not just the one for the
home page.
More Help For Works Cited:
 MLA Style
 Citation Machine
Example:
Adams, Joyce. “How Vatican II changed the face of the
Catholic Church.” Catholic News Service. 2 Sept. 2003.
13 Oct. 2003 <http://www.catholicnews.net/
vatican.html> .
Staying Safe On-line
 Don’t give out personal information.
 (phone number, address, pictures)

 Use Christian courtesy in e-mails and chat rooms.

 Don’t arrange to meet with someone from online without telling
your parents.
 Do tell your parents about inappropriate websites that you run
across.
 Be careful what you post in a public forum.
*
 Remember:

You leave “electronic footprints”

wherever you go on the web.
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites
NLM Gateway
  This site is a handy entry point for searching the many
valuable resources at the National Library of Medicine.
 It provides a global search function for Pubmed, Pubmed
Central, and Medline Plus, all of which are discussed
below. Search results are divided into the following
categories: bibliographic, consumer health, and other
information resources.
 The NLM Gateway is an excellent place to begin a search
of health-related government
information. Access:http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd.
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites
Resources for medical professionals and
researchers
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
(AHRQ). This federal agency both conducts and
sponsors research on healthcare quality, safety, and
cost-effectiveness.
(http://www.ahrq.gov/about/nursing/), which outlines
the roles of AHRQ nurses, provides a listing of Web
tools and resources for nurses, and includes
information on funding for research.
  Access:http://www.ahrq.gov/ .
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites

National Institute of Nursing Research. 

 One of the National Institutes of Health, this
organization’s mission is to support research in
nursing in clinical and community settings through
grants and other funding programs.
 It provides information on its own funding initiatives,
including diversity programs and resources, links to
nursing organizations for various specialties, and
publications from national conferences and
meetings. 
 Access: http://ninr.nih.gov/ninr/index.html.
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites
Pubmed
 A service of the National Library of Medicine, this
resource offers an index to more than 15 million
citations from Medline for biomedical articles,
including nursing, dating back to the 1950s.
 It also links to the full text of articles and
nongovernmental Web resources. Choose “Books”
from the search box menu and search the NCBI
Bookshelf—a free, full-text collection of biomedical
books. 
 Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/.
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites

 Healthfinder.
 This consumer health information site is maintained
by the National Health Information Center of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.
 It is a hand-selected directory of the health related
Web sites of more than 1,500 organizations—
government, nonprofit, and educational. Also
available in Spanish. 
 Access: http://healthfinder.gov.
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and
Prevention. 
 The CDC’s mission is to monitor public health, put
forth prevention initiatives, investigate health
problems, and promote healthy behaviors.
 Its Web site provides information on specific health
and safety topics, a public health image library, and
state and national data sets on health and disease.
 Its A to Z index is a convenient way to find
statistical and other information on specific
conditions.
  Access: http://www.cdc.gov/.
Internet resources for nurses and
nursing students: A sampling of sites

 National Institutes of Health—Health

Information. 
 Another directory of consumer health
information, this site has a simple design, and
is organized by conditions, body systems, type
of patient, etc.
 It also provides links to MedlinePlus and to
specific institutes within NIH. 
 Access: http://health.nih.gov/.
Nongovernmental portals
 (http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcnurs/).
 Access:http://www.biomedcentral.com/home/.
 Hardin MD. The “MD” stands for “Meta Directory
Access:http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/index.html.
 HealthWeb
Access:http://healthweb.org/index.cfm.
 Mayo Clinic: Tools for Healthier Lives. 
 Access: http://www.mayoclinic.com.
 Nursing Specialties and disease
Access: http://www.alz.org/.
Hardin MD. The “MD” stands for “Meta Directory
Access:http://www.oncolink.com
Access: http://www.csuchico.edu/~horst/index.html.
 Online forums and discussion lists
• Nursing Discussion
Forums.http://nursing.buffalo.edu/mccartny/nursing_discussion_forums.html
.
• Nursing Email Discussion
Lists.http://nursing.buffalo.edu/mccartny/nursing_discussion_forums.html#1.
• Skepticism in Nursing Discussion
forum.http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticrn/.
Knowledge is power.

Rules.
Works Cited
 Books
 Jones, Debra. Exploring the Internet. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers,
Inc., 1999.
 Simpson, Carol, and McElmeel, Sharron L. Internet for Schools: A Practical
Guide, 3rd ed. Worthington, Ohio: Linworth Publishing,Inc., 2000.

 Websites
 Adams, Helen, and Beyers, Catherine. “Lesson 2: Finding Information
on the Internet.” American Library Association. Dec. 15, 2003.
<http://www.ala.org/cfapps/archive.cfm?path=ICONNfclesson2.html>.
•Dodge, Bernie. “Seven Steps to Better Searching.” San Diego State
University College of Education. July 8, 1999. 15 Nov.
2001.<http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/searching/
sevensteps.htm.>