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Finding Information on the Internet

Overview

The essence of information literacy is the ability to use computers, networks, databases, and software to locate, organize, evaluate and apply digital information to purposes appropriate for one’s own needs or the needs of others.

Many potential sources of information can be found on the Internet, primarily via email and the World Wide Web.  The bibliographic databases accessible  through the UIC Library of Health Sciences (LHS) are one possible pathway to information sources on the Internet.  The informational websites on the World Wide Web itself are others.  The first step is to learn where different types of information can be found on the Internet.

Objectives

The objectives of this course module are:

  1. To provide an overview of how information is organized and where it is located online.
  2. To provide instruction on how to locate information stored in bibliographic databases and the World Wide Web.
  3. To provide an opportunity for practical application and evaluation of basic search skills.

Format of the Site

This web site contains:

The Process

The basic steps in the process of obtaining information online are to determine:

  1. WHAT are we looking for or trying to find out; what is the question we're trying to answer?
  2. WHERE can the information be found by selecting the appropriate data repositories or websites.
  3. HOW to extract the information by first identifying and selecting appropriate search terms and synonyms for the topic's breadth and depth; then using appropriate syntax to construct queries to express relationships among the terms, next by conducting comprehensive searches in the data repositories; and finally organizing and ranking according to source, topic structure, or chronology.
  4. HOW WELL... the search query retrieved appropriate information implies critical evaluation of retrieval to extract relevant information.

The next hyperlinks contain information on how and where to obtain information on the World Wide Web and from bibliographic databases accessible via the World Wide Web:

Instructional Content

WHAT!

WHERE!

HOW!

HOW WELL...

The following hyperlinks point to exercises that define a problem to be solved by conducting a properly constructed search in the appropriate data source.

Exercises

Your assignment is to complete the following exercises testing your digital information skills.:

Healthcare Links

 

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