Like a Pro
and
Gina Kessler Lee, Librarian
[email protected]
About Gina • Information Literacy Librarian since September o Information literacy is the ability to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” - American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. Final Report. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1989.)
• Certified Google “Power Searcher,” thanks to this MOOC: Power Searching With Google •
Contact me with questions:
[email protected]
What brings you here?
What do you want to learn? http://calaware.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/confused-computer.jpg
Other Fish in the Search Engine Sea
How Google Works “Crawls” the web from link to link Saves, or caches, a copy of each page Adds every word to The Index Decide which sites to rank at the top using an algorithm of 200+ factors • Keeps track of what people search and what result they click on to improve results • Follows you around the web to better sell you ads (see: https://www.google.com/settings/ads) • • • •
Sources: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/, http://www.performancemediaplacement.com/Google-Ranking-Factors.asp
But! • Google can’t get to everything.
Surface Web Deep Web Dynamic content
Unlinked content
Stuff on the free and open web
Content behind paywalls/passwords (e.g., library databases)
Scripted or non-text content
General Google Tips • Every word counts, and so does word order • Capitalization and punctuation don’t matter (usually) • Google spellchecks and searches synonyms
General Google Tips • Look at the bolded words to see why Google brought back a particular result:
Google Search Tricks • Google will calculate all kinds of things automatically: o http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/
Google Search Tricks • Put phrases/titles/lyrics in quotation marks “the immortal life of henrietta lacks” • Put words you want spelled as is in quotation marks
“cornell west” • You can use OR to search alternate terms Library exhibits college OR university • Use a minus sign to exclude results with a certain word “saint mary’s college” –indiana -maryland
Google Search Tricks • Use two periods to search number ranges propaganda 1925..1945 • Use * to imply a missing word there’s a * that never goes * • Search within a site or domain “google like a pro” site:stmarys-ca.edu race longitudinal youth site:npr.org library exhibit typewriter site:edu
Practice 1 • Ugh, I quoted a book in my paper on the Camp David accords but now I forget where I got the quote. It goes like this: Peace would ruin everything. o How would you go about finding the source with Google?
Practice 2 • I want a report on climate change from a US government website. What should I type in Google?
You can also use these tips in Gmail, Drive, etc.
You can also use these tips in…
Google’s other search tools
Google Scholar • Settings > Library Links > Saint Mary’s College of California (to see SMC-subscribed content) • Or go through the SMC Library databases list
Google Images • Search tools allow you to filter by size, color, type, time, and… • Now with filtering by usage rights!
Google Images • You can also do a reverse image search:
Google Books • Find where a quote came from, find an anthology that contains a specific story or essay, find full text of out-of-copyright books, see old magazine ads
Google News • “Google News is a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from more than 50,000 news sources worldwide, groups similar stories together, and displays them according to each reader's interests.” • For older content, try Google Newspaper Archives at http://news.google.com/newspapers
News Flash: The Library Has Newspaper Articles Too • Looking for a specific newspaper article? Look up the newspaper on our website to see if the Library has it! We have access to thousands of newspapers, current and historical.
Google Maps • Enter keywords and site:maps.google.com
Practice! • Find a picture of an SMC lacrosse, baseball, OR soccer team on a field. • Hint: what color is a field?
Answer • Filter by the color green! And search on the SMC website.
Practice! • What is this building? • Hint: the URL of the image is: http://goo.gl/KhRkci
Practice! • You’re interested in historical approaches to dealing with ebola, but now that the ebola crisis is happening, your search for ebola just brings back current news and warnings. How would you find ebola news from before 2014?
Can’t find what you’re looking for? http://stmarys-ca.edu/library/ask-us
How to teach students to be better searchers • Face it: they’re going to use Google. Adapt. • Encourage them to think before they search: what kind of organization or site would have authoritative info on this topic? • Check out Google in Education for sample lesson plans • A Google a Day (live or archived) • Hold them accountable for the quality of their sources • Schedule a class session with a librarian!
Sample uses of Google in the classroom • Compare info on the Web vs. library sources • Discussions re: privacy, preservation of knowledge, information sharing, digital citizenship • Track how vocabulary changes over time using Google books Ngram • Visit sites & museums via World Wonders Project, Google Street View, Google Art Project • Analyze data with Public Data Explorer, Fusion Tables
Learn More Power Searching With Google (online class) Google Search Secrets (ebook) Google Tools for Education (online video) In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes our Lives (book) • The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) (book & ebook) • • • •
Bookmark these sites! • http://www.google.com/insidesearch/ • http://lifehacker.com/google-tips-and-tricks-everystudent-should-know-1508121671 • http://www.hackcollege.com/blog/2011/11/23/info graphic-get-more-out-of-google.html
Questions?
