Boolean Operators

• AND, +

Narrows the search by requiring all search terms to be found in the results.
 
• presidential and election and 1996
• +democracy +tocqueville
• OR

Broadens the search by requiring at least one of the search terms to be found in the results. Useful when searching for synonyms.
 
• sofa or loveseat or couch or davenport
• NOT

Narrows the search by excluding certain search terms from the results.
 
• dolphins not miami
• +"independence day" -movie
• NEAR

Some search engines allow proximity searching and will look for search terms within X number of words of each other.
 
• solar near eclipse

Phrase Searching
Requires the terms to appear in the exact order that they are typed. Most systems that allow phrase searching have the user enter the phrase in quotes.

•  "national endowment for the arts"

Search engines rank results differently. Many rely on a frequency count of the search terms, i.d., those documents in which the search term appears many times will rank higher than those documents with fewer occurrences of the term. Some search engines combine frequency with location, i.e., if the search term appears in the title or header of the document it is ranked higher. 

Search Forms
A standard Internet display screen that often includes:

• a 'text box' to enter the search query
• a button to submit the query or start the search (sometimes the or key)
• a 'drop down' menu for you to select choices from a list

• politic* will find politics, political, politician, etc.
• wom*n will find woman or women

Low Recall or "I am not finding any sites on my topic!!"
• Have I chosen the correct database?
• Have I been too specific in formulating the search?
• Have I included all possible terms and word forms? Should I use truncation?
• Was Boolean logic used correctly?
• Did I make a technical error, e.g., spelling, or command syntax?

Low Precision or "I found hundreds of citations and many are not on my topic!!"
• Delete less specific synonyms and ambiguous terms
• Search fewer fields e.g., just the title field or URL
• Add additional facets with AND or NOT
• Add restrictions, e.g., date of publication

Inter-Links
Provides explanations about various Internet resources--including Gopher, Telnet, Usenet, and the World Wide Web-- and offers links to sites which search those resources. Also suggests a small number of useful or interesting sites in a directory-style format. 

Searching the Internet - Part I: Some Basic Considerations and Automated Search Indexes (http://rs.internic.net/nicsupport/nicnews/archive/september96/enduser.html)
This article defines the components of automatic search indexes, discusses procedures for making the most effective use of them, explains some basic search features that all search indexes should (but do not) explicitly contain, and identifies which indexes are the best from the point of view of those search features. 

How to Choose the Search Tools You Need (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ToolsTables.html)
From the Teaching Library Internet Workshops at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Robot-Driven Search Engines: A Bibliography (http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/library/staffpages/gwpersonal/senginestudy/sengbib.htm)
This bibliography, compiled by Gillian Westera of Curtin University, attempts to cover some of the resources available on the World Wide Web and in print which describe robot-driven search engines.

• Evaluation Checklist to use with individual sites.

• Evaluating World Wide Web Information a general checklist from Rutgers University.

 
• Checklists for evaluating specific types of web resources from the Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University.
• Advocacy Web Pages
• Business/Marketing Web Pages
• News Web Pages
• Informational Web Pages
• Personal Home Pages
• Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, addresses the problems and issues related to teaching and using critical thinking skills to evaluate Internet resources.