MODULE 1 Internet Concepts

Instructions

This part of the course is a PowerPoint demonstration intended to introduce you to

Internet concepts.

This part of the module is off-line and intended as an information resource for
reference use.

This part of the module should be taken before using the live tutorial.
 Topics
– Basic Internet Concepts
– History of the Internet
– Structure of the Internet
– Types of Information
– Evaluation of Information
– Search Tools & Techniques
– Researching Health/Biomedical Information
– Managing Internet Resources
– Summary
 Basic Internet Terminology
• What is the Internet?
– Network of Computer Networks
– Telecommunications
– Protocols
– Uses
• Information Networks
– Libraries
– Research Centers
 Internet Protocols & Uses
• E-mail
• TCP/IP
• FTP
• HTML
• HTTP
• TELNET
 Network of Information
Networks

• Library Networks
– Local - A university, hospital, or research institute
– Regional – A group of universities
– National - A country wide network
– International – The WHO Library
http://www.who.int/library/
WHO Library Website

Here is the homepage of the WHO Library.

 The Internet Address or URL

This page is being viewed in the

Internet Explorer Browser.
Browsers allow computers to read
Hyper Text Mark-up Language
OR HTML

The Address or URL is typed in here.

Entering a URL address in the address box

After Entering a URL address in the address

box click ok “go” or hit the RETURN key. In
this example we have entered
http://www.who.int for the WHO website
Hypertext links

Links to other pages are usually

underlined or in another colour of
text.
 Forward and back navigation buttons

The arrow buttons on the tool bar

allow users to move back and
forward to pages within the website.
 Home page button

The house icon on the tool bar will

take you back to the browser’s
default Home Page.
 Types of Information
• Library Catalogues
• Multimedia
• Reference Tools
• Journals, Newspapers & Magazines
• Databases
 Sources of Information
• Academic Institutions
• Government Agencies
• Publishers
– Commercial - Proprietary Databases
– Non Profit
• Professional organizations-
• International Agencies- http://www.who.int/tdr/
 Internet Search tools
• Which search tools are needed?
– Directories
– Search Engines
– Meta Search Engines
– Invisible or Deep Web
 Directories

• What is a Directory?
– A file used to organize internet resources
into categories.
– Types of Directories
• General-
– Cover many subjects
• http://www.yahoo.com
• Subject Directories.
– Cover specific subjects
 Search Engines
• Search Engines
– What are search engines?
– Components of a search engine
– Search Options
• Search Box : Google- http://www.google.com
• Natural Language : http://sp.ask.com/docs/help/
The Google search engine

This is the Google search engine. Type

your query into the Google search box and
click on the “Google Search” button
Search results on Google

This is how Google presents the results of

your search. Follow the links to the
websites you wish to visit.
 Meta Search Engines
• What is a Meta Search Engine?
• Examples
– Dogpile
• http://www.dogpile.com/
– Metacrawler
• http://www.metacrawler.com/index.html
• Why Use Meta Search Engines?
 Invisible Web or Deep Web

• What is the Invisible Web?

– http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invis
ible/Inv_Web.html
– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/G
uides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html
• Invisible Web Directories
– http://www.invisible-web.net/
– http://infomine.ucr.edu/
 Web Search Techniques
• Searching
– Which Tools?

• Types of Searches
– Browsing
– Keyword Searching
– Full Text Searching
 Boolean Searching
• Full Boolean Searching

• Predetermined language in a user fill-in

template.
 Full Boolean Searching
• Use Logic Operators
– AND
– OR
– NOT
• Relevancy Ranking
 AND Operator
• Query- Information on Malaria AND
Parasite

Malaria Parasite
 OR Operator
• Query- Malaria OR Parasite

Malaria Parasite
 NOT Operator
• Parasite NOT Malaria

Malaria Parasite
 Advanced Searching
Techniques - Tips

• Truncation
• Proximity Searching
– Phrase searching
– Near operator.
• Case sensitivity
 More Search Techniques

• Field Specific Searching

– Title
– Date
– URL
• Language Restrictions
Evaluating Web Information
• Criteria for Evaluation
• Accuracy
• Authority
• Currency
• Coverage
• Objectivity
• Criteria for evaluating Health Information
– http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghe
althinformation.html
 Free Internet Resources
• Full-text
• Ready reference material
• Library Catalogues
• Journals
• Government Information
• Research Databases
• Publishers Databases
• Discussion groups
• News
 Health Information on the
Internet
• Directories
– http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Medicine/
Subject Directories
– Health Directories
• Databases - http://omni.ac.uk/
– Health
• Electronic Journals
 Databases
• Government
– http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hinfo.html
• International Health Organizations
– http://whqwings.who.int/RIS/RISWEB.isa
• http://www.who.int/tdr/topmenu/databases.htm
– Educational Institutions
• http://highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl
Searching within the NLM website

This is the National Library of Medicine

(NLM) database. You can search the site
from the Search Box.
HireWire Press free article database

This the HireWire Press free article database. Users

have access to over 740,000 full text articles.
 Journals
• http://www.pubmedcentral.com/
• http://www.biomedcentral.com
• http://www.freemedicaljournals.com/
• http://bmj.com/
• http://www.doaj.org/
• http://dmoz.org/Health/Medicine/Journals/
• http://www.inasp.org.uk/ajol/index.html
FreeMedicalJournals.com

FreeMedicalJournals.com lists
journals sites that make their
content free to all users.
Journals are listed by A-Z,
speciality, and language.
BioMed Central

BioMed Central is an open access publisher

that makes access to published articles freely
available to the public. The journals are funded
by an author pays model.
PubMed Central

PubMed Central is a free archive of articles that

have been deposited in this free repository.
 Fee-Based Internet Resources
• Reference Titles
• Periodical Indexes
• Electronic Journals
• Electronic Text Books
• Online Databases
 Managing Internet Resources
• Bookmarks
– What is a Bookmark?
• Netscape
• Favorites
• Internet Explorer
• Offline Activity
Adding favorites 1

To add a page to Favorites click on

the link on the Tool bar.
 Adding favorites 2

You can now give your new Favorite a name.

Adding favorites 3

When you select favorites from the

tool bar you can see that your page
has been added to the list.
This is the end of Module 1

This is the end of Module 1

There is a Work Book to accompany this part of
the module. The workbook will take you through
a live session covering the topics included in this
demonstration with working examples.