There are numerous online tutorials available for searching the Internet; a few of the more thorough ones are listed here. To begin, decide which of the following best describes your skills or needs, and click on that line.
1. I have little or no experience searching the Internet.
2. I know the basics of surfing the web, but I would like to learn how to find reliable information.
Basics of Internet Searching -- and more
Despite the wealth of information available on the Internet, finding exactly what you need can be frustrating. However, with patience, time, and good instructions, if the information is there, you can find it. There are many sites on the World Wide Web to help you get started.
The State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany has a useful site with a glossary of terms that you will encounter frequently on the Internet as well as a short tutorial.
The Ohio State University Library's net.Tutor has information for beginners as well as more skilled searchers. The emphasis is on using the Internet for scholarly research.
In addition to more in-depth information, Pandia Search Central has "A short and easy search engine tutorial" which includes an excellent summary titled Pandia's 17 recommendations for Net searching.
Microsoft offers an in-depth tutorial for general web searching. Also included are links to tutorials for Microsoft products, such as MS Office and Internet Explorer.
The search engine about com sponsors a Learn the Net tutorial specifically designed for people who have very limited exposure to the Internet. Different sections are dedicated to such topics as search engines, how to download files, and even how to build a web-site.
Search Engine Watch, a site devoted to listings and critiques of the hundreds of search engines currently available, offers an excellent resource of slightly more advanced web searching tips.
Now that you know how to find information on the Internet, how do you know whether it is useful for your purposes. You probably need scholarly information. How do you evaluate resources in an environment in which just about anyone can, and has, built an Internet site? Help is available at the following sites:
Widener University has one of the best tutorials on the Internet on how to analyze information found on the World Wide Web. It is part of their amazingly thorough, but simple, WWW tutorial.
University of California at Berkeley was one of the earliest universities to make extensive use of the Internet and continues to be one of the frontrunners in online education. This is their site for finding scholarly information.
SUNY at Albany offers this easy to follow tutorial for evaluation of web sources.
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