4.4 Search tips and confidence building

Search tips

Give a few hints about how to use search engines more effectively.

• Unless your search is very simple, always use the 'advanced search' option provided by the search engine (normally a link near to the search box on the home page). 'Advanced search' allows you to do things like:
  (a) find results with all of the words you type in your query. This makes it much more likely to find relevant sites and cuts down on the number of results;
  (b) find results with the exact phrase, by putting the words in quote marks "...". This is very useful when looking for names of diseases, organisations, people;
  (c) choose the language, for example, English.
  
  
• The Help pages will give you details about how to use the search engine and how to search more efficiently.
  
  
• If you only use one or two search engines then time spent reading their Help pages will be well worth it.
  
  
• When using other search tools like gateways and directories look at their Help pages too.



• A summary leaflet of the "How to search" section of the consumer guidelines is available on the Print or download the guidelines page. You can make copies to handout to other people.

Confidence building

A person's confidence in searching the Internet for information can be increased if they learn more about how to search.

• Suggest that people take taster sessions or short courses at local organisations like the public library, the WEA (Workers' Educational Association), further education colleges or universities. There may be a small fee for courses.
  
  
• Recommend the local public library as a place where they can get free access to the Internet
  

There are Web sites that provide free online tutorials so you could think of placing links to these on your site. Here are some examples.

• The Online Netskills Interactive Course - TONIC (http://www.netskills.ac.uk/onlinecourses/tonic) [Opens in new browser window]
  TONIC is free but users have to register so their progress can be tracked and they can be given feedback. It is produced by the higher education sector in the UK.
  
  
• Intute: Virtual Training Suite (http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/) [Opens in new browser window]
  These online tutorials are designed to help people improve their Internet information literacy and IT skills. No registration is required, and you can use them at your own pace with no monitoring. They are produced by the higher education sector in the UK.

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© Copyright for this site is held by Contact a Family and the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University. Site published February 2003. Last updated September 2008. Review date September 2009.