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Search Tools Anyone in the adult education field — teacher, administrator, counselor, researcher, or student — can obtain untold amounts of information by accessing databases. It is common for new users to feel intimidated by the mass of information available on the Internet, much as readers would be overwhelmed if presented with all the world's languages and alphabets. One should not forget, however, that no one is suggesting that you learn everything on the Internet. You are the one who chooses how much you wish to access and assimilate. Even so, finding the right paths to your areas of interest can be a daunting task. Fortunately, search tools are available for users to easily negotiate the Internet and find exactly what they seek. Most Web browsers currently available provide access to these electronic tools, which are commonly referred to as search engines. Search engines allow users to plug in keywords that are then used to locate sites on the Web. The keyword may be a single word, a phrase or other series of words. Depending upon the engine you have chosen, you will access (1) a list of articles, (2) the articles themselves, or (3) data bases. Search tools open up endless research opportunities. You can employ search engines to locate such information as:
The list goes on and on because you literally have the resources of tens of thousands of libraries, newspapers, and other information sources at your fingertips. There are many search engines. Some of the most popular are: Yahoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.yahoo.com Lycos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.lycos.com Metacrawler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.metacrawler.com Excite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://www.excite.com |
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