6.7 The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (www or web for short) is one of the most
popular features of the Internet. It is made up of millions
of ‘pages’ of information. A web page is one document
or file of information, which can contain text, pictures, and
sound. It is possible to move from one page to another by clicking
on certain words, phrases or graphics that are usually highlighted
and underlined. These are known as ‘hyper-text links’.
They lead the viewer to related pages on the web.
The World Wide Web provides access to a vast amount of information
on all kinds of topics. More and more organisations display
information about their products and services on their website.
Other useful facilities for resource centres include searching
databases and accessing electronic journals and newsletters.
Example of a web newsletter
website is a number of pages displayed by the same host computer.
Each website has its own address or URL (uniform resource locator).
An example of a typical web address is: http://www.healthlink.org.uk
http:// = the transfer protocol which tells the web browser
that it is connecting to the Web
www.healthlink.org.uk: = the domain name of the computer where
the information is stored
org = shows that it is an organisation
uk = country code showing which country the site is registered
in
6.7.1 How to find information on the web
The range of information available makes the web an exciting
tool. However, it also makes it difficult to find exactly what
you are looking for, and to know that the information is reliable.
There are several ways of finding information on the web –
by typing in a web address, following a link from another site,
or using search tools.
Typing in a web address
If you know the exact address of the website or page, type this
into the location or address box.
Following a recommended link from another site
Many sites include a list of recommended links to related resources
on the web. You can save a lot of time looking around the web
by starting from a reliable site and following the links provided.
Someone will have already looked at a wide range of resources
and included only those that seem useful. Examples of recommended
websites are included in Section 6.9.1.
Using the search tools
There are a number of search tools on the web, known as ‘search
engines’ or ‘search directories’. These allow
you to search the web for a particular word or combination of
words appearing in a website. The search engine or directory
will look through the web and display the addresses of those
sites containing the word or words selected. These are often
listed in order of relevance, with those the search engine thinks
are most relevant appearing first.
Each search engine includes instructions on how to search effectively.
Take time to read these before you start. All search engines
are slightly different and some include more advanced features
allowing you to search for a whole phrase, use Boolean terms
such as AND, OR, or NOT to combine words, or automatically look
for words with the same meaning. Therefore, if you don’t
find what you’re looking for, it is worth trying another
one.
Advice about searching the web, and a comparison of the various
search engines is available at: http://www.searchenginewatch.com
Recommended search engines include:
All The Web http://www.alltheweb.com
Google http://www.google.com
Lycos http://www.lycos.com
MSN Search http://msn.search.com
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com
Some search engines are also known as search directories. A
search directory is organised into subject areas, allowing you
to search just those sites related to a specific subject, rather
than the whole web. Often, the sites included within the directory
have been assessed and selected by subject specialists; sometimes
this is a service that larger organisations pay for. Using a
search directory can produce more accurate results. Of those
listed above, Yahoo and MSN Search are directories.
There are also multiple search engines, sometimes known as
‘meta’ search engines, which search across a number
of search engines at the same time. This can save you time,
however, a meta search engine can only use those search features
that all of the search engines it covers have in common and
therefore only perform the most basic kind of search. Meta search
engines are particularly useful for broad and shallow searches,
for assessing keywords quickly, and for getting familiar with
the individual search engines that they cover. Examples are:
Flipper http://www.flipper.com
Ithaki http://www.ithaki.net/indexu.htm
Metacrawler http://www.metacrawler.com
Fazzle http://www.fazzle.com
Vivisimo http://vivisimo.com
6.7.2 How to evaluate information on the web
There is a vast amount of information available on the web from
all kinds of sources. Anyone can put a document on the web,
unlike printed material, which has usually been edited or reviewed.
It is sometimes difficult to know how accurate or reliable information
on the web is. You need to consider:
- Who has provided the information? Do you or others within
that field know of them? Are they known to be accurate, reliable
and professional?
- Who has the information been provided for? Are the content
and language appropriate for the audience?
- Are sources and references given? If claims and statistics
are presented, are the sources reliable? Is there a bias present,
and if so, is it stated?
- Is the site up to date?
- A clear guide to evaluating information found on the Internet
is available at:
http://www.library.jhu.edu/elp/useit/evaluate
- A number of other documents offering guidelines for evaluating
various information
- resources, particularly those on the web is available at:
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm
6.7.3 Internet databases
Increasingly, databases are becoming available free of charge
on the Internet. These databases can be less straightforward and
accurate to search than CD-ROM, though, they are becoming easier
to use as Internet technology improves. They also incur telephone
costs and there is a risk of being disconnected if telephone lines
are poor. However, Internet databases can be a valuable source
of information if CD-ROMs are not available.
For example, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has put
all the major commercial databases on their website, so that
they can be searched free of charge. Source’s bibliographic
database is available free of charge from the website. For more
information see Section 6.9.6.
6.7.4 Electronic journals and newsletters
Many journals and newsletters are now available in electronic
format on the web, as well as, or instead of, in printed format.
Some are available free of charge in full text, where the whole
of each article can be read, printed or downloaded to disk.
For others, only the contents pages of issues and abstracts
of each article are available free of charge, and a subscription
needs to be paid to view the complete articles.
The advantages of electronic journals or newsletters are:
- They can be searched by keyword or subject as well as by
title, author, date and issue number, allowing users to find
a specific article without knowing the complete reference.
- Articles can be printed off and read at users’ own
convenience.
- Articles can be saved to file to allow sections to be incorporated
into other documents.
- References within the articles can be given with the full
web address to lead readers to the source.
- A current annual subscription may give access to back issues
of journals – though if the subscription has expired,
access to the back issue may be lost.
- A journal website might include more than the articles themselves.
For instance, the British Medical Journal website includes
discussion groups, more in-depth articles, and readers’
comments that are only available on the site.
Some electronic publications may appear on a website as PDF
files. See ‘Portable Document Format (PDF)’ in
section
6.3 for more information on creating and viewing PDF files.
For examples of electronic journals and newsletters, see Section
6.9.2.
6.7.5 How to access the World Wide Web via e-mail
It is possible to access web pages even without a full Internet
connection. GetWeb, developed by SATELLIFE in the USA, is one
of a number of services now available which allow you to request
and receive the text only of web pages through a simple exchange
of e-mail messages. You need to know the exact web address of
the page or pages which you wish to access.
To use GetWeb, send an e-mail message to:
getweb@usa.healthnet.org
Type GET followed by the web page address in the text of your
message (leave the subject line empty). For example:
GET http://www.healthnet.org
The text only of this page will automatically be e-mailed to
you.
You can request more than one web page at a time by beginning
the message with the command begin and completing it with the
command end. For example, to request three web pages, you might
send the following message:
begin
GET http://www.procaare.org
GET http://www.promed.org
GET http://www.edrug.org
end
A guide to using the GetWeb service, including its more advanced
features, is available at: http://www.healthnet.org/howtogetweb.php
next: 6.8 Databases
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