Eric W. Wohlers, PEEnv. Health Director

Chris Crawford, Ph.D.Water Resource Specialist

Cattaraugus County

Agenda

• Basics of web-searching• Valuable PWS sites

Web Searching Basics

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

Web directory defined :“A web directory or link directory is a directory on the World Wide Web. It specializes in linking to other web sites and categorizing those links.” Wikipedia

“A Web directory organizes Web sites by subject, and is usually maintained by humans instead of software. ” about.com

“Directories, unlike search engines, use a hierarchical tree structure to organize their database. Another common distinction is that a directory tends to list Web sites (root directory of a site or homepage) whereas a search engine will list Web pages (individual pages of a Web site). .” rustybrick.com“Directories are run by humans who review web sites and categorize them within their directories. This leads to a more abridged set of sites which can good or bad depending on what you're searching for. ” haystackinaneedle.com

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

How do they work: SearchWeb Crawler / spider –A Web crawler is a computer program that browses the World Wide Web in a Methodical, automated manner or in an orderly fashion. Copies visited pages for processing by search engine.

Rules- time- following URLs- what to copy

Meta-tags

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

How do they work: SearchIndexing–Collects, parses, and stores data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval.Factors

- Speed- Storage- Maintenance- Ranking methods

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

How do they work: Meta-search

Rules- weighting- ranking- source engines

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

Optimizing your search: Goldilocks searches

• Don’t focus on one word• Think conceptually• Develop a question• Use advanced options• Think of associations • Information type (i.e. image, video, diagram)

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

Optimizing your search: Advanced searching

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

Optimizing your search: Advanced searching

Web Research Strategies – Search Engines

Optimizing Search – Results ScanSource – Is it

appropriate?- Trade group- Govt. agency- Supplier / consultant- News- Other

Optimizing Search – Results Scan

Date – Is it timely?- Rate of change

Optimizing Search – Results

Scan

Context – Is it

accurate?-Surrounding

language- exact phrase

Optimizing Search – Evaluate Content

• Source• Audience• Language

Web Research Strategies - Directories

• www.dmoz.org

• dir.yahoo.com

• Site directories- EPA.gov

Optimizing Search - Directories• Use directory search

• Apply same hints as engines

• Note category

Public Water Supply Websites

AmericanWaterWorksAssociation

NY Rural WaterAssociation

Association of State Drinking Water Adminstrators

NYS Department of Health – Drinking Water Protection Program

US EPA – Ground & Drinking WaterProgram

NationalEnvironmentalServicesCenter

Water Environment Federation

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

USA Bluebook