Agricultural Empowerment in Academics, Research, and Extension | Searching Online
Searching Online
In today’s digital age, students are faced with an abundance of online resources for historical inquiry. While many educators have attempted to restrict the use of Wikipedia and other online resources, such policies are unenforceable. Students reach out to internet sources (reliable or not) at the beginning of any project. This lesson aims to explain some of the online sources available to students. It also gives an overview of types of searches. By educating students on how searches function, we hope to encourage students to make educated decisions when searching online.
Where can you search?
Databases
On their most basic level, databases organize data (numbers, images, text, etc.) With such a broad definition, almost every site you use to search online incorporates a database! However, we have limited the definition to make the lesson clearer. Databases are often subscription services users can access through their libraries. However, many are also available free on the web. Library catalogues are also databases and prove to be very useful when starting research projects. The collections within The State of History site are also databases. Google Books is a database that has comprehensive metadata and offers a variety of search options to users. However, the database struggles with quality control, as book pages go missing or scans are not legible.
Other Online Databases: JStor, WorldCat, Ancestry, ProQuest, Accessible Archives
Web Search Engines
Web search engines like Google and Bing use “spiders” to crawl out into the internet and organize or index as many websites it can. Search engines use algorithms to then search through the indexes. It is important to know that not all search engines use the same algorithms and bring up different search results.
Digital Projects
We have identified digital projects as a separate category, because we hope that students begin to engage with them as an extension of classroom education. Many digital projects include a database, but they often include a story or interpretation as well. Digital history projects provide secondary and primary information for users or tools to further your own research. This site, State of History, is an example of a digital history project that incorporates secondary interpretations and an online database of primary sources. In Activity 2 below, you will be asked to evaluate a digital project. As digital projects become increasingly popular, you must know how to critically evaluate them.
Digital History Project Examples: The Lost Museum, Lewis and Clark Across Missouri, Making the History of 1989, Digital Scholarship Lab
What types of searching are there?
While there are many types of search engines (Boolean, Vertical, Known Item, Hybrid, etc.,) we have outlined two very broad types in this lesson. The technicalities of more specific search types do affect search results; however, we used broad categorizes to makes students aware of basic considerations when searching online. It is important to be aware of how the search engines you use function. Read the following descriptions on Subject/Tag Searches and Full-Text or Keyword Searches.
Subject/Tag Searches
Searching by subjects or tags is often employed in social media settings or academic projects that do not incorporate full-text searching. This type of search often uses the sources’ online metadata. If a user searches for “ships,” it will search through the title, description, date, item type, citation, etc. to pull results. Documents are often categorized using tags to assist users in narrowing down their research. In comparison to a full-text search that would scour the every document for the word “ship,” in subject/tag searching curators may have already organized all of the texts related to ships together. This has advantages as curators would have considered the greater context of the text rather than categorizing every text that even mentions the word “ship.” However, this process also limits users by categorizing items for users in subjects that may or may not be useful or relevant to them.
Full-Text or Keyword Searches
Full-text searching allows researchers to search collections of text for a single or multiple keywords or phrases. This type of searching allows immense coverage because researchers are not restricted by subject tags. However, full-text searches can also be problematic. To make text searchable the computer must recognize words. Optical Character Recognition or OCR scanning recognizes words creating a searchable file. With the appropriate technology, OCR documents are easy to create and the scanned documents look the same as the original. On the downside, OCR scans can also have errors. Errors are especially prevalent in older texts that are old and worn with creases or ink blots and texts that used unrecognizable or hard to distinguish handwriting or typefaces. There are other methods, such as double keying where the manual transcriptions of multiple staff members or compared and corrected. While this manual transcription or editing and reviewing processes can limit the problem of OCR scanning, it is a less employed method because it involves staff or volunteers. Technical issues aside, full-text searches also create a temptation to ignore the context of an entire document, by only focusing on where your keyword or phrase appears.
Activities
Activity 1: Web Search Engines
Web search engines are usually the first stop for any inquiry, and you need to determine the significance of the Smith-Lever Act in North Carolina. Will knowing how their search operates will it change how you do research?
1. Using both Google and Bing, search for the “Smith-Lever Act in North Carolina.”
2. Compare the results. Note the similarities and differences. Did you find one that was more effective than the other?
3. Go the Google and Bing homepages and find the pages where they address how their search engine operates. Does one seem more effective than the other does?
4. Choose either Google or Bing and continue your search on the significance of the Smith-Lever Act in North Carolina, and trace every step of your process on paper.
5. Using what you learned in step 3, change your methods.
6. Once you have your answer, compare your process with your classmates. Were your search methods different? Was one way more successful?
7. After looking at the search histories your class made, do you think you should cite your search process? How do you show your work when using search engines?
Activity 2: Evaluating Digital Projects
As with any source, print, or digital, you must determine a project's authority. Examine The State of History site and answer the following questions:
1. Who created this site? (Students, Professors, Organizations, etc.) Why? Are the creators clear on their intent and purpose?
1. Is the site relevant and up-to date?
2. Are secondary and primary sources cited on the page when interpretations or stories are presented? What is the site missing or excluding from its research?
3. Are the creators clear on how they intend others to use their site? Is there a copyright statement? Is there information on how to cite the project?
4. Explore the collections on The State of History website. What are the limitations of our search? What type of metadata do we collect? How could our collections be improved?
Activity 3: Evaluating Online Resources
1. Go to your favorite online resource. If you can, find what type of search they use.
2. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of the search engine.
3. Will knowing how their search operates change how you do research? Do you think online resources should make this information available to users?
3. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of the search engine.
Additional Resources
Hitchcock, Tim, “Confronting the Digital: Or How Academic History Writing Lost the Plot,” Cultural and Social History 10, no. 1 (March 2013): pages 9-23.
Kelly, T. Mills, Teaching History in the Digital Age (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2013).