1 online resource (xix, 344 pages) :

"Here is a unique and practical reference for anyone who teaches Web searching. Greg Notess shares his own techniques and strategies along with expert tips and advice from a virtual "who's who" of Web search training: Joe Barker, Paul Barron, Phil Bradley, John Ferguson, Alice Fulbright, Ran Hock, Jeff Humphrey, Diane Kovacs, Gary Price, Danny Sullivan, Rita Vine, and Sheila Webber. Teaching Web Search Skills covers all these topics and more: understanding your audience; instructional session goals; online tutorials; Web search terminology; organizing the training session; creating workshop Web pages; presentation tips, tricks, and shortcuts; and anecdotes, examples, and exercises. This comprehensive and readable guide presents a variety of approaches to instructional design and methodology, lists a range of essential training resources, and features dozens of helpful figures, search screens, worksheets, handouts, and sample training materials. If you train Internet users to search the Web, this is the book you've been waiting for!."--

Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-326) and index

1. Web searching and the teaching paradox -- Online searching background -- Internet information growth -- Origins of the Web -- Instructional background -- The teaching connection -- Teaching simplicity -- The state of Web searching today -- Changing patterns -- 2. Understanding our audience -- General audience characteristics -- Novices -- Know-it-alls -- Experienced users -- Pairing strategies for hands-on workshops -- Audience assessment -- Navigation versus search confusion -- Remembering what we did not know -- Box confusion -- Address confusion -- Button confusion -- Browser differences and problems -- Operating system and hardware issues -- Adaptability and change -- 3. Choosing an instructional session type -- Hands-on sessions -- Advantages -- Disadvantages -- Facilities -- Planning -- Exercises -- Lecture and demonstration sessions -- Advantages -- Disadvantages -- Facilities -- Planning -- Semi-online tutorials -- Capturing a screen shot within PowerPoint -- Course coverage and distance education -- Other settings and approaches

4. Online tutorials : friend or foe? -- Advantages -- Disadvantages -- Issues with online tutorials for Web searching -- Search engine inconsistencies -- Search feature changes -- Databases changes -- Online tutorial examples -- Web search guide tutorial : research, Web searching -- Finding information on the Internet : a tutorial -- Internet tutorials -- LearnAndGo, searching the Web -- Quick tutorial on searching the Internet -- Net. TUTOR : using Web search tools -- Interactive tutorials : Internet search tips and mouse exercise -- Tutorial : site clustering and filtering -- The information cycle -- Information literacy online tutorials -- Finding tutorials -- Tutorials : worth the effort? -- 5. Organization : focus, length, and goals -- Primary session focus -- Pure Web searching -- Basic Internet training -- Advanced Internet training -- Part of multiple sessions -- Course-integrated bibliographic instruction -- Session length -- Variations in length -- Ideal length -- The burnout paradox -- Goal setting -- A collection of goals -- How many main goals? -- Specific objectives -- Bringing it all together

6. Terminology -- Importance of terminology -- Definitions -- Search engine -- Directory -- Portal -- Metasearch engine -- Ad bidding engine -- Answer engine -- Metasite -- News search engine -- Opinion engine -- Site search engine -- Invisible Web -- Other terminology distinctions -- Final thoughts on terminology -- 7. Content : Web search features -- Search features -- Phrase searching -- Boolean searching -- Truncation -- Field searching -- Limits -- Stop words and case sensitivity -- Sorting -- The teaching choice -- 8. Content : primary concepts -- Research process -- Question analysis -- Using more than one search tool -- Search engines versus directories -- Evaluation -- Which primary concepts to teach -- Recent changes in teaching topics -- Additional concepts to consider -- Identifying ads -- Understanding Web addresses (or URLs) -- Understanding databases -- Teaching change -- 9. Additional content : image searching, news, Usenet, and more -- News -- Usenet newsgroups and opinions -- Pictures and images -- Multimedia -- Phone numbers -- Bibliographic databases -- Subject-specific sites -- Invisible Web -- The lost obvious

10. The search engines -- The starting point -- Ask -- Exalead -- Gigablast -- Google -- MSN search -- Windows Live -- Yahoo! -- Directories -- 11. Creating a framed workshop Web page -- Advantages and disadvantages of frames -- Frames code and explanation -- Top page with frameset -- Left frame table of contents -- Content pages -- Exercise pages frame set -- Exercise one top frame : JavaScript and a form -- Other exercise pages -- Solutions for frame breakers -- 12. Presentation tips, tricks, and shortcuts -- Keyboard shortcuts -- General Windows shortcuts -- Browser shortcut keys -- Shortcuts for filling out forms -- Other shortcuts -- Quick links and the personal toolbar -- Bookmarklets -- Zapping images, animations, and more -- Bookmarklets for Web searching -- The pop-up presence -- The shortcut advantage -- 13. Tales from the trenches : anecdotes, examples, and exercises -- Analogies, sayings, and terminology tales -- Boolean examples -- Exercises -- Unexpected answers -- Limitations of search engines -- Failures -- Facilities failures -- The team teaching danger -- Web site instruction and the Web searching paradox -- Lost interest -- Formulas for success -- Afterword -- Appendix A. The trainers : introduction to the interviewees -- Appendix B. Sample handouts and other training material -- Appendix C. URL list

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