Internet Skills

The size of the World Wide Web is enormous and expanding rapidly. There is a great deal of extremely useful information out there but finding up-to-date, quality information on a particular subject can be very difficult and time consuming. 

This is a brief introduction to the Internet and the World Wide Web, compiled by Information Services staff. It contains sections on finding information on the web, assessing the quality of information found, handy hints, using subject gateways and search engines. It also provides links to many of the web tutorials available.

Key areas in the Effective Study collection

Effective Study H61.95	Social sciences, electronic information resources inc. the Internet
Effective Study JA86	Political science, study & teaching
Effective Study TK5105.875.I57	Computer networks, Internet
Effective Study ZA4201 - 4234	Information resources, Internet (general works)

Related Internet Sites

To help you search the Internet effectively there are a growing number of ‘net skills web sites. Below are a few sites for you to try: 

Try these first:

Information Literacy - Internet: searching the web
Helping students make the most of the web
http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/Resources_By_Theme/Searching_the_web.aspx

Information Literacy Internet: evaluating websites
http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/Resources_By_Theme/Evaluating_websites.aspx

Internet Detective
A free, "teach yourself" tutorial that lets you practise your Internet information skills
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/

RDN Virtual Training Suite
This site contains a set of online tutorials designed to help students, lecturers and researchers improve their Internet information skills
http://www.vts.rdn.ac.uk/ 

Tonic: the Online Netskills Interactive Course
A structured course offering practical guidance on major Internet topics, ranging from basic through to advanced
http://www.netskills.ac.uk/onlinecourses/tonic/

Yale University Library presents: Internet Search Engines
An online 'workbook' designed to help you find your way around different types of Internet search engines
http://www.library.yale.edu/ref/internet-search/search.html 

 

Others to try:

Berkeley Digital Library: Internet Search Tool Details
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Help/searchdetails.html

Learn the Net
This site provides information on topics such as Internet basics and web searching with a free Internet tutorial
http://www.learnthenet.com

Liberation
A web tutorial which aims to help students find relevant and high quality information.
http://193.61.82.57/liberation/web/

Monash Information Services: The Spider's Apprentice - How to Use Web search Engines
Tips on how to get the most from search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek, Lycos, etc. Includes a section on how to plan the best search strategy
http://www.monash.com/spidap.html

The Open University - Web guide
http://www.open.ac.uk/webguide/

The Sheffield College - Weblinks/Internet
http://www.sheffcol.ac.uk/links/Internet/ 

University of Delaware – Demystifying the Internet
http://www.udel.edu/alex/demyst/

WhatIs?
A large but slightly more technical Internet manual that will be of benefit to more experienced users.  
http://www.whatis.com