Internet 101/102: Untangling the Web

welcome | bibliography | glossary

I. How does it work?

II. What's really out there?

III. How can I search?

IV. Why should I evaluate?

V. How do I cite sources?

What's really out there?

"What would be the contents of the electronic virtual library? Everything? Every what?"
--"From the Alexandrian Library to the Virtual Library and Beyond," Avatars of the Word by James J. O'Donnell

Before you begin searching the Internet, it's important to get a mental picture of the type of content that is actually available to you. Most folks search for and find sites and individual pages from the Web.

Activity: Browse through each web site and one of that site's web pages below to discover the variety of information sources that are out there on the Web. Try opening up each address in a "new window" by clicking your RIGHT mouse button.

Top Level Domain Name	Web Site / Web Page
.gov = U.S. Government	http://www.census.gov/ http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html
.edu = Educational Institution	http://www.usc.edu http://www.usc.edu/webcast/events/tylerprize/
.org = Nonprofit Organization	http://www.ahajournals.org http://www.ahajournals.org/contributions.shtml
.int = International Organization	http://www.un.int http://www.un.int/mexico/chiaps.htm
.mil = U.S. Military	http://stinet.dtic.mil http://stinet.dtic.mil/str/index.html
.net = Network Providers (see a list)	http://www.texas.net/
.mx = country code (see a list)	http://www.senado.gob.mx/
.com = Commercial Organization	http://www.amazon.com (for shopping!) http://www.weather.com (for information!) http://www.epicurious.com (for hobbies!) http://www.apple.com (for company info!)

Things to consider...

Some types of sites (especially .com, .edu, .net) may also allow publishing of personal homepages...
Accredited registrars of domain names (such as Network Solutions) can sell some types of domain names to anyone, regardless of their status.
Free or Fee? Some sites offer subscriptions to their resources. For example, sites might sell you journal articles, but your library may already subscribe to that resource! (see section IIId. library databases)