WEB as a tool in geographic research
The Web is now a vast collection of data resources, so large that it can
be difficult and confusing to use. This assignment provides some tips on
getting your bearings in the Web so that you have a sense of where to look
first.
One of the basic problems is that the Web is relatively new but growing
at such a fast pace. There is usually no one place where you can go to
find all the information you might wish to obtain on a single topic. Instead,
you have to cultivate the skills of a detective tracking down leads and
looking for clues to good information. Sometimes these lead payoff, sometimes
not. Still, there are some sources that are more reliable than others.
There is nothing new about sifting and winnowing large stores of data
and information: librarians, scholars, and scientists have been engaged
in this task for centuries. When you walk through the doors of a library
you gain the benefit of all their work in sorting, ordering, and classifying
books, journals, magazines, and many other sources, both paper and digital.
When you use a card catalog, you are drawing upon the decades even centuries
of work involving the indexing of millions of sources by author, subject,
date of publication, publisher, place of publication, and so forth. When
you pose a question of a librarian you are drawing upon that person's many
years of training and experience in locating reliable sources.
The Web is so new that librarians and scholars have not yet had time
to inventory, much less index all of the new resources that are being offered.
Indeed, visiting the Web these days is a little like walking into a library
blindfolded after the librarians have gone home for the day. You are pretty
much on your own to bump into the bookcases as you wander through the stacks.
Yet librarians, scholars, scientists, publishers, and general users
have already begun to sort and order the contents of the Web. Although
this is a long-term process, you can gain from the work that has already
been accomplished.
Starting Places
Libraries and Universities
Libraries and universities are excellent starting places for exploring
the Web, just as they are for locating books, journals, and other conventional
paper documents. You should get to know the resources offered by your university
and university library and your local public library. It is also wise to
get acquainted with other major libraries around the world, both academic
and public. Some examples include:
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University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
<http://www2.hawaii.edu/lib/>
-
Bishop
Museum Library <http://www.bishop.hawaii.org/bishop/library/library.html>
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Hawaii State Public Library
System <http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/hspls/>
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Library of Congress <http://www.loc.gov/>
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Chicago Library System <http://www.chilibsys.org/>
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Los Angeles Public Library <http://www.lapl.org/>
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Metropolitan Toronto Reference
Library <http://www.mtrl.toronto.on.ca/>
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New York Public Library <http://gopher.nypl.org/>
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University of California at Berkeley
and its Libraries <http://infolib.berkeley.edu>
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University of Michigan's MLink
System <http://mlink.hh.lib.umich.edu>
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University of Texas at Austin and
its General Libraries <http://www.lib.utexas.edu>
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University of Wisconsin, Madison and
its Libraries <http://www.library.wisc.edu>
-
Links
to Other Libraries, Universities and Colleges <http://www.hawaii.edu/uhlib2/external/resources_libraries.html>
Reference Sources
A visit to an on-line library will lead you to high-quality reference sources.
You must always question the quality of information you obtain from the
Web, just as you would question the authority and currency of paper sources.
Indeed, the issue of evaluating Web resources is the subject of the fourth
unit in this module. In the meantime, it is useful to be aware of some
of the more authoritative reference sources now available on-line. These
are often digital counterparts of printed reference works such as the Oxford
English Dictionary and Encyclopedia Brittanica. As much care
has been exerted in checking the facts contained in the on-line versions
as those in their printed counterparts. Some reference sources are only
available on a "pay for use" basis or by subscription. You must check with
your library to see if they subscribe to such services and how you can
obtain access. Many of them offer a free trial period that you can use
for this assignment.
For a good overview of reference materials on-line, see:
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Quick
Reference Page, University of Hawaii at Manoa <http://www.hawaii.edu/uhlib2/external/resources_subject.html>
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WWW virtual library <http://www.vlib.org/>
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Navigator,
web resources from The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/navigator/index.html>
Subject Lists and Directories
Lists of resources remain among the most common finding aids available
in the Worldwide Web. Individuals, businesses, government agencies, universities,
and professional agencies all seem to produce lists covering Web resources
in their areas of interest and expertise. Of course, the quality, completeness,
and easy-of-use of these lists varies greatly. Again, a visit to a university,
university department, or academic library is a good way to find subject
lists, particularly those on specialized topics. You may also find it helpful
to create your own resource list, either by "bookmarking" sources in your
Web browser as you find them or, if you have your own Web page, creating
an on-line list where you can list sources directly related to your own
interests. Here are some resource lists available for geographers:
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Einet
Galaxy - Geography
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HDM Great GIS Net Sites! ~ Index!
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Nice Geography Sites,
Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
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Registered
WWW servers, alphabetically by continent, country and state.
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University of Texas at Austin Internet
Resources for Geographers
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World Wide Web Virtual Library - Cartography
| Environment |
Geography
| Remote Sensing
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Yahoo - Geography
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Other
geography resources lists and directories
Go Directly to the Source
Go directly to the source of information whenever possible. This is becoming
easier to do as Web addresses are standardized. Thus,
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http://www.nasa.gov/ for NASA's homepage
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http://www.census.gov/ the homepage
of the US Bureau of the Census
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http://www.usgs.gov/ the homepage of
the US Geological Survey
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http://www.loc.gov/ the homepage of the
Library of Congress
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http://www.colorado.edu/ the homepage
of the University of Colorado
-
http://www.amazon.com/ the homepage
of the Amazon book vendor
Often it is possible to guess the URL for many government agencies, universities,
and businesses.
Search Engines
You should also become familiar with the major Web "search engines" and
how they operate. Search engines are not always a dependable way of finding
materials in the Web, but they do allow you to search large domains of
the Internet quickly to get a sense of what is available. Developing effective
search strategies is an important topic and is addressed in the third unit
of this module.
Search engines allow you to conduct "keyword" searches in the Web. You
enter one or more words or names as "keywords" and the engine attempts
to find all pages where these words are used. The more specific the search,
the likelier it is that these engines will yield useful information. That
is, a search for the keyword "cartography" will yield tens of thousands
of links that must then be browsed individually for relevant information.
A compound keyword search for "North American Cartographic Information
Society (NACIS)" will generally lead you directly to this society's homepage.
The syntax and search options vary among search engines. Be sure to check
the "help" and "advanced query" pages of each search engine.
Google
Alta Vista
Einet Galaxy
Excite
google
Infoseek Guide
Lycos
Magellan
Metacrawler
Web Crawler
Yahoo!
News Media
Many news media maintained a good archive on world geographical issues
online that you can search. Even the Honolulu Advertiser (much later
than the Star Bulletin) has recently put up their online site. Some
sites may ask you to register (some for free, but a few will ask you to
subscribe after a free trial period).
For good international coverage, check at least the following:
-
The New York Times
-
The Wall Street Journal
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The Los Angeles Times
-
The Christian Science Monitor
-
The Guardian and the Observer
- for a perspective from Europe
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The Far Eastern Economic Review
-
The Strait Times (Singapore)
Further Reading
For more information about the topics covered in this unit, see:
-
Understanding
the World Wide Web, from the State University of New York-Albany
-
Boolean Searching
in the Internet, from the State University of New York-Albany
-
Conducting
Research on the Internet, from State University of New York-Albany
Key to assignment 1:
1. http://www.nps.gov/yell/planvisit/orientation/index.htm
2. http://www.census.gov/index.txtonly.html
3. http://caro.esri.com/honolulu/
4. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pnhtml/pnhome.html
and http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panhome.html
5. http://grid2.cr.usgs.gov/globalpop/africa/
6. http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/countrydata.html
7. http://www.usgs.gov/
8. http://www2.hawaii.edu/hga/
9. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/kosovo/index.html
10. http://www.csrp.org/
adapted from Jennifer Allan Goet and Kenneth Foote
(1997), UT Austin "treasure hunt".