Books. Mining the Internet: Information Gathering and Research on the Web

Citation

Clegg, B. (2000), "Books. Mining the Internet: Information Gathering and Research on the Web", Education + Training, Vol. 42 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2000.00442cad.003

Books. Mining the Internet: Information Gathering and Research on the Web

Mining the Internet: Information Gathering and Research on the Web

Brian CleggKogan Page1999ISBN: 0749430257£9.99

Keywords Research, Internet

The Internet, and particularly the World Wide Web, is a vast and confusing mixture of useful and useless information. The good news about using the Internet for research is that almost anything you want to know is probably out there somewhere. The bad news is that searching for a particular item can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Information on the Internet does not go through the same filtering process as a book. Anyone can put anything on to the Internet. They do not need to know what they are talking about. The information does not have to be true and it certainly does not have to be comprehensive. There is very little censorship, with all the advantages and disadvantages that result.

Mining the Internet shows how to:

• •

  tune up search keywords;

• •

  break through "no document matching your query found";

• •

  spot nuggets of gold among hundreds of sites;

• •

  get a response from the thousands of experts available through the Internet;

• •

  use electronic agents to find material for you; and

• •

  make use of forums and newsgroups.

The book goes back to first principles, explaining what the Internet is and, more importantly, what it is not.

The Internet is too fluid for a guidebook to be of value. Instead of taking the user on a tour of the Internet, this book builds the skills needed for anyone to be their own explorer. It keeps the subject light, concentrating on the information rather than the technology.

The book is split into "skills" chapters, giving information on how to find things on the Internet, and "focus" chapters, giving help with specific information topics. Using a combination of readable text and bite-size references from sample sites to features zooming in on a topic, it provides the guidance needed to tame the Internet.