Exercise 8 : Search engines

How Do Search Engines Work?

Please note: search engines are not simple. They include incredibly detailed processes and methodologies, and are updated all the time. This is a bare bones look at how search engines work to retrieve your search results. All search engines go by this basic process when conducting search processes, but because there are differences in search engines, there are bound to be different results depending on which engine you use.

1. The searcher types a query into a search engine.
2. Search engine software quickly sorts through literally millions of pages in its database to find matches to this query.
3. The search engine's results are ranked in order of relevancy.

(About.com)

Examples of Search Engines

Chapter 7 : Some ideas to help and support the flooding crisis in Thailand

• Make donations of money, canned food, water, clothing and other necessities
• Volunteer to go to flood area to transfer the donations and supplies to help the millions of flood victims.
• Talk up the victims about steps that they can take to safeguard their home and belongings if they are at risk of flooding.
• Report a flooding problem on roads, burst water mains or blocked drains, and find out who is responsible for repairs.
• Let the victims know how to clear up their areas after a flood, make an insurance claim and protect against future flooding.

Chapter 6 : Report writing and Citation

• Example of Citation:

BOOK CHAPTER, ESSAY, or ARTICLE when author is credited  
de Paula, T. C. M., Lagana, K., & Gonzalez-Ramirez, L.  (1996). Mexican Americans. In J. G. Lipson, S. L Dibble, & P. A. Minarik (Eds.), Culture and nursing care: A pocket guide (pp. 203-221). San Francisco: USCF Nursing Press.

JOURNAL ARTICLE (from an online database) (for more details, see the APA's official site)
Kavanagh, K., Absalom, K., Beil, W., & Schliessmann, L. (1999). Connecting and becoming culturally competent: A Lakota example. Advances in Nursing Science, 21, 9-31. Retrieved March 26, 2001 from ProQuest/Nursing Journals database.

• Report Writing :

 The structure of a report and the purpose and contents of each section is shown below.

TITLE PAGE report title your name submission date
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY overview of subject matter methods of analysis findings
recommendations
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS list of numbered sections in report and their page numbers
 
INTRODUCTION terms of reference outline of report’s structure
 
BODY headings and sub-headings which reflect the contents of each section. Includes information on method of data collection (if applicable), the findings of the report and discussion of findings in light of theory
 
CONCLUSION states the major inferences that can be drawn from the discussion makes recommendations 
 
REFERENCE LIST list of reference material consulted during research for report
 
APPENDIX information that supports your analysis but is not essential to its explanation 

(APA), (UniLearning)  

Examples of Book Databases or Journal Databases

• BookCAT is a powerful book database package which will help you catalog a book collection of any size. Book lovers, churches, schools, clubs and business libraries all over the world are discovering that it is not necessary to spend thousands of dollars to get a sophisticated inventory manager that will keep track of a large (or small) book collection. BookCAT has a comprehensive set of fields, enabling you to catalog a wide range of information: author, title, publisher, ISBN number, publish date, number of pages, editor, original title, translator, binding, edition, type of book (fiction, non-fiction, etc.), category and sub-category, purchase date and price, current value, condition, status (own, want, for sale), personal rating, owner, location, keywords, awards and nominations, comments, synopsis, reviews, and more. 
• Cambridge Journals Online: http://journals.cambridge.org
  This database provides access to over 190 journal titles in Linguistics, Politics, Medicine, Science, Technology, Social Science, and Humanities. Trial Access has been provided to this database up to 31st May 2005.
• EBSCO: http://search.epnet.com
  The EBSCO Host Site is a collection of online databases of journals and other learned content. Under the PERI programme, access is provided to 8 databases (Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, ERIC, Masterfile Premier, Newspaper Source, Health Source Nursing Academic, Health Source Customer Edition, and MEDLINE), which can be searched individually or in groups by selection. The EBSCO Host collection is also available on CD-ROMs in the Main Library.