CS 151-01, Spring 02002

Name:______________________________________

Due date and time: Monday, January 14, 02002, 5 P.M. EST

In this lab you will try different search techniques to find information on the World Wide Web. Since the Web contains vast amounts of information, one typically employs the use of a search engine to aid in the search. One of these sites, Google, allows a free search for any phrase or topic and indexes pages according to how many other Web sites are linked to them. Google is noted for its efficiency and speed and thus comes highly recommended. Another site, Yahoo!, organizes things based on categories. It is useful if you want to find a specific company or product. After entering a topic on which to base the search, you will receive a list of Web sites that match your request along with brief descriptions of the contents of the sites. You simply click on one that looks interesting to visit that site. Search engines also provide detailed help from their main pages.

Later in the course, you will be creating your personal Web page. You might want to include links to some of the sites you find. So be sure to bookmark any (see directions below) that look particularly interesting.

If you're completing this lab outside of class, you will find it useful to print out a copy of these directions to follow along with while you're surfing.

2. Open Netscape Navigator by double-clicking its icon. The browser will (okay, should) come up on the Albion College home page, http://www.albion.edu. Click on "Current Students, Faculty, and Staff" and then on "Stockwell/Mudd Library to reach the library's home page. Alternately, this page can be reached directly by typing http://www.albion.edu/library/index.htm in the location box within Netscape.

3. Click on the link to Electronic Journals. This web page contains an alphabetic list of a large number of academic and professional journals.

        a) Choose a journal in a subject that you find interesting and look up an article relating to a topic you find of interest. Print out the citation of the article-do this by selecting Pages in the Print range section of the Print box and entering 1 in each box-and label its category. Attach the printout to your lab, indicating clearly what term you "searched" under at the top of the citation. For example, write "I searched under `cancer' in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)".

        b) Save the web page containing the article listing in part a) into the folder H:\CS151\WebSurf. This is done using the following steps:

                i) Choose File from the toolbar, then select Save As.... An open dialogue box will appear.

                ii) In the dialogue box, open the folder H:\CS151\WebSurf by clicking on the folder.

                iii) Select the type of web page you want to save. You can save the complete web page (web page and associated figure files), the web page, HTML only (just the web page -- no separate figure files), or simply a text file with no figures. Save the web page twice, once as a text file and once as either a complete web page or a web page (HTML only) in your WebSurf directory.

        c) Go back to the main library web site by either successively pressing the Back button or directly going to the URL http://www.albion.edu/library .

4. Click on the link to Electronic Books. This web page contains a number of useful reference texts, including the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), The Encyclopedia Britannica, as well as the neat site www.netlibrary.com, a repository of over 10,000 books, each of which can be read online, printed, or downloaded.

        a) Look up the definition of computer in the OED and include a copy of it in your laboratory.

        b) Look up binary number system in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Save the web page corresponding to the entry to your WebSurf directory, and include a printout of the entry in your laboratory report.

        c) Find a picture of a computer in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Save this picture to your WebSurf folder. This can be done by right-clicking on the image, select Save Picture As..., and then saving the picture as you did in part 3 of this lab.

        d) Go back to the main library web site by either successively pressing the Back button or directly going to the URL http://www.albion.edu/library.

5. The Internet contains a vast amount of information, some of which may be unreliable, untrue, or misleading. Consequently, it is important that you evaluate information found on the internet using a critical mind and eye. If it is likely that you will be using Internet sources in researching your term project, you will find it helpful to know how Internet information is properly cited in a bibliography. The library staff has put together a page at http://www.albion.edu/library/eval_citing.asp with links to proper procedures for citing electronic information.

        a) Using the APA reference style, create citations for the OED definition and the Encyclopedia Britannica entry that you found in parts 3a) and 3b) of this laboratory. Write them both below.

        b) Bookmark this site for future reference-this can be done by pressing [Ctrl] + D when on the page or by selecting Add Bookmark from the Bookmarks menu. Bookmarks will be saved with your student account and will appear later, even if you log on to a different network machine.

        a) Write below the name and date of an interesting event that the College has planned this semester:

        b) Bookmark this site.

        c) Rename this bookmark by selecting Manage Bookmarks... in the Bookmarks section of the top toolbar.

6. Go next to http://www.albion.edu/it/documentation/documentation.asp -this is the AC Information Technology information page. Here you will find details on Web access, advice on various software, and Web page resources.

7. Go now to http://www.centcom.mil/default.asp to see what's going on with Operation Enduring Freedom. Notice how CENTCOM integrates text, video, and graphic information to deliver its message.

8. The Library has collected several information about a collection of useful search engines at http://www.albion.edu/library/search_engines.asp . Click on the Search icon (or go directly to the library search engine page) to begin a search. Try out both Yahoo! and Google as well as at least one other search engine. Also try entering a phrase or topic directly in the location field.

        a) Find a site related to each of the following and record its address below:

                Your name

                Your hometown/region

                Your future profession

                A hobby

Print the first page only of each of them-do this by selecting Pages in the Print range section of the Print box and entering 1 in each box. Clearly label the category for each of your submissions.

        b) Find and record the address of a site related to any five of the following list of categories. For each of the five choices, also indicate your personal example in that category. It is not necessary to print these.

                A sporting activity in which you enjoy participating

                A sporting activity you enjoy watching

                A favorite vacation spot

                An exciting place to live

                The best place to work

                An exciting place to visit on vacation

                A great place to shop

                The coolest car ever

                Pets

                Politics

                Something funny

                Favorite food or beverage

                Favorite music

                Favorite movie

                Favorite color, number, day of the week, month, or season

                Anything else of particular interest to you

10. One question that should be on your mind as you surf the web is "How is my privacy on the web maintained (or not!)?". This issue is a topic of growing concern today as more and more people use, shop, and interact over the Internet.

        a) Find about what a "cookie" is and how they affect you by reading this article. This web site contains many articles regarding Internet security.

        b) Turn off the acceptance of cookies on your browser. To do this, choose Preferences from the Edit menu and select Cookies under Advanced.  Select the "Warn me before storing a cookie" option. Close out of this window.

        c) Go back to the Albion College web page. What happens? Try www.cnn.com. Surprised? Then try surfing some of your favorite sites on the web.

        d) By repeating the steps in part b), reset your browser so that acceptance of cookies is enabled.

11. Web browsers typically have a "history" section that stores the addresses for all of the web sites you have visited.

        a) Go to the Communicator menu and select Tools, then History. The window that appears contains a listing of every site you visited during this session. Go to any of the sites you visited, double-click on the website, and re-visit a website from earlier in this lab.

        b) Clear your history by doing the following:

                ii. Under the Navigator category, click Clear History.

To hand in: Put the pages you've printed in the order listed above with this lab sheet on top, staple them in the upper left-hand corner, and hand this in.