INTERNET in BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHThings to Know Before You Begin Searching the WWW: What are you searching? What is a search tool and how do search engines work? Types of Search Tools.Beyond General Web Searching: Advanced approaches to finding information on the Web

Lecture on "INTERNET & BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH"
by Mr. Sukhdev Singh, SSA, NIC.
sukh_dev@hotmail.com

I. INTERNET:

What is Internet?

The Internet (Inter-network) is a loose collection of millions of computers at thousands sites around the world whose users can pass along information and share files no matter which of those computers they are using. It was born about 20 years ago, out of an effort to connect together a U.S. Defence Department network called ARPAnet and various other radio and satellite networks.. The original project called the ARPAnet, after the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which supervised the project, grew gradually for a long time, adding new computers and users at government and university sites. From the mid-1970s to the 1980s, smaller networks that used the ARPAnet technology, such as NSFnet, run by the National Science Foundation (NSF), decided to work together or internetwork. They started sending information to one another across special high-speed telephone lines, with the ARPAnet as the core. By the 1980s this internetwork of computers reached not only across the country, but also around the world.

Today it links government, university, college, research, and commercial sites, and is known around the world simply as Internet.

Who Runs Internet?

No one person or group runs the Internet. There is no single authority figure for the Internet as a whole. Much of its direction however comes from a group of volunteers called the Internet Society, or ISOC.

Who Pays for Internet?

Similarly, no one pays for "it"; there is no Internet Ltd. that collects fees from all Internet networks or users. Instead, everyone pays for his or her part.

Tools & Utilities for Internet Users:

It is easy to get connected to Internet than to find out what one needs. Because the Internet was built by and for

Sophisticated computer users it is not as user friendly as general user needs. The Internet is hard to learn for use, almost completely disorganized, there is too much of information and it is also growing too fast. There are some basic tools and utilities for working on the Internet.

Electronic mail or EMAIL allows users to send messages.

USENET News is the world’s largest bulletin board service, it lets the user read and post message that has been sent to public newsgroups.

Telnet is used for logging into other computers on the Internet. It is used to access databases, library catalogue etc.

FTP is a tool for moving files back and forth, and is useful for retrieving files from public archives scattered around the world.

Archie lets the user to locate files on Internet.

Gopher lets the user to prowl through the Internet by selecting resources from menus.

WAIS searches and provide access to resources on Internet without regard for where they are really reside.

WWW provides information through hypertext technology.

WWW (World Wide Web)

A system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents. The documents are formatted in a language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) that supports links to other documents, as well as graphics, audio, and video files. This means you can jump from one document to another simply by clicking on hot spots. Not all Internet servers are part of the World Wide Web.

There are several applications called Web browsers that make it easy to access the World Wide Web; Two of the most popular being Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

II. SEARCHING INTERNET

What are you really searching?

Finding the Web documents (a.k.a. Web "pages" or "sites") you want can be easy or seem impossibly difficult. This is in part due to the sheer size of the WWW, currently estimated to contain 1 billion documents. It is also because the WWW is not indexed in any standard vocabulary (unlike a library's catalogs which assign Library of Congress or some other widely accepted standardized subject descriptors to their documents, or a journal-article index which uses its standardized subject descriptors).

When you do what is called "searching the Web," you are NOT searching it directly. It is not possible to search the WWW directly. The Web is the totality of the many web pages which reside on computers (called "servers") all over the world. Your computer cannot find or go to them all directly. What you are able to do through your computer is access one of several intermediate databases and/or web-pages which contains selections of other web pages organized to allow you to find other web pages and sometimes other databases. You search these intermediate "search tools," and they can provide you with hypertext links (URLs) to other pages. You click on these links, and retrieve documents, images, sound, and more from individual servers around the world.

Categories of Search Tools Available

Types of Search Tools
Search Engines & Meta-Search Engines	Characteristics: Full-text of selected Web pages Search by keyword, trying to match exactly the words in the pages No browsing, no subject categories Databases compiled by "spiders" (computer-robot programs) with minimal human oversight Search-Engine size: from small and specialized to 90+ percent of the indexable Web Meta-Search Engines quickly and superficially search several individual search engines at once and return results compiled into a sometimes convenient format. CAVEAT: They only catch about 10% of search results in any of the search engines they visit.	Examples: Search Engines recommended and described by this tutorial: Alta Vista, Northern Light, Infoseek, Fast Search Other search engines: Hotbot, Lycos, Excite Meta-Search Engines: Metacrawler, Inference Find, Dogpile, Metafind
Subject Directories	Characteristics: Hand-selected sites picked by editors, more or less carefully Organized into hierarchical subject categories Often annotated with descriptions (not in Yahoo!) Browse subject categories or search using broad, general terms NO full-text of documents. Can search only the subject categories and descriptions.	Examples: Recommended and described in this tutorial: Librarians' Index, Infomine, Britannica's Internet Guide, Yahoo!, Galaxy Other subject directories: Scout Report Signpost, Looksmart, Lycos's A2Z and Top 5% Built into Infoseek, Excite Most university libraries maintain subject directories
Subject Guides	Characteristics: Web pages of collections of hypertext links on a subject Compiled by "expert" subject specialists, agencies, associations, and hobbyists Locate through special guides to guides or subject directories or sometimes among search engine keyword search results	Examples: Guides to guides: Argus Clearinghouse, WWW Virtual Library
Specialized Databases	Characteristics: The Web provides access through a search box into the contents of a database in a computer somewhere Can be on any topic, can be trivial, commercial, task-specific, or a rich treasure devoted to your topic Locate by special guides to databases, in Librarian's Index, Yahoo!, and sometimes by keyword searching general search engines	Examples: Sites listing lots of Databases Search.com, Beaucoup!

Search engine fundamentals

How many of us today know to search the web in the right way? Not many, I feel. First of all, all search engines are not search Engines! Some are search engines, that index links organized by a software program, some even perform advance functions like spidering your site for new content and some are directories, quite often maintained by humans. There are more than 1000 search engines today. Not all of them are important or useful though. The basic function - getting what you want in the least efforts - has been getting complicated over these years.

Most popular directory-based search engine is Yahoo! The links here are maintained by humans, so you can expect good results. An interesting fact is that even Yahoo.com is able to list only 22% of the entire world wide web! The best way to search is to include "AND" and "NOT" in your search query. This can also be done by placing the "+" or "-" sign between two words. On majority of search engines, you can put a phrase in quotation marks to perform exact phrase matching.

You can also use these sites for fast and reliable meta searching (searching multiple search engines at once and
displaying combined results) http://dogpile.com and http://www.copernic.com

Related links:
This site has 900 Search Engines which are listed from around 59 countries:-
http://www.searchenginecolossus.com

This site can be used to filter adult links from your search:-
http://www.mirago.co.uk/zone

This search engine claims to index all the sites on the Net in the coming year:-
http://www.alltheweb.com

One of the fast growing regional portals in the U.S for region based Searching:-
http://www.welcometosearch.com

INDIAN SEARCH ENGINE

http://www.jadoo.com Jadoo
http://www.khoj.com Khoj
http://www.iloveindia.com IloveIndia
http://www.123india.com 123India
http://www.samilan.com/sairexp.html Search Engine Portal
http://www.samachar.com Samachar -- Custom newspaper
http://www.hindustan.net Indian search
http://www.webindia.com ExIm Co's Directories

Subject Directories
Hand-picked, often annotated, classified by subject.

Highly Recommended
Librarians' Index to the Internet, http://www.lii.org

Search or browse for your topic in this superbly annotated and carefully selected gathering of valuable web sites on many topics.

SEARCH TIPS:Accepts * for truncation. Default is AND between terms. Also accepts OR and NOT.

Infomine,http://infomine.ucr.edu/Main.html

Collection of over 16,000 annotated scholarly links reflecting selected university-level subjects/disciplines. Developed by UC Riverside library staff and other UC libraries + some from Stanford University.

SEARCH TIPS: NEW multiple database searching lets your search in all of Infomine's categories at once.

Britannica's "Web's best sites," http://www.britannica.com/

"Best sites picked by our editors," summarized and reviewed. Browsable and searchable. Also access to the online Encyclopedia Britannica.

SEARCH TIPS: The search box format under the Research tab provides more flexibility than the basic search box.

Scout Report Signpost, http://www.signpost.org/

About 8,000 of the best internet resources chosen by Scout Report editorial staff of information specialists. About half are cataloged and organized by LC classification (Advanced Search area).

SEARCH TIPS:AND (default), OR, NOT may be used; these terms MUST BE CAPITALIZED. Search terms retrieve variants automatically (physics retrieves physical or physicians); enclose term in ( ) to require exact term. To search a phrase, use +before each term and enclose in ( ): (+affirmative +action)

Yahoo!, http://www.yahoo.com

The biggest and best subject directory worth checking, but watch out for dead links and e-commerce bias.

SEARCH TIPS: Put + immediately before terms to focus search. If your search terms are too speciric, you get bounced to a mediocre search of the Inktomi database, not the Yahoo! directory.

Galaxy, http://galaxy.com

Reputable subject directory and collection of selected Web pages containing many worthwhile resources.

SEARCH TIPS: Search options page allows you to focus search. Search only "directory pages" for the subject-classified, hand-picked sites.

*accepted for truncation. Default is OR (retrieving documents containing any term) unless separated by one of the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT. Parentheses ( ) not supported; search is read left to right.

Example:biomechanical biomedical and engineering not computing retrieves either of the first terms, requiring engineering, and excluding computing.
Other excellent subject directories:
Martindale's The Reference Desk, http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu:80/HSG/HSGuide.html

Extensive health science links in this multimedia research collection.

Price's List of Listshttp://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm

Hundreds of "bests," "mosts," and other useful as well as trivial lists and statistics.

SEARCH TIPS: Browsable and unfortunately not searchable. You may wish to invoke "find in page" (CTRL + F in most browsers) to try to locate a list by a word you think will be in its name or description.

Subject Area Links, http://webpages.marshall.edu:80/~jmullens/subj_areas.html

A professional educators collection of useful links in a number of subject areas. Highly selective and filled with information. Browsable, not searchable.

Recommended for Biomedical Researchers
MEDMATRIX
http://www.medmatrix.org

BIOMEDNET
http://www.biomednet.com/

MEDWEBPLUS
http://www.medwebplus.com

Subject Guides
Web pages of sites selected and organized by "experts."
We use the term "Subject Guides" for web pages with lots of links to important resources on a topic, incorporating the author's expertise and time spent searching the Web. They differ from "Subject Directories" which are databases of handpicked sites on many subjects, organized into a subject-classification scheme.

You may discover Subject Guides as entries in Subject Directories and sometimes in general keyword searching in major Search Engines. Here are some additional specialized ways to find the BEST guides:
The Argus Clearinghouse, http://www.clearinghouse.net: Searchable database of guides to subjects/topics, compiled by "experts" and reviewed and evaluated by Argus staff. Emphasis generally scholarly. Guides not maintained and revised are relegated to a sub-list.; SEARCH TIPS:Click on "Search/Browse" to begin. Keep searches general and simple. Accepts AND and * for truncation. When you locate a guide and its description click on the link of its URL to retrieve the document.
UCB Internet Resources by Subject, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/acadtarg.html: Many links to Internet resources on many academic disciplines selected by UC Berkeley Library subject-specialists.; SEARCH TIPS:Not searchable. Browse by subject from broad areas covering almost every academic discipline.
WWW Virtual Library,http://conbio.rice.edu/vl/database/: Browse subject list of subject guides, prepared by individuals all over the world and mirrored in this list at Stanford, Fisk University, and elsewhere. You may try searching from the box on this page, but often browsing finds pages the search does not.

Recommended for Biomedical Researchers
Dan's Top 100 Bioinformatics Bookmarks
http://telomere.nrc.ca/html/dans_list.htm

Harvard University, Dept. of Molecular & Cellular Biology
http://mcb.harvard.edu/BioLinks.html

The Virtual Library : BioScience
http://www.vlib.org/Biosciences.html

Finding Databases on Your Subject:
If you discover a database devoted to your field of inquiry, it can be like striking gold. Databases exist on all sorts of topics and for many purposes (social, scholarly, scientific, research, legal, commercial, trivial, ...) Here are some ways to hunt. Keep your approach VERY broad and general. Back way back.

Search.com,http://search.cnet.com

Very convenient, searchable collection of searchable databases. Very worthwhile for many topics and for reference. Overlaps somewhat with Internet Sleuth.

SEARCH TIPS:

In lower yellow area (not the top box on the home page, which is general web searching), select a subject category. You may enter a search directly from the resulting Search.com screen.
OR, search using keywords on your topic. Scroll down below the list of subject categories on the home page and click on "Find a search" (keep searches very broad and simple).
OR, click on "A-Z list" to see an alphabetical list of everything available through Search.com.

Beaucoup! http://www.beaucoup.com

Links to many search engines, subject directories, meta-search engines, and tools to find media, geographic-based sites, reference sites, software, music, art, education, technology, politics/government, hobbies/games, and more.

SEARCH TIP: Browse categories to the left, especially the broad subjects toward the bottom.

Librarians' Index to the Internet,http://www.lii.org

Consult theDatabasesretrieved from any broad subject search.

Search Yahoo!, http://www.yahoo.com/ for directories and search tools in specialized subjects.

Here are three suggestions for doing this:

In Yahoo! search box, search for the phrases-in-quotes: "searching the web" "search engines".
In Yahoo! search box, search for the phrases-in-quotes: "searching the web" "web directories"
Search Yahoo! for the phrase-in-quotes"searching the web"and then sub-search on the the results page, restricting to search only in "web searching" for any topic you wish (e.g., women, business, stocks, music, environment...)

Direct Search http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/direct.htm

From Gary Price, author of the List of Lists (above), a browsable collection of useful links to over 800 searchable sites on many research topics.

TheBigHub.com (old Internet Sleuth), http://www.thebighub.com/

Collection of searchable databases, browsable now by subject (no longer searchable as they were in Isleuth).

SEARCH TIPS: Scroll down to section called "Classified Specialty Search Engines." Top area is straightforward meta-searching.

Lycos Searchable Databases, http://dir.lycos.com/Reference/Searchable_Databases

Growing new list of searchable databases, itself browsable not searchable. Available at the Lycos home page (www.lycos.com), down under Featured Guides Sections | Reference.

SEARCH TIPS: Follow topics. At end of suggested databases, look for helpful related databases.

Internet Oracle: Search Gatewayhttp://www.searchgateway.com

Browsable collection of searchable databases. Overlap with previous sites but some additional resources.

SEARCH TIPS: Click on subject categories in left column.

Recommended for Biomedical Researchers

PUBMED
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

INDMED
http://indmed.delhi.nic.in

Virtual Reference Libraries
(online dictionaries, handbooks,directories, indexes, etc.)

UCB Library Reference Resources, http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/searchref.pl?keyword=&DC.subject=Reference&DC.type=&display=brief: Collection of reference resources about UC, UCB, other universities and libraries, and many general reference resources. Answers to many questions frequently asked at UCB's Information Center reference desk. Also links to many online reference and full-text resources (some available only to UCB patrons, defined as logging in from a berkeley.edu Internet address).
The Internet Public Library Reference Center, http://www.ipl.org/ref/: Attempt to replicate a library reference room "without walls" on the Internet. IPL is similar to using a reference room, with links to many resources by type and/or subject.; SEARCH TIPS: Click on one of the categories in the picture to browse reference. Or click on search the collection under the picture. Keep searches brief and simple, because you are only searching IPL's summary description and not the reference tool's text.
Research-it,http://www.iTools.com/research-it: Superbly convenient layout of basic reference tools (dictionaries and more).

Locating Peers and Experts through online discussion groups

Usenet Newsgroup Finding Aids
Newsgroups (a.k.a. Usenet) are accessed and viewed on the WWW. Netscape supports viewing Newsgroups. Although some academic disciplines prefer Newsgroups over Listserv-type e-mail groups as their scholarly forum, Newsgroups tend to be popular, fun, alternative.

Deja.com (a full-text search tool), http://www.deja.com -- a specialized database just for searching Newsgroups. If you direct searches to "newsgroups" or "usenet" in any of the major search engines (like Infoseek, Hotbot, Excite) you are searching the DejaNews database. It is easier to search directly from DejaNews. Alta Vista alone has its own newsgroup database.

SEARCH TIPS(some of the many options):
- Browse by subject category or "community" at left.
- Search for terms in newsgroup discussions or communities in the search box.
- Power Search allows you to search on authors' names and other fields.
- Be prepared to read a lot of help screens and spend time getting up to speed in the world of searching for and using Usenet Newsgroups. Try the User Tour.
Mailing List Finding Aids (such as Listserv® lists)
Mailing lists work through your e-mail, not on the WWW. You subscribe and receive mail from the group. For more information, consult Inter-Links' "What is a Mailing List?" or a more exhaustive description of various mailing lists' commands from Case Western Reserve Law School. Mailing lists tend to be more scholarly than Newsgroups, but content varies with academic disciplines.

Liszt,http://www.liszt.com. Provides a fairly searchable database of Listservs.

SEARCH TIPS:Use * to truncate (lit* will retrieve literature) or as wildcard (*world retrieves underworld). May use OR and NOT. Default is AND between terms. ( ) may be used. No phrase searching.)

InterLinks provides several additonal resources for locating discussion groups or lists.

Finding Individual People's Pages and E-Addresses

Ahoy!, http://centauri-prime.cs.washington.edu:6060/: Academic-based finder for people's e-addresses and home pages..; SEARCH TIPS:Enter names and as much information as you know in search boxes. For help, click on the name just above each search box.
Bigfoot,http://www.bigfoot.com: General Web and e-mail people finder.
Four 11,http://people.yahoo.com: Another general Web and e-mail people finder.

Links to Research Grant Information pages

U.S. Dept. of Education Grant Award Actions FY 1999,http://web99.ed.gov/grant/grtawd99.nsf: Change the date in the URL for other years (e.g., grtawd98.nsf); Community of Science, http://www.cos.com/; Includes funding opportunities database, Federally funded research with the U.S., and more.; FEDIX/MOLIS,http://www.rams-fie.com/; Federal Information Exchange, Alert service, Grant opportunities, Minority On-Line Information Service, and more.; Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS), http://www.library.uiuc.edu/iris/; Links to international research resources, U.S. research resources. Institutions and researchers outside the U. of Illinois may subscribe to IRIS. (UCB is a subscriber.); Internet Law Library, http://law.house.gov/7.htm; Residue of links from a discontinued service of the U.S. House of Representatives, offering free access to the current Federal Register and more. Now links to non-government sites that offer this information to the public.; Knowledge Express, http://www.knowledgeexpress.com/; Database containing collections for business and research development and technology communications -- for individuals, organizations, businesses, and universities.
Links to other types of grant information:: The Grants Web,http://sra.rams.com/cws/sra/resource.htm; Research Administrators Resources Network. Government, private, and general resources and policies.; Other resources for grants of different kinds may be found by searching for the keyword"grants"in both; The Argus ClearinghouseandInternet Public Library.

More Resources for Keeping Up To Date

Search Engine Watch, http://www.searchenginewatch.com: Service that monitors search engines and directories. Most of the site is offered free to the public.
The Botspot,http://www.botspot.com/: Focus on Artifical Intelligence. Amazing collection of "bots" -- index by type of tool to advanced, often multi-purpose, multi-site, multi-resource, and interactive tools for locating information about the Web, advanced Web programming, Web searching -- both in general and with specific goals in mind (e.g., shopping, news, classified ads, software, and much more).; SEARCH TIPS: Browse "Bots by Category" or read "What's a bot?"
Subscribe to what's new at the Librarians' Index to the Internet.: Tune in to this actively and selectively growing database of many of the most interesting and useful sites, databases, and other resources.

SOME INDIAN GENERAL SITES

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PORTAL SITES, GATEWAYS, LINKS TO OTHER SITES, CYBER-RESOURCES
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.samilan.com/ SAsia Internet Resources
http://www.uio.no/~danbanik/politicsbibliography.htm Politics
http://internet.vsnl.net.in Internet portal
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/ind/index.htm Resources
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/bibl-asian-st.html*
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/area/sarai/
SARAI *NOTE: BAS=Bibliography of Asian Studies SARAI=South Asia Resource
Access on the Internet
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NEWS-SITES, INFORMATION, GENERAL
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.samachar.com Portal to Newspapers
http://www.rediff.com RediffOnTheNet http://www.indiaexpress.com Indian
Express
http://www.hindustantimes.com Hindustan Times
http://www.timesofindia.com Times of India
http://www.the-hindu.com The Hindu
http://www.mid-day.com Mid-Day
http://www.asianage.com Asian Age
http://www.businessworld.com Business World
http://www.hinduonline.com The Hindu
http://www.indiainformer.com/ India information
http://www.indiaupdate.com India Update
http://www.business-standard.com/ Business Standard
http://www.outlookindia.com/ Outlook (Weekly)
http://www.timesofindia.com Times of India
http://www.indiaabroad.com India Abroad
http://www.economictimes.com Economic Times
http://www.feminaindia.com Femina
http://www.businessworldindia.com/

- BusinessWorld -------------------------