How Do I Find Information on the WWW?

Type in the Address of a Web Page

You might find a URL in a book, or magazine or newspaper article, and want to visit that Web page. To do this all you have to do is type in the address in the Address window on the Web Browser. (Be sure to type it in exactly as it is printed. It's important to use upper and lower case letters as they are printed in the Web address.) Try typing: http://www.pbs.org/

Use the Library's Web Site

Sometimes Librarians find a web site that they think has good information, and they make a link to that site from the Monroe County Public Library's Web Site. You might start your search by visiting the Children's Services page. We have organized some web sites by the Dewey Decimal System and also have a page of Homework Helpers.

Use an Internet Search Tool: Web Search Engines and Subject Indexes

Internet Search Tools collect different web pages on all kinds of subjects and organize them in their own filing system. There are several different search engines and subject indexes you can use to search for information on the WWW.

[Note: You will usually get different results when you use different search tools. You should also know that search engines sometimes retrieve sites that don't seem to relate to what you are looking for. If you get something you didn't expect, you can click on the back button or the home and start over. Most important to remember is that you are in control when you use the Internet and search the World Wide Web. You decide where you want to go and what you want to see. If you get confused by what you are seeing, you can always ask a librarian for help.]

Ready to give searching the WWW a try? Let's take a look at some different search tools: Search for information on tornadoes in one of the following:

Yahoo Kids! (http://kids.yahoo.com/)
You can try browsing the subject index, or type the word "tornadoes" into the search engine for this index.

There are other search tools designed for kids, such as: KidsClick or Ask for Kids)
but they do not collect as many web pages as some of the other general search engines like...
Google (http://www.google.com/)
This is a great, large search engine. The best results usually appear on the first page.
Ixquick http://www.ixquick.com/
This search tool uses lots of different search engines at the same time to look for information on the Internet. (Watch out for a kind of advertisement called a sponsored result. These often appear at the top of your results list, and are highlighted in blue.)

You can find a list of more search tools at the top of MCPL's WWW Resources page.

Search Tips

When you're searching through a lot of information, it's helpful to use very specific search words. If you're looking for information on labrador retrievers, you can try typing in the word dogs in the search engine, but you may get more specific information if you type in the exact name of the type of dog (labrador retriever) or animal you want to find. Most search tools give you tips on how to use them best for finding information, so you might try to read the helpful hints they give.

You can also ask a librarian for help if you have questions about the best way to search for information on the Internet - or in the library!

Reviewing the Information You Find

Books and magazines and newspapers have editors who read everything and check to make sure the information is correct, but even so, sometimes wrong information still makes it into these print resources. You should be a careful reader of information you find in print, but you should be a very careful reader of information that's on the World Wide Web, because on the Internet, there aren't as many editors checking to make sure that the information that is put on the World Wide Web is accurate. Thus, it's important for you to try and figure out who wrote the information you're reading and whether it's information you can trust.

Sometimes you can tell from the URL, or address of the Web page, where the information is coming from. Some clues to look for:

If the URL ends in gov - that means the website is part of a government agency, like the White House http://www.whitehouse.gov or NASA http://www.nasa.gov.

Note: Sometimes it's hard to tell what an official site is. For example, someone created a fake White House web page. The address of the pretend page is: http://www.whitehouse.net What clues can you find to help you decide which is the official White House Web page?
If the URL ends in com - that means this is a commercial site. You may find lots of advertisements on commercial sites. Sometimes commercial sites want to sell you something, but sometimes commercial sites are publishers like newspapers, or newsprograms, such as CNN (http://www.cnn.com) that try very hard to report information accurately.
If the URL ends in edu - that means the website was created by someone who is part of an educational institution. It could be an elementary school, like Arlington Heights Elementary School (http://www.arlington.mccsc.edu/), or a university, like Indiana University (http://www.indiana.edu)
If the URL ends in org - that means the page was created by someone who belongs to a certain organization like the National Wildlife Organization (http://www.nwf.org/).

Return to the start of Explore the Internet!