UNIT 8: INTERNET, INTRANET, AND WHAT IT MEANS

by Lauren Davis, Jan Weigel, and Pam Dennis

ILS 501 (73), October 29, 2001

 

            The Internet is “an international network connecting up to 400,000 smaller networks in more than 200 countries” (Hutchinson & Sawyer, 2000). It was created by the U.S. Department of Defense in 1969 to share information among military, industrial, and university sources, and to provide military communication in the event of a nuclear attack. Now that the Internet has become so accessible by the public, the government has proposed creating a separate Internet for its own purposes (Lemos, 2001).

            The Internet is commonly used for email, mailing lists, FTP, Telnet, and Web searching. Sites are accessed through an ISP (internet service provider) via a modem and are identified by addresses (user ID + domain name). So, where does one start in using the Internet?

Browsers

 

            In a simple definition, a web browser is a program used to access the Internet services and resources available through the World Wide Web (WWW). There are several web browsers available, obtainable either by retrieving and downloading off the Internet or by retail purchase. Two of the most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), and both are available over the Internet (“Browser Power,” 2001).

            The language of web browsers is generically termed hypertext. The name implies that hypertext is more than just text on a computer screen. Hypertext is a way of viewing or working with a document in text format that allows you to follow cross-references to other Web resources. By clicking on an embedded hyperlink, the user can choose his or her own path through the hypertext material. A hyperlink can be a word, phrase, image or region of an image that is often highlighted or colored differently. Each hyperlink represents another Web page; a location in the current Web page; an image, audio, video, or multimedia file. Selecting the hyperlink activates the resource being represented on the Web (Jian-Zhong, 2000).

            When starting a browser or accessing a hyperlink, the browser sends a request to have a file transferred to it. The browser then interprets the information in the file so that it can be viewed in the browser’s window. The commands used to work with the web browser are available through the menu bar; the toolbars (command toolbar, location toolbar, and personal toolbar); and the keyboard. The menu bar is a collection of pull-down menus that can be used for almost every operation or command. The Help menu lets you select one of several ways to teach yourself about the browser, including an online manual. The navigational toolbar has a number of icons that give quick access to some of the commands in the pull-down menu. Several commands are also available as keyboard shortcuts, meaning that you can type them directly on the keyboard instead of using a mouse. The location toolbar in Netscape Navigator gives quick access to URLs (a descriptor for the location of an item on the Internet and specifying the means by which to access that item) and Web sites saved in the bookmark list (bookmarks keep track of favorite or important sites that you have visited on the Web) (Notess, 2001).

            The browser keeps track of the sites you have visited during recent Internet sessions. It does this so that you can backtrack and return to sites during a session. The history list holds records of and links to all the sites that you have visited recently. You can collect a set of hyperlinks in a list called the bookmark or favorites list (Jian-Zhong, 2000). 

The browser lets you access, retrieve, and work with the information and resources available on the World Wide Web; in other words, “the browser is your window to the Web” (O’Reilly, 2001).

Online Services vs. Portals

 

One of today’s biggest Web trends is the portal. The Web has attracted so many users that businesses are desperate for ways to attract them and hold them as customers. While everyone worships the Web for providing unbridled opportunities to explore and discover, a lot of people still want one place to go to that aggregates a variety of interesting content in one place instead of creating huge bookmark files in their browsers. A portal provides just that, without the burdens of providing access and software for users, it can be the epicenter of your Web experience. Web portals all generally “feature the same mix of content and services; the differences result in how well the sites integrate all their offerings, such as e-mail, chat, instant messaging, and the ease with which the user can use and customize the service to their needs”; all vying for the same outcome: to be your homepage” (O’Leary, 2000).

            One of the key functions of Web portals is categorizing everything into channels, thereby making it easy to locate the information that interests the user. Web portals do this by putting their content into fourteen to eighteen easy-to-recognize subcategories. E-mail, the most popular online activity, has become a standard for most Web portal sites. This is also a way for users to frequent the site. As an example, with LycosMail, the user can set up address books, create folders as well as send and read mail. Online Chat has become a forum for sharing ideas and meeting new people. Most Web portals have integrated some type of Chat through their services, either moderated or open. Shopping on the Web has also become extremely popular and Web portals are taking advantage of this by aggregating links to Web commerce sites. Yahoo demonstrates this characteristic with their Yahoo! Shopping Guide (O’Leary, 2000).

            With the immense and rapid growth of the World Wide Web, especially in the past three years, online services such as America Online, that preceded the Web, seemed to be taken over by Web portals. However, many people believe that a Web portal is merely “a next-generation online service”(O’Leary, 2000). The new online services are Web sites “that deliver the same old formula of content, community and core services such as e-mail, but in a new package—a trim Web interface instead of the clunky proprietary software”(O’Leary, 2000). People still want to settle into a community of users online; the only difference is that now they are calling it Web portals.

The Internet as a Reference Tool in the Library

            Once upon a time, college students went to the library and looked up information in an encyclopedia. Those days are long gone. Now, there is so much information that students find they are wading in mounds of paper with no direction. It is the job of the librarian to direct these students, and the Internet has provided one means for achieving this function. In addition to keyword searching on the Internet, one can find databases of information related to a research topic. Vice President Al Gore announced free access to the first online database in 1999. National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINE was comprised of 3800 biomedical journals and was consistently billed as one of the most-used databases (Tenopir, 1997). As a result, other online medical databases appeared under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, and the American Medical Association (Quinn, 1998). Recognizing the need for easier location of reference resources, other disciplines created their own web sites. The American Musicological Society, for example, links the user to hundreds of music databases grouped by category of interest, time period, or profession.

            Many online databases are specifically related to libraries, including links to books (WorldCat), articles (Gale Group, ProQuest), dissertations (Dissertations Online), newspapers (Lexis-Nexis), genealogical resources (Cyndi’s List), government documents (Superintendent of Documents), and electronic card catalogs.

            OCLC’s FirstSearch service provides access to a number of databases including WorldCat (books), ArticleFirst (articles), Books In Print, Dissertation Abstracts, ERIC, Library Literature, MEDLINE, and numerous other databases. Pricing is per search in 500-block sets.

            The Gale Group has released a set of look-alike databases on various subjects including business, science, health, literature, etc. Combining the resources into a mega-database protects the user from being overwhelmed by the shear mass of information included (Ballard, 1999). These databases, many of which contain full-text articles, include the full citation and are searchable by keyword, subject, and Boolean operators. They may be printed or emailed to the user’s home computer and include a list of related hyperlinks at the end of each set of retrieved items for further search possibilities. While some of the databases are medium specific (National Newspaper Databases deals strictly with newspapers), others serve as mega-databases (such as General Reference Center Gold) and include general and business journals, reference books, and major newspapers. Gale also provides databases in the collection specifically geared to younger students including Student Edition, Kid’s Edition, and Junior Edition (“Library adds databases for student research,” 2000). The subscription to Gale databases is based on student enrollment, which enables small libraries to afford the service (Ballard, 1999).

            ProQuest/ABI Inform is a database of general and business journal titles, many of which are full-text. It includes citations, hyperlink keywords, and articles in word-processing or .pdf format. Searches may be conducted by keyword, title, author, ISBN, publication title, etc., and may be limited to full text and peer-reviewed articles. A new feature is the ability by professors to create web-based collections of articles from ProQuest (“Bell & Howell CoursePacks offer online article collections for college courses,” 2000). Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe provides full-text medical and legal information to the researcher and includes Standard & Poor’s directory and major newspapers and journals in the field (Golderman & Connolly, 2001; Golderman & Connolly, 2001).

            Cyndi’s List of Genealogy-Related Sites (www.cyndislist.com) is a categorized, cross-referenced index to genealogical resources. It currently links over 107,000 sites in over 150 categories and provides a good start in locating historical and genealogical resources. Government documents resources can be accessed through the Government Printing Office (www.access.gpo.gov). Materials related to census records, statistics, statutes, etc., are found on these interconnected sites.

            ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center), founded in 1966, is an internet-based service for educators. It includes thousands of citations and some full-text documents. Items not available in full-text may be ordered from ERIC (Ernest, Lange, & Herring, 1988; http://www.eric.ed.gov/oldnews/index.html).

            Card catalogs may be linked to the library’s web page, allowing both on-campus and off-campus students access to listings of the library’s holdings (Baker, 1987). Many libraries also use OCLC’s cataloging services which provide information internationally to schools wishing to borrow materials through interlibrary loan. While finding the resources is vitally important, students also need access to style guides (see example of online style guide at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/FindInfo.html).

            With so many online sources available, it may seem that humans are no longer needed in the reference area of the library. This is not the case. In fact, additional training is needed in order to be able to direct the user to the correct resources (Tenopir, 1984; “Cornell teaches users to do own searches,” 1984). If the resources cannot be located, they are of no use to the researcher. Likewise, the librarian must keep any links updated. There is nothing more discouraging to the user than to locate the “perfect” online resource and then find that it is no longer available.

Internet Tools to Promote Information Literacy

in School Library Media Centers

 

Internet Tools For Information Literacy Professional Development: Teacher Self Assessment

Not only is the Internet used in the college library, but it has become a highly used tool in school library media centers, requiring the need of additional training of and evaluation by the teachers using the tools. Jamie McKenzie, author of the very popular From Now On technology professional development web site, has also authored newlibrary.org, a site devoted to media centers, libraries, books, electronic information, and information literacy learning. There are a number of resources at newlibrary.org to help promote information literacy. Starting a professional development with teacher self-assessment helps identify teacher training needs so as to develop the most effective professional development program. In the article, The Information Literate School Community, a self-assessment tool (The Traits of an Information Literate School) provides descriptors for teachers to use to determine the need for information literacy improvement in their schools (McKenzie, 1998). The twelve traits, listed here without descriptors, are as follows: invention, fluency, support, navigation, searching, selection, questioning, planning, interpretation, deep thinking, commitment, and extended community. Also important for teachers to consider are the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), and Performance Indicators for all teachers, found at From Now On site (and also at http://cnets.iste.org/TeacherStandards.html). After reviewing the standards, and using NCREL’s Learning With Technology Profile Tool, found at From Now On (and http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profile.htm) (McKenzie), teachers can self assess their teaching for the use of engaged learning and technology integration strategies. Further self assessment on technology skill integration can be done with the 1999-2000 Staff Use of Technology Self-Evaluation Rubric (Bellingham Public Schools’ s web site: http://www.bham.wednet.edu/tcomp.htm).

Internet Tools For Information Literacy Professional Development: Teaching Information Literacy Theory

Professional development is determined based upon need analysis. One opportunity available to teachers three times a year is an online course offered by The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy: Internet Information Literacy developed by educators for educators. This three-credit college course costs $50 and runs from January 7, 2002, to March 25, 2002. See http://wizard.imsa.edu/course for more information (Illinois School Library Media Conference, 2001).

A valuable article for teachers needing information literacy professional development is McKenzie’s The Research Cycle 2000, in which he describes his seven-stage research model that requires repeated cycles to explore demanding, essential questions and create good new ideas. In this article, McKenzie links to, and compares, several possible search models: The Big 6, Infozone, Pathways to Knowledge (Follett), The Organized Investigator, The Research Cycle and Information Literacy: Dan’s Generic Model (McKenzie, 2000). McKenzie emphasizes the importance of teacher questioning. To help teachers develop effective questioning strategies, in his Toolbox: Strategies to Encourage Student Questioning article (McKenzie, 1986), he suggests fifteen K-12 classroom strategies to increase the frequency, depth and value of student classroom questions. The American Library Association’s Information Literacy: National Standards For Student Learning (i.e. Information Power) can be found at Teacher tips and Tools: Information Literacy Skills used in BCPS Research Modules (http://www.bcpl.net/~sullivan/modules/tips/index.html). This site also offers teaching tools for teaching the information literacy process. A unique site funded by the Illinois State Library, Libraryu.org, offers free web-based training for library patrons, students, and librarians in some information literacy skills, ex Internet searching, as well as many other library topics. A brief registration is required. (ISLMA, 2001)
Internet Tools For Teaching Information Literacy In The Classroom

The Oak Harbor, Washington Information Skills Rating Scale, found at http://newlibrary.org/libskill.html, offers a three-point rubric for teachers to use with students as they move through the stages of the Research Cycle (adaptable to any research model used). Using a search engine, many information literacy sites can be found; a site worth visiting is School-Libraries.Org- Online Resources for School Librarians: Information Literacy and Library Skills Resources (found at http://www.school-libraries.org/resources/literacy.html). Graphic organizers for each phase of the Big Six model can be found at Five Actions To Big Six Problem-Based Lessons Using Graphic Organizers, (Guhlin, 2000) (http://www.big6.com/enewsletter/-archives/spring00/-guhlin.html). Teachers can create their own free classroom web sites for information literacy projects, hot lists ... at either myschoolonline.com or blackboard.com. The latter takes a little more setup time, allows each student to have his/her own web page, online discussion, and online chat (PCs only), and requires sign in. Teachers can find and create their own online problem-based activities at filamentality.com. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy student searching tool kit structures searching and allows students to search particular domains (http://toolkit.imsa.edu/locate/).

Intranet

            Sometimes a school or company needs to supply information to its own constituents but does not want the public to have access to this information. The solution is the Intranet. An Intranet is “an internal corporate network that uses the infrastructure and standards of the internet and the World Wide Web” (Hutchinson & Sawyer, 2000). Even more in depth, it is “1) a network connecting an affiliated set of clients using standard Internet protocols, esp. TCP/IP and HTTP. 2) an IP-based network of nodes behind a firewall, or behind several firewalls connected by secure, possibly virtual, networks” (www.intranetjournal.com/faqs/whatis/1.html).

The Intranet is particularly useful in small colleges for local information. In my academic environment, we can access information about academic departments, applications, and virtual tours through our Internet home page, but internal needs, such as work order forms, faculty pages, software tutorials, chat rooms, and email services appear on our Intranet pages. Intranets are particularly useful in improving internal communication among faculty and staff or between permanent staff and student staff.            Because this term was also unfamiliar to me, I began by looking on the Internet for sources about the Intranet. Some particularly good resources were “The Intranet for libraries” (http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/598/clement/tabcon.htm), “IDM: Intranet basics: Intranet defined” (www.intranetjournal.com/faqs/whatis/1.html), and “Complete intranet resources – Intranet reference site” (www.intrack.com/intranet/). All of these resources had question and answer sections and discussed how one goes about setting up this system.

Major advantages of having an Intranet are low cost and efficiency. The patron or staff member would not have to search for policies – they would be posted on the Intranet. Also, updates could be made much more quickly in house rather than having to wait for an outside source to update the school’s main page. Though few Intranets are accessible on the Web, good examples are the University of California-San Diego (http://libnet.uscd.edu) and the University of Saskatchewan Libraries (http://library.usask.cal/fox/intranet). Included are policies, minutes of meetings, manuals, phone lists, and databases not available to the public (Balas, 1998).

Web Page Design

            Today, having a website is not just a status symbol—it is a way of communicating that brings the outside world directly to you. A web page is the information available and displayed by a web browser and can serve as a virtual storefront for businesses, organizations or individuals, providing information and instruction about products and services. A great web page isn’t just about stunning design. It is also a matter of juggling aesthetic appeal with key concerns such as content, navigation, and accessibility.

            Web pages were originally intended to distribute information to potentially large groups of people without requiring physical presence; in fact, one of the first web pages was designed to display an institutional phone book (Sweet, 1997). Designing and implementing a web page does not need to be a strange or difficult experience. Some of the principles involved have already been useful to you in other endeavors. For example, if you have put together a brochure explaining your library’s procedures for requesting interlibrary loans or described how to find the encyclopedias, you already know the hard part of web page design—putting words together in a meaningful string (Sweet, 1997).

            Jakob Nielsen has published many articles on the “Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design.” His list includes: 1) “Using Frames.” “Splitting a page into frames can be very confusing for users since frames break the fundamental user model of the web page.” 2) “Gratuitous Use of Bleeding-Edge Technology”; in other words, don’t try to use the latest web technology to attract users, rather stay with more useful content that mainstream users will be able to understand. 3) “Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animations.” Moving images distract the user and are a constant attack on the human eyesight. 4) “Complex URLs.” Rather than having users try to decode the URLs of web pages to infer about a web site, a URL “should contain human-readable directory and file names that reflect the nature of the information space.” 5) “Orphan Pages.” All pages should have a clear indication of what web site they belong to since users may access pages without coming in through a particular home page. 6) “Long Scrolling Pages.” All critical content should be on the top part of the web page so that users do not need to spend time scrolling with the mouse. 7) “Lack of Navigation Support.” Provide a site map for users to let them know where they are and where they can go. 8) “Non-Standard Link Colors.” “Links to pages that have not been seen by the user are blue; links to previously seen pages are purple or red.” Consistency is important in teaching users what the link colors refer to. 9) “Outdated Information.” Maintenance is a cheap way of enhancing the content of your website and keeping information up-to-date for the users. 10) “Overly Long Download Times.” Users do not want to spend time waiting for downloads to take place. “Traditional human factors guidelines indicate ten seconds as the maximum response time before users lose interest”; to avoid this, ensure quick downloads (Balas, 1999).

            Most readers of web pages “know nothing about fonts, leading, justification or kerning, but can subconsciously sense when a page is well laid out, just as people can perceive the difference between a good and a bad photo or audio recording, without actually understanding the technical issues that make it good or bad” (Wilson, 1997). Good design is practical as well as aesthetic. Well-designed pages are easier to read, and lead your readers’ eyes where you want them to be led.

Summary

We have come a long way from the introduction of the Internet to the public.  From simply looking at a few sites, we can now create our own web pages and assist patrons in high-level research.  There is so much information on the Internet.  What a pity librarians weren’t asked to help organize it (Schneiderman, 1996).


Works Cited

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Web Sites:

http://www.webteacher.org/winnet/browser/basics

http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/music/ams/

http://infotrac.galegroup.com

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/FindInfo.html

http://www.cyndislist.com

http://www.access.gpo.gov

http://www.eric.ed.gov/oldnews/index.html

http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/598/clement/tabcon.htm

http://www.intranetjournal.com/faqs/whatis/1.html

http://www.intrack.com/intranet/

http://libnet.uscd.edu

http://library.usask.cal/fox/intranet

http://www.bham.wednet.edu/tcomp.htm

http://www.big6.com/enewsletter/archives/spring00/guhlin.html

http://toolkit.imsa.edu/locate/

http://csnets.iste.org/TeacherStandards.html

http://newlibrary.org/

http://ncrtec.org/profile/profile.htm

http://www.school-libraries.org/resources/literacy.html

http://www.bcpl.net/~sullivan/modules/tips/index.html