6 Where to learn more
6.1 Various resources
6.1.1 How search engines work
The Spider's Apprentice offers general advice, FAQs and a page on how search engines work.
SearchEngineWatch.com is a site packed with information about search engines. It is mainly intended for marketing purposes, but also has articles on How Search Engines Work, Major Search Engines and Directories, Kids Search Engines, and Metacrawlers and Metasearch Engines.
University of California Berkeley Meta-Search Engines – When are meta-search engines useful, and when not?
6.1.2 Tutorials on web searching
Safari is an interactive website provided by the Open University's Open Libr@ry. Safari covers finding and assessing information in much greater detail than in this unit and using other resources as well as the Web.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html This is an excellent course designed for the beginner as well as the more experienced Internet user.
Nancy Blachman has a website, Google Guide, which is a tutorial covering all the features of Google. Together with two software engineers from Google, she has also written a book: Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, Eric Fredricksen (2003) How to Do Everything with Google, McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, ISBN 0072231742.
6.1.3 Referencing
The OU library provides more detailed help on citing references: http://library.open.ac.uk/help/helpsheets/cite.html
6.1.4 Intellectual property rights
The area of intellectual property rights, of which copyright is just one aspect, is interesting and challenging. More information can be found at a UK government site covering Intellectual Property.
6.1.5 Further study
From the Study at the OU web page you can find information about any OU course.
U120 MOSAIC: Making Sense of Information in the Connected Age. This is an Open University course designed to help you develop both skills and confidence in finding, using and handling information, with a particular emphasis on the use of electronic media – from search engines to online libraries.
A173: Start writing family history. This short online course helps you to interpret and write about family history.