Key facts

Sorry, this course was heavily oversubscribed and cannot take any more students into this class. Please use the course enquiry form to be kept informed of future runs of this course or to join the waiting list.

Type	Day and Weekend
Location	Oxford
Address	Rewley House 1 Wellington Square Oxford
Dates	Sat 13 Oct 2012 Select a different date/time to view details Sat 9 Feb 2013 - course full
Subject area(s)	Computing
Fees	From £80.00
Application status	Course full
Course code	O12P115COJ
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email ppdayweek@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Overview

This Day School is for information searchers whether professional such as medics, librarians, academics – or amateurs such as local historians genealogists or other hobbyists. It is for you if:

• you have found Google sometimes frustrating, time-consuming or irrelevant
• you have wondered why the results what come top in a Google search do so, rather than in the long tail that hardly anyone looks at.

Google says its top results are most relevant – but can Google really distinguish you from other users who might have put in the same search query? Does Google really know your criteria for validity? Google gives you one answer but is it the one you would have chosen if you had an overview of all the information available?

We shall be examining how to obtain kite-marked high quality and relevant results from searches of the world wide web using sophisticated yet simple search techniques. Whereas at the start of the course you might find yourself getting millions of results of dubious relevance and authoritativeness by the end of the day you should be obtaining a few dozen results of the highest quality and relevance, in fact you will be among the 3% of Google users able to use advanced search techniques.

During the Day School you will be given experience with Boolean and other advanced search strategies, sometimes know as power searching. You will be given a host of tips and techniques to reach high quality information and hands-on expertise. We shall examine alternatives to Google and effective internet searching beyond Google.

It’s always annoying Google doesn’t give you the results you are looking for. Taking this course will reduce your frustration levels and save you time.

Programme details

9.45am Registration

10.00am Why is it so difficult to find quickly the first-class information that there is somewhere on the World Wide Web?

11.00am Coffee / tea

11.15am More structured ways of finding information; the invisible web.

12 noon What you need to know about how search engines really work. Tricks of the trade.

1.00pm Lunch

2.00pm More sophisticated Boolean, and ways to focus your search more accurately.

3.00pm Search engines you instruct: (1) EXALEAD (2) BLEKKO.

4.00pm Tea / coffee

4.15pm The ultimate in user control of the results of search: ROLLYO

5.00pm Meta-Search Engines and the future of search

5.30pm Course Disperses

Staff

Recommended reading

Dutton, W. H., ‘The Internet in Britain 2011’, Oxford Internet Institute (2011).
Carr, N., ‘The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google’, W. W. Norton (2009).

Accommodation

Accommodation is often available in Rewley House for those who wish to stay on the night before a course. Please contact our Residential Centre on 01865 270362 for details of availability and prices.

Fee options

Programme Fee

(Tuition only) includes coffee/tea: £80.00

Catering

Baguette: £3.50

Hot Lunch (3 courses): £11.00

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