Library talks, like a recent talk at Glen Eira Libraries Melbourne, seem to work exceedingly well when libraries assist. With the book published, I aim to deliver an astounding 100 free library talks in 2008 across Australia & New Zealand: an exciting, grand venture made possible by book sales and library generosity. Interested?

Talks to universities students and presentations to government and business are also in the works. Towards mid-2008, I will restart my half-day internet seminars. There is much public speaking on the near horizon.

Many of the TECHNIQUES we use today to reach beyond search engines, many techniques you will soon find invaluable, first emerged here. Techniques like using Google's hidden field search to reveal context or using the link field search to reveal link companion. Try your hand at these few:

Non-linear searching     Deep URL Interpretation     Attention to context/format/source     Google's hidden direct field searches

Hacking the URL     Anticipating information     Substructures like         link companions

Understanding QUALITY is also critical to searching the internet - and incidentally, the internet is the most quality transparent medium we have. I describe many of my best techniques in depth only in my book but I leave here some older, general thoughts that led to their development.

Plagiarism Therapy OR What? 10 Billion or more The growth of the internet         should still scare you

Coming Confusion The Third Avenue Feeling Lost? Getting Found Information Value Falls

More than a search engine Internet-savvy librarians Information Pollution Commercial Information,       Publicly Funded

National Statistical Agencies Searching Patents Searching the Web Country Profiles
Articles on: Optimizing Windows & Manipulating Forms to Improve Research (as it appeared in ONLINE)
Two tools: Unified Search Plus and Spire Project Light

We must also consider CHOREOGRAPHY. Something of the internet and the way we search pushes us towards mediocre, general information. Yet brilliant resources fill the internet. The best information demands not only skill and technique but also a willingness to demand more of the internet - a willingness to ask challenging, comprehensive questions.
Part of this is simply anticipatinginformation and asking the right questions. It also involves attending to the evolution of our search question, search tool bias and where our questions lead us. Keep in mind:
    Creative synthesis is faster than invention but demands serious information skills.     Instead of searching for information, we may be searching for a footpath.
    How we ask our questions also depends on the medium. We ask different sorts of questions on the internet.

Lastly, look to the ENVIRONMENT. The more we understand, the more we will realize how and why information flows as it does. With this understanding grows our opportunities to bend the internet to our wishes. For example, learning to search, we also learn how to be found.     A sociological approach to information Serendipity and a White Paper on Internet Promotion

This site emerges from years of work, years of conversation and from many specific studies into the organization of the internet - studies like an early census now sitting in an archive.
Even before the arrival of the web,I taught Internet seminars from the State Library of Western Australia.
From '97, I wrote the Information Research FAQ, the first internet document to take a serious look at internet search technique.
Between '97 and 2000, I prepared 20 separate articles listing resources and an idealized search approach for formats like books, periodicals and patents, each listing internet, library and commercial resources and each thick with embedded forms.
I created or adapted various search tools like the Unified Search Plus.
I also published the occasional significant article like Evolution of Internet Research: Shifting Allegiances, a cover article for ONLINE. And I presented several series of seminars to the librarian community between '98 and 2004 in places like Wellington and Canberra.
In summary, I have been at this a very long time. Iam an old information broker and researcher who crossed over, very early, to focus on the internet. A graduate in Sociology, in one sense, I have spent the last ten years studying the sociology of internet information. I remain unattached to a library or university, though I am in discussion to provide a distance education course to the US market and I owe a great debt of thanks to the many libraries who share their resources with me.

 

Before you depart, let me offer one further chance to learn internet search skills - the next time I publish a book or deliver a seminar near you. Drop me an email or leave me your contact details and I'll keep you informed. I'll also draw your attention towards this copyright statement - generous permission to use some of what you see here in your work. ...This form will send David Novak an email ... Reality Check: Please type these letters here: Dear David, ... Care to include your contact detail? (Phone? Email?) I promise not to spam.

Let me contact you. (by email, phone or mail) Would seminars interest you? New articles, publications? Know people I should meet? Proceed

project background | Keep in touch   © 1996-2008 The Spire Project - all rights reserved. Please forward your leads and opinions to David Novak using the form above. Information and data put forward here is supplied in good faith and entirely without expressed or implied warranty or fitness for use. Contents are simply a collection of information intended but not promised to be correct and useful, gathered from many sources with limited editorial checking. Further, these articles are the thoughts of the authors alone and may not represent the beliefs of others involved. Oh, and here is a link to a friend's page: Bernadette Robinson, I eagerly await the opening of AllegoryBooks.com.au and my book design is by teknowledge design who just opened TheInspirationRoom.com.