Dates for final evaluations - Word date changed

The final evaluations (summative tests) will be held on:

Access -- Wed., May 13 / Thur., May 14

Notice change -
Word -- Mon., May 25 / Tues., May 26
Word - Wed., May 27 / Thur., May 28

Correction to yellow booklet

Please note that the section on Data Validity consists of only 10 pages.

The section that follows, 12 pages on Data Access Pages, has an incorrect page header. It should read Data Access Pages (not Data Validity).

The Invisible Web (5): Answer for Chasing Down a Low-Flying Aircraft

CHALLENGE -- What information can you find on the Internet about the Canadian small aircraft with the markings C- something something KH?

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1. As a search expert, you an ordinary Google-type search (i.e. searching the Visible Web) is probably not going to find this kind of information. You need to find a specialized database.
   
   
2. How will you find the required database? Your first thought is to try Google, not to find the information, but to find the database that might have the information. At Google you search for database canadian aircraft.
   
   
3. Aha! You see something that looks promising, Canadian Civil Aircraft Register.
   
   
4. Going there, you click on Available Marks, then do a search for KH in the field Ending With.
   
   
5. Aha, SUCCESS! You have just used the Invisible Web to find your information.
   
   
6. Who is the owner? Where can you find them?

So what is the Invisible Web (sometimes known as Hidden Web, Deep Web or Deepnet)? Get a clearer idea by looking at the Wikipedia article.

Review of Microsoft Access

Our review of Access is based on two files in the Pickup folder:

1. Double-click on the file named 1_AccessReview_BTTtopics.htm. It contains the topics that you should review, plus links to online tutorials and demos.

NOTE: If you have not worked with Access before, you need to spend extra time becoming familiar with the concepts of a database (e.g. object, field, record, query) and the basics of how to use the program.

2. After you have reviewed the topics from the above file, it refers you to a sample database named NorthWindTraders2003.mdb, which you use for a few practice exercises.

The Invisible Web or Deep Web, Part 8 - a selection of databases

Take a few minutes to browse through some of these databases below to see what they offer. They will give you an idea of what databases you might look for when you want detailed information from the Invisible Web. Can you find other useful or interesting online databases?

• Internet Hockey Database
  
  
• Cricket Database
  
  
• http://www.aucc.ca/can_uni/search/index_e.html. Search for programs at Canadian universities.
  
  
• Organized Crime and Corruption Database
  
  
• Aviation Accident Database
  
  
• Internet Movie Database
  
  
• Chinese Movie Database (in English)
  
  
• Internet Broadway Database
  
  
• World Database of Happiness
  
  
• World Population Database (United Nations)
  
  
• Geographical Names of Canada
  
  
• Deep Sky Database (astronomy)
  
  
• English Verse Drama
  
  
• Celtic Coin Index
  
  
• British Library
  
  
• Chemical Database
  
  
• European Patent Office
  
  
• National Parliaments Database
  
  
• Civil Engineering Database
  
  
• Household Products Database (health & safety)
  
  
• USDA National Nutrient Database
  
  
• Plant Database (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
  
  
• Human Genome Database
  
  
  

The Invisible Web (7): a taste of high-quality, "hidden" information

These exercises give you an introduction to the kind of free information available on the Invisible Web. (Even more information is available when you are willing to for it.)

The aim is to give you a hint of
- the vast variety of information and
- the vast amount of information.

Find answers to at 2-3 of the following databases, whichever look most interesting to you.

1. Legislative Library of Ontario (THIS ONE MIGHT NOT BE WORKING TODAY)
   How many titles on Jarvis Collegiate?
   
   
2. 
   Are Canadian politicians honest? Who is giving them money to run their election campaigns?
   How many individual citizens donated to Olivia Chow's (New Democratic Party candidate for Trinity-Spadina) campaign for 39th General Election and what was their total donations? What was the most from a single individual? How much did she spend on mailing (Canada Post)?
   Elections Canada
   Financial reports for candidate expenses for 39th General Election
   besure to get the report with full details, not just a summary
   
   
   
3. Google health canada adverse drug reaction database
   follow several links - search
   Allegra, Antihistamine used to prevent sneezing, runny nose, itching and watering of the eyes, and other allergic symptoms. Since 1965
   
   
4. You've been offered a very good deal on a used car, a 1997 Honda Accord Sedan. You want to know its safety record. Was there ever a recall on that model? Go to the Transport Canada website, select Quick Links: Vehicle Recalls, then Search the Recalls On-Line Database. What was faulty with this car requiring a recall? What could have happened if the fault was not repaired? On certain vehicles electrical contacts in the ignition switch can degrade due to the high electrical current passing through the switch when the vehicle is started. Worn contacts could cause the engine to stall without warning, increasing the risk of a crash. Correction: Dealers will replace the ignition switch.
   
   
5. 
   At Canada411.com find the telephone listing of someone with the same family name as yourself - in Toronto, if possible. Click on the name to get their address. Find a list of their neighbours.
   
   
6. 
   How easy is it for a person to find you if you give them your telephone number? At Canada411.com use Reverse Phone to look up your own telephone number. Next go to Yahoo Maps or Google Maps or MapQuest and find a map for your address. Find directions for getting to your place from another address, for example, 100 Weston Rd., Toronto, or 45 Mary St., Guelph.
   
   
7. 
   As a part of your job as researcher on a Toronto newspaper, you have been asked to do background research for an article on Toronto inventors. One assignment is to find how many patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 1976 have been granted to Toronto inventors or assignees. Carefully read the notes on the page indicating how to form a search correctly. What search syntax do you use? How many results do you get? Find the name of the latest Toronto inventor to receive a U.S. patent.
   
   
   
8. 
   Do you love roller coasters? Did you know there is a Roller Coaster Database? Use Google to find it, then find information on the latest roller coaster under construction at Canada's Wonbderland. What is it called? How fast does it go? How much did it cost to build? When will it open?
   
   
   

The Invisible Web (6): Toronto Public Library -Webpages created on-the-fly

When the present building of Jarvis Collegiate was built in the early 1920s, a booklet of thirty pages was published entitled Jarvis St. Collegiate Institute 1807-1922 : programme of the laying of the corner stone of the new building at Jarvis and Wellesley Street


The Toronto Public Library has a copy of that booklet. Now, you know that you can go to the TPL website and look up book titles, so it should be there, right?

1. First let's try looking for it using Google. You have the title of the book, so do an ordinary Google search for it. Did you find it?
   
   
2. If you didn't find it, maybe you need to be more specific. Repeat the search at Google's Advanced Search page but this time in the box marked "Search within a site or domain" enter the TPL domain: http://catalogue.torontopubliclibrary.ca. Wouldn't it be odd if Google couldn't find the book? For a fact I know it is there.
   
   
3. Could we be wrong? Let's check the TPL site at http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/. Search for the title there.
   Did you find it?
   Which library branch is holding it?
   What was the exact date and time of the laying of the cornerstone of our school?
   
   But here's THE BIG QUESTION - If this webpage is on the Internet, why can't Google find it?
   
   
4. Go back to the Wikpedia article on the Invisible Web. Look at the section entitled Deep Resources. Which of the seven items in the list probably explains why Google couldn't find our TPL page?
   
   
5. As you study the list of seven Deep Resources, can you think of webpages you've seen that might fit any of those categories?
   
   
   

The Invisible Web (4):Chasing Down a Low-Flying Aircraft

A small airplane frightened everyone in your family by flying very low over your building in downtown Toronto (not exactly like the picture above - which, by the way, is a real photo. See
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=873298
or
http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&sa=N&tab=li&q=airport+st+maarten).
You were looking out the window at the time and noticed some of the marking on the side of the fuselage. You saw C- something something KH. You want to contact the owner to complain.

As the computer expert in your family, you go to the Internet to find more information on the aircraft and its owner.

CHALLENGE -- What information can you find on the Internet about the Canadian small aircraft with those markings? Hint: See if you can find the answer on the visible web. If you aren't successful, try adding the word "database" in your search.
(Answer to come later.)

The Invisible Web (3) - two search challenges

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A.
Go to the Boolean search form for the Canadian Patents database. At most online databases, like this one, you do not have to write your entire Boolean query; the Boolean operators can be chosen from menus.

Try the following four sample searches (answers to be given later in class).

1. -- Find, by list of fifty, the patents that were issued between October 1, 1989, and December 31, 1999, and contain "controller" in the Title field and "Smith" in the Owner field.


2. -- Find the number of patent documents that contain in the Title field the word "tooth" and also "brush" or the word "toothbrush".

3. -- Find the number of Canadian patent documents under the IPC subclass "A63B" or "A63C" which has been laid open in 1999.
Check your answers here - http://patents.ic.gc.ca/cipo/cpd/en/search/boolean/exemple/list.html

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B.
PowerReporting is an online resource for journalists operated by the prestigious Columbia School of Journalism. It offers a challenging "Web Treasure Hunt" to for its students. The ten-question test goes beyond the kind of searching we cover in our course, but trying the test will open your eyes to new possibilities.

Be sure to spend some time looking for the information before you
(1) look at the Hint, and finally
(2) look at the answer.

Try the Columbia School of Journalism's Web Treasure Hunt.
#1 - 11. #2 - 240 #3 - 5,606

The Invisible Web (2) - what is it?

Introduction
http://www.closerlooksearch.com/invisibleWeb.aspx

Online Powerpoint presentation introducing the Invisible Web
http://www.valleylibrary.ca/wocap/hiden%20web%20presentation/The%20Hidden%20Web.html

Wikipedia article on the Deep Web -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_web

The Invisible Web (1) - introductory exercise

Your grandparents are planning to go on a Caribbean cruise. Their travel agent has found them a very attractive package with a cruise ship leaving Miami, Florida called the Grand Caribe. The package is at the right price, for the right length of time, stopping in all the ports they want. But you remember seeing in the news some time ago reports about mass illnesses on some cruise ship and there was the suggestion that proper health measures were not taken on board the ship.

Find some useful information about the health condition of the cruise ship Grand Caribe. Inspection reports by government health inspectors would be most useful.