Module 4: Information Resources on the Web
Finding Specific Information Online
Case Problem 1
MLB.com
MLB.com is the official website of Major league Baseball. You are going to use this site’s filtering and sorting capabilities to answer questions about major league baseball in 2014.
1. Using the browser of your choice, navigate to http://www.mlb.com.
2. Click STATS in the top menu. Hitting statistics are displayed in tabular format.
3. Select the year 2014. How is the table of hitting stats sorted? (What column, or field, is used to sort?)
4. Select the team San Francisco Giants. Is this a sort operation of a filter operation? How do you know?
5. Select Qualifiers. Is this a sort operator of a filter operation? How do you know?
6. How many players on San Francisco had enough at bats to qualify? (Players need 3.1 at bats for each game played by their team).
7. Click to AII Players and AII Teams. Then select NL. Is this a sort operation of a filter operation? How do you know?
8. Click on Qualifiers. How many qualifiers are there in the NL?
9. There are 15 NL teams. What is the average number of qualifiers per team? [Hint: total number of qualifiers/number of teams]
10. Do the Giants have more or less than an average number of qualifiers?
11. Click to All Players, MLB, and All Teams. Click on HR in the header row. Is this a sort operation of a filter operation? How do you know? Who had the most homeruns?
12. Click on 2B in the header row. Is this a sort operation of a filter operation? How do you know? Did the same player have the most homeruns and doubles?
13. Describe a different sort operation that could be done for this set of stats.
14. Describe a different filter operation that could be done for this set of stats.
15. Beneath STATISTICS, select Pitching to display pitching statistics for 2014. Is this a short operation, a filter operation, or essentially a different search query?
16. How might you sort the pitching stats?
17. How might you filter the pitching stats?
18. Write a brief explanation describing the difference between sorting and filtering.
19. If instructed to do so by your instructor, submit your answers to the preceding questions in the format your instructor specifies.
Case Problem 2
Data.gov
Data.gov is the home of the U.S.
Government’s open data site which provides data, tools, visualizations, and mechanisms for interacting with a huge number of U.S. Government data sets. Users can browse topics such as Education, Health, Climate, Business, and many more. Filtering and
sorting functionalities allow users to research the data they need and to view the data in a variety of formats.
1. Using the browser of your choice, navigate to http://www.data.gov.
2. Click on Energy, to filter out all non-energy related data sets.
3. Under Energy, next to Updates, click on Data. How many datasets were found?
4. On the left, under Topics, click Show More Topics. Choose Law to filter out all datasets not related to Law.
5. On the left, under Formats, click Show More Formats. Select PDF to filter out all non-PDF
datasets. How many datasets were found now?
6. Under Order by, select Popular to sort the datasets by the number of recent views from high to low. How many times was the top ranking dataset recently viewed?
7. Locate the US Trade Overview Presentation PDF. How many times was it recently viewed? What is the position of this dataset in the rankings?
8. Click the PDF icon to display this dataset.
9. Answer the following questions by consulting this report.
a. What is the total U.S. export growth for 2004-2013?
b. What is the total value of U.S. trade in 2013?
c. In 2013, what country was the top export market for the U.S.?
d. What countries make up the Trans Pacific Partnership?
10. The US Trade Overview Presentation PDF provided valuable information and data in a
document format. Data.gov also provides access to thousands of other data sets in many possible formats. You will now find and view a dataset inn Excel format.
11 . Return to http://www.data.com.
12. Click on Agriculture.
13. Under Agriculture, next to Updates, click on Data. How many datasets were found?
14. On the left, under Topic Categories, click on Food Resilience.
15. On the left, under Formats, select Excel. How many datasets were found now?
16. Under Order by, select Date Added to sort the datasets from most recently added to oldest.
17. For the top listed dataset, click the associated Excel button 10 be directed to a page from which the data can be viewed in Excel format. [The data may also be available in alternate formats. Be sure you select the Excel option.]
18. You may need to explore the page to find out exactly how to view the data. At this stage of your research you find that there is not a standard page layout for all of the various datasets. These datasets come from a wide variety of sources; all parts of the Federal government and many state and local government entities contribute. Write a brief description of the manner in which
you must proceed to access this particular dataset in Excel format from this point. As you write, imagine that a fellow researcher must follow your instructions to access the data. Be specific and precise.
19. If instructed to do so by your instructor, submit your answers to the preceding questions in the format your instructor specifies.