Internet 101/102: Untangling the Web

welcome | bibliography | glossary

I. How does it work?

II. What's really out there?

III. How can I search?

IV. Why should I evaluate?

V. How do I cite sources?

a. web directories | b. search engines | c. specialty tools | d. library databases

How can I search? --web directories

How they work
web sites/pages are collected and organized by real people.
Advantages
web sites/pages are selected (and sometimes reviewed) by people.
easy to browse by general topic.
smaller content
Disadvantages
dead links if not kept updated
content may be too small
Features
hierarchically arranged
may offer an "internal" search engine for keyword searching

Yahoo!
Free Website: http://www.yahoo.com
One of the largest and oldest web directories, containing a lot of popular and some academically-related links. Includes a link to see search results from the Google search engine.

INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections
Free Website: http://infomine.ucr.edu/Main.html
From the Library, University of California at Riverside. Lets users search through more than 14,000 academically oriented Internet resources. The database may be browsed or searched by subject, keyword, or title.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
Free Website: http://lii.org/
Originated by librarian Carole Leita; includes over 6,000 evaluated resources that are searchable by keyword, subject, titles or descriptions. You can also browse through the various subject areas.

World Wide Web Virtual Library
Free Website:chttp://vlib.org/
One of the oldest directories on the Web. Most of the subject guides are maintained by scholars or subject specialists within that particular field.

About.com
Free Website: http://www.about.com/
Popular topical web guides built by the people, for the people. Depending on the topic, you can uncover a wealth of information and resources.