Teaching and Learning

CBB Recommended Web Search Sites

Electronic Citation Guides

If you quote from an electronic source in a paper, learn how to cite it properly.

News and Discussion Group Search Engines Limit your search to the archives of news or discussion groups.	Geographically Specific Search Tools Limit your search to specific countries or areas of the world.	Comprehensive Lists of Search Engines If the search engines we recommend don't suit your needs, here are hundreds of others you can explore.	Search Engine Developments and Evaluation For those who need to keep up with how web search engines are changing.
Alta Vista Newsgroup Search description	Beaucoup description	All-in-One description	Search Engine Watch from Meckler Media description
DejaNews description	Orientation: Africa's Web Directory description	WebPlaces Internet Search Guide description	Suggested Criteria for evaluation of search engines description
Electronic Mailing Lists description	Orientation: Asia's Web Directory description	Searching the Internet: Subject indexes and Search Engines description	Search Engine Showdown description
	Orientation: Central and Eastern Europe description
	Orientation: Latin America and Caribbean description
	Orientation: Middle East description
	Yelloweb Europe Directory description

FAST

http://www.alltheweb.com
One of the newest Keyword Search Engines for the web, FAST is already the largest, with the goal of including all public web sites. It searches very quickly, as its name indicates, and sorts the results by relevance. AND is implied in searches of more than one word . Full Boolean searching with OR, proximity operators and truncation is not yet available. Searches can be limited by language and domain.

Google

http://www.google.com
Newly launched in September of 1999, Google has taken extra care in ordering its results by relevance based on a site's linkages and authority. Phrases should be placed in double quotes. AND is used if more than one word is entered. It still lacks full Boolean operators such as OR, truncation, and no automatic plurals. You can limit by 11 different languages and there is a government search which is limited to .gov and .mil domains.

Infoseek

http://www.infoseek.com
A medium sized database which allows for extensive customization in the advanced mode. Select through drop-down menus options to search by phrase, name, url, title, domain, and country. You may require or exclude words.

Lycos

http://www.lycos.com
Provides a smaller index. Proceed down the left column for filter search or advanced search. You may look for pictures, sound, and MP3 The advanced search uses drop-down menus for proximity or phrase search and lets you limit search words to title or url. May also search by language.

Northern Light

http://www.nlsearch.com
Northern Light is unique in offering not only web searching but a database of full-text journal articles, the "Special Collection." Articles are available for a fee. You may do a basic search or choose the "Power" option. Here searches can be limited by date, language, country, words in title, words in url, type of site. You select all options by checking or filling in boxes.

Multi-Search Engines

Inference Find

http://www.infind.com/
Currently using WebCrawler, Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, InfoSeek, and Excite. Retrieves a larger number of results from each engine than do most parallel searchers. Results then are clustered into similar groupings.

SavvySearch

http://www.savvysearch.com/
This metasearcher differs in that it goes beyond search engines to include over 200 search engines, guides, auctions, storefronts, Usenet archives, news archives, software libraries and more. Search options: double-quoted phrases: " " , enforced term operators: +/-

DogPile

http://www.dogpile.com
Search the Web, Usenet News. News wires. Web engines and directories include Yahoo!, Thunderstone, Lycos' A2Z, GoTo.com, Mining Co., Excite Guide, PlanetSearch, What U Seek, Magellan, Lycos, WebCrawler, InfoSeek, Excite & AltaVista. Search options: proximity and Boolean operators AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT.

Comprehensive Lists of Search Engines

WebPlaces Internet Search Guide

http://www.webplaces.com>
Categories include web indexes and engines, search engines by country, business, specialized, children's.

Searching the Internet : Subject indexes and Search Engines

http://www.voicenet.com/~bertland/search.htm
Nicely organized by the following divisions: Subject Indexes, Internet Portals, Meta-Search Engines, All-in-One Search Pages, Specialized Subject Indexes and Search Engines, International Search Engines and Subject Indexes, Links to More Information

Subject Guides

Global Electronic Library

http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/
From the Library of Congress; strong in government sources, literature, texts, performing arts resources, law, and library science.

Look Smart

http://www.looksmart.com/
Each link has a one-sentence description; categories tend to be more popular.

Magellan

http://magellan.excite.com/
Comprehensive subject categories cover selected sites. A few sites under each topic are recommended, and some are reviewed. Stronger on popular (as opposed to academic) resources.

About.com formerly Mining Company

Searches both its own sites (written by Mining Co. "guides") and the internet; links have short annotations.

Yahoo

http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/
Probably the best-known (and easiest to use) subject guide, with lots of customized categories as well as the traditional subject areas. Defaults to Inktomi to search the web beyond its own selections.

Academic Research Guides

Infomine

http://lib-www.ucr.edu/
Browse or search in ten large subject areas; maintained at the University of California--Riverside. Entries include links, URLs, and short descriptions.

Internet Public Library

http://www.ipl.org/
From the University of Michigan; the "Reference Collection" has 11 broad categories, with lots of hand-picked links in each.

Scout Report

http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/
From the University of Wisconsin; search by keyword or LC classification; very good for more recent sites.

WWW Virtual Library

http://www.vlib.org
Lots of categories, but very few annotations in the browse screens; rather, it makes connections to other subject- specific "megasites" around the world.

News and Discussion Group Search Engines

DejaNews

http://www.deja.com/
A search of more than 45,000 discussion forums with additional ratings and shopping services.

Electronic Mailing Lists

http://alabanza.com/kabacoff/Inter-Links/listserv.html
Search a directory of e-mail discussion groups to identify those you may want to join.

Geographically Specific Search Tools

Orientation: Africa's Web Directory

http://af.orientation.com/

Orientation: Asia's Web Directory

http://as.orientation.com/

Orientation: Central and Eastern Europe

http://eeu.orientation.com/

Orientation: Latin America and Caribbean

http://la.orientation.com/

Orientation: Middle East

http://me.orientation.com/

Yelloweb Europe Directory

http://www.yweb.com/

Evaluating Web Pages

Bowdoin College Library. Suggested criteria for evaluation of web sites. From "Finding Quality on the Internet, or A Needle in a Haystack?" by Hope Tillman. Presentation at NEASIS Program, September 6, 1995.

http://www.bowdoin.edu/dept/library/internet/eval/index.html#web
A brief list of points to consider.

Evaluation of Personal, News, Advocacy, Informational and Business web sites.

http://www.colby.edu/library/research/web_search/evaluating/
Outlines prepared for different types of web sites by Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University.

The Internet: Window to the World or Hall of Mirrors? Information Quality in the Networked Enviornment--by Jack Soleck.

http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews/nov96/enduser.html
Sets out the questions to be asked about content, access, and design when evaluating web sites.

Teaching undergrads WEB evaluation, by Jim Kapoun from ACRL News.

http://www.ala.org/acrl/undwebev.html
An article and chart outlining five criteria: accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.

Thinking Critically About World Wide Web Resources, by Esther Grassian.

http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/web/critical.htm
A guide to both general and discipline based criteria for evaluation of web pages developed at UCLA. It includes criteria for content and evaluation, source and data, structure, and other.

Search Engine Developments and Evaluation

Bowdoin College Library. Suggested criteria for evaluation of search engines From "Finding the Right Stuff: Evaluating Search Engines," by Candy Schwarz. Presentation at NEASIS Program September 6, 1995.

http://www.bowdoin.edu/dept/library/internet/eval/index.html#search
A brief list of points to consider.

Search Engine Showdown

http://www.SearchEngineShowdown.com
Search Engine Showdown, the users' guide to Web searching, compares Internet search engines from the searcher's prespective. Developed orignally as a way to keep track of the search engines and share that information, the site has grown to include: Search engine features chart, detailed search engine reviews, an online newsletter, statistical analysis, and search strategies.

 

Electronic Citation Guides

APA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources (from Columbia Guide to Online Style)

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
Organized by these categories: WWW, FTP, Telnet, Synchronous Communications (MOOs, MUDs, IRC, etc.), GOPHER Sites and Email, Listservs, and Newsgroups

MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources (from Columbia Guide to Online Style)

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
Organized by these categories:WWW, FTP, Telnet, Synchronous Communications (MOOs, MUDs, IRC, etc.), GOPHER Sites and Email, Listservs, and Newsgroups

Sources

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/examples/web_site.html
This link in part of a larger publication from Dartmouth covering citation in both print and electronic formats. Sources is the officially supported citation resource for Bowdoin. You'll find here examples of web citations in these styles: MLA, APA, Science, Note.

Database Search Tips	Evaluation of Web Materials