SUBJECT DIRECTORIES

Subject directories organize Web sites into hierarchical categories, and can also be searched by keywords. Some provide rating or reviews of the sites. Suggested subject directories are:

Yahoo!

Magellan Internet Guide

eBLAST: Encyclopaedia Britannica's Internet Guide

GENERAL SEARCH ENGINES

General search engines index the contents of web pages. Users can search these by key words, phrases and Boolean logic. These search engines vary in size and special features. Some suggested general search engines are:

AltaVista

Excite

HotBot

Infoseek

Lycos

MULTI-SEARCH ENGINES

These search the indexes of many other search engines at the same time, and combine the results in a single listing. Examples of Multi-search engines are:

Dogpile

MetaEureka

MetaFind

MetaCrawler

ProFusion

If you are looking for a specific Web site, and you know the title of the site, or the name of the company, organization, school etc, appearing in the title:

• Use a general search engine, such as AltaVista or Infoseek, and type in the name of the site enclosed in quotes. For example: "Niagara County Community College"

If you are looking for a few high quality sites on a general subject:

• Use a subject directory that rates and reviews sites, such as Magellan Internet Guide or eBLAST: Encyclopaedia Britannica's Internet Guide.

If you want to browse through a large number of sites on a specific topic:

• Use one of the large search engines, such as AltaVista or HotBot

If you are having trouble finding information on a very specific or obscure topic:

• Use a large search engine such as AltaVista or a Multi-search engine, such as MetaFind.

If you're not sure which search terms to use, or you're not getting good results with the terms you have input.

• Try using a search engine that offers concept searching. These look for related terms and concepts, such as Excite.

Many search engines use these strategies for searching the Net more efficiently:

• If you are doing a complex subject search, using multiple terms, type the + sign before each term, so that you will retrieve sites that include every one of your search terms. For example, for the topic:
  women authors during the Depression, enter: +women +authors +Depression
• If your search term is a phrase or a name, use quotation marks around it. For example, for the topic:
  The Americans With Disabilities Act, enter: "Americans with Disabilities Act"
• Most search engines allow you to use truncation symbols, such as an *, in order to search for multiple endings of a word. For example:
  psycholog* will retrieve the terms psychology, psychologist, psychological, etc.
• Some search engines distinguish between upper and lower case letters. For example, using AltaVista, the search term:
  Buffalo will retrieve only the word Buffalo, but buffalo will retrieve buffalo, Buffalo and BUFFALO. When in doubt, use only lower case letters.
• Every search engine provides online help - look for "HELP" or "SEARCH TIPS" on the main screen.

NOTE: These are only general guidelines. Ask a Reference Librarian if you have any questions about using the Internet.

The above adapted in part from "Searching for Quality on the Internet: Tools and Strategies" by Laura B. Cohen. Choice suppl. Vol.35,pp.11-33.