Finding Worthwhile WebPages

Finding Worthwhile Web Pages is easy if you use these more selective tools rather than a general search engine. The WWW Virtual Library is somewhat uneven, depending on the topic, but the others are all very selective in the webpages they choose to include. The non-U.S. ones are broadening in other ways as well. Always start your searches here!

 

Librarians Internet Index (http://lii.org)

Don't be put off by the initial clutter you see on the screen. It may not be snazzy, but it is efficiently organized, if you take a moment to look closely. Either browse that opening screen to your topic area or click on List of Subjects Used to be led to the best sites on the WWW. Sites are selected and annotated by public librarians. Includes over 20,000 sites.
SEARCH TIPS: AND default; can use OR, NOT, ( ) also; use * to truncate; use " " around phrases; can select fields to search in ADVANCED search mode.

Infomine (http://infomine.ucr.edu/)

"INFOMINE is intended for the introduction and use of Internet/Web resources of relevance to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It is being offered as a comprehensive showcase, virtual library and reference tool containing highly useful Internet/Web resources including databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, listservs, online library card catalogs, articles and directories of researchers, among many other types of information. " (from their homepage) INFOMINE has its own internal search engine and includes over 125,000 sites. It is maintained by librarians at UC Riverside and other California universities.

SEARCH TIPS: AND default; can use OR and parentheses; use * to truncate; use " " around phrases; can select fields to search, ranking, and some resource types in ADVANCED search mode.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Infomine includes a lot of fee-based resources. To just get free websites, click on ADVANCED SEARCH and select FREE from the RESOURCE ACCESS pulldown menu.

intute http://www.intute.ac.uk/

intute is the effort of a network of UK universities and other academic organizations/groups. Subject specialists select and write descriptions of the websites to be included. The database currently includes over 120,000 records. You can search or browse the entire database or limit your search to a subset in 4 different areas: Arts & Humanities; Social Sciences; Health & Life Sciences; or, Science, Engineering & Technology. Search options are very sophisticated!
SEARCH TIPS: Use " " around phrases, AND, OR, NOT operators. Can limit fields and do much more in ADVANCED search mode. Especially useful is the ability to limit by dozens of different RESOURCE TYPES. Truncate using an *.

Scout Report Archives (http://scout.wisc.edu/Archives/)

This is "...only the best Internet resources, as chosen by the editorial staff of the Scout Report." (from their homepage). They provide superb critical, and very interesting, descriptions of the more than 25,000 sites in the current database. You can search or browse by subject heading.
SEARCH TIPS: Try ADVANCED mode for more limit options; use " " around phrases; try browsing by subject.

CompletePlanet.net(http://aip.completeplanet.com/)

This is essentially a directory of more than 70,000 searchable databases on the web. Generally these are rather specialized and mostly invisible to search engines. Each database will have its own search software/engine.

 

Academic Info (http://www.academicinfo.net)

This is a directory supposedly tailored to the academic community. Especially interesting is the Digital Library, which you can browse by subject for fulltext sources.
SEARCH TIPS: OR default; can use AND, OR, NOT & ( ); no truncation; no phrase searching; no field searching.

Scirus (http://www.scirus.com/)

This is THE science search engine. If you want to be sure you are getting REAL science, this is how you want to search the web. It has over 450 million webpages, including abstracts from Medline, free journal articles, information on scientific conferences and meetings, and much, much more. This is an outstanding tool. The Advanced Search mode has many options.

 

BUBL LINK (http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/)

This is a very selective catalogue (British) of about 11,000 web pages arranged by Dewey Decimal Classification. You can browse by DDC number, if you know one, or by subject category. BUBL also allows you to search at three different levels. Some very elaborate searches are possible!

WWW Virtual Library http://www.vlib.org/

This is a collection of subject guides to web resources in various fields, mostly academic. Although the quality is somewhat variable and there are virtually no annotations, there are some real gems in here. You are best off browsing for the relevant subject guide rather than searching.

 

About.com (http://www.about.com/)

This is about as big as Yahoo with sites selected and annotated by "Guides" with varying degrees of expertise. Annotations are often chatty and oriented more towards the popular and general than academic. Use " " around phrases to search.

 

This page created and maintained by Gail Gradowski
Created 12/10/01 Last updated August 26, 2008.