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Internet - Using Search Engines

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Single Search Engines Multiple Search Engines White/Yellow Pages Miscellaneous

General Tips

Try to exhaust all the resources available in the SWCC Library and databases before doing an Internet search. Be aware that most sites on the Internet do not go through the same editing process as print materials.

Evaluate the sites you use for research. You must be prepared to be your own editor and evaluate the sites for accuracy, authority, objectivity, and currency:

Accuracy	The publication of print materials has conventions that ensure accuracy. The publication of online materials does not have these conventions in place. Anyone can publish very quickly and very easily on the Web.
Authority	Who is responsible for the information on the site? Is that person or organization qualified to present that information?
Objectivity	What is the goal of the group or person presenting the information? Are they trying to persuade, sell, vent, or inform?
Currency	Is the information current? How do you know? Dates are rarely given and often only indicate when the information was placed on the Web or the last time the page was revised.

Does the page take a long time to load?

Are the links current? Do they often lead to sites that are no longer there?

Most of the search engines have a help screen. Boolean searching is available on most search engines. You may click on the help screen to find additional information on how to do more advanced searching.

When searching for phrases always put the phrase in quotation marks. This tells the search engine that you want the words searched as phrases, otherwise each word in the phrase is searched separately and will get many false hits that have nothing to do with your research.

Single Search Engines

Internet Public Library

InvisibleWeb

Librarians' Index to the Internet

Multiple Search Engines

White/Yellow Pages

National Address Server

Switchboard

Telephone Directories on the Web

WhoWhere

World Pages

World Wide Yellow Pages

Miscellaneous

Colleges & Universities - United States

Colleges & Universities -Virginia

General Education Online (FindaSchool.org)

Eldritch Press (full-text public domain books)

Infomine - Web resources maintained by librarians at University of California

Internet Public Library - Links to reference materials and full-text books

Lii.org - Index to the internet maintained by Library of California

Scholarly Societies - Index maintained by the University of Waterloo.

Virtual Reference Shelf - Compiled by the Library of Congress

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