Search Tools

Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://lii.org/

Librarians' Index to the Internet is a directory maintained by more than 100 librarians in California and Washington. This directory has been in existence for a number of years, and has maintained the high quality of its selectivity and site annotations. A wide range of topics is covered.

What's interesting about
Librarians Index to the Internet

Librarians' Index to the Internet is a well organized, wide ranging collection of 14,000 quality sites on the Web. The site is divided into fifteen major topical categories, which in turn are subdivided into narrowly focused categories. This organization makes the directory easy to browse. For example, the topic of Science is broken down into Environment, which is further broken down into Air Pollution, Ecoturism, Environmental Health, Government Policies, Recycling and Reuse, and so on.

This directory is exemplary in its selectivity. New records to be added to the directory are reviewed from two to four times before they are published. This is a rare level of quality control.

Librarians' Index to the Internet adds sites continually, and is especially good at featuring sites related to current events. Users can subscribe to a weekly new site announcement list or receive these announcements via RSS feed.

Use Librarians' Index to the Internet when...

• You are doing research on a specific topic and want to see sites carefully identified and annotated by librarians
• You appreciate browsing through topical categories to explore for the kinds of sites that may be useful to you
• You want exposure to relatively few, but high quality sites

AlltheWeb is a search engine with a very large database that offers current results, customization options and a template for advanced searches.

What's interesting about AlltheWeb

AlltheWeb is a good example of a search engine that is powered by other companies. Yahoo provides the searchable index (using its Slurp crawler) and the content for the news search. AlltheWeb provides the search mechanism, the interface, and the special options. This kind of business collaboration is common with search engines on the Web.

AlltheWeb claims to have a fresh index. For this reason, it can be useful to visit this site when you can't find current information on tools such as Google. Google depends on links from other sites before it will list anything. It can take a while for a newly-created page to be discovered and linked to. AlltheWeb is a good alternative search engine to use when you are looking for new content.

AlltheWeb has a very good advanced search interface with a number of field searching options, including domain, update date, language, and file format (Word, Power Point, Excel, etc.).

This tool also has a few unique and useful features. For example, it includes a conversion calculator as part of its search function. Try searching for convert: 3 inches, and AlltheWeb will show you metric and imperial units. You can also use AlltheWeb to search news, video, audio and pictures--content from the deep Web.

Use AlltheWeb when...

• Your topic made up of multiple concepts
• You want a search engine that will retrieve documents that are new to the Web
• You want to use Boolean operators with your search (Advanced Search interface)
• You want the option to specify individual Microsoft file types such as Word, Excel and Power Point (Advanced Search interface)

Profusion is a meta engine that searches the Web and also numerous databases on the deep Web organized by topic.

What's interesting about Profusion

Profusion has two major components.

First, Profusion is a meta engine that offers a general Web search of multiple search engines simultaneously. In this aspect, it is similar to many other meta engines on the Web.

Second, Profusion searches a small number of databases on the deep Web. These searches must be performed separately from the general Web search, and may be conducted using interfaces organized by database topic, e.g., Arts and Humanities, Education, Government, International, etc. These categories, in turn, are organized into subcategories. Several databases are available in each category, and you can select the ones you want to search.

Try Profusion if:

• You are doing research on a narrowly-defined topic
• You want to retrieve information that is stored in databases and may not be available through a general search engine
• You want to experiment with a deep Web engine to see how multiple databases may be searched simultaneously
• You want to use a meta engine for a general Web search to retrieve the most relevant hits from multiple search engines

INFOMINE is a major academic subject directory collectively maintained by several libraries, including those of the University of California.

What's interesting about
INFOMINE

INFOMINE is organized into nine broad subject areas and offers an easy-to-use search form for retrieving content. You can also browse hyperlinked keywords, subject headings, resource types, titles, and more. Each record includes a useful annotaton. You can even sign up for an e-mail alert service that will keep you informed of new resources that are added to INFOMINE in subject areas of interest to you.

INFOMINE represents ten years of work, both in developing the content and advancing the search technology. It is one of the premier academic directories on the Web.

Try INFOMINE if:

• You are doing academic research on a specific topic
• You want to find resources that have been identified, classified and described by experts in the field
• You want to use a search interface that offers several search and browse alternatives
• You want relatively few, but high quality sites