CLIS529 Links From Textbook
Chapter 4 - Beyond Search Engines: The Undiscovered Web

Subject Guides

Argus Clearinghouse  -  a repository of over 400 guides to the internet.

Infomine  -  offers guides to the Internet for most disciplines, as well as access to useful databases, textbooks, conference proceedings, and journals.

BUBL Information Service  -  a "national information service for the higher education community." Provides excellent coverage of academic disciplines, including arts, literature, health studies, life sciences, social sciences, and technology topics.

Consumer World  -  a very comprehensive resource for consumer information. In addition to the Net's latest bargains, you will find an extensive list of links to consumer organizations, consumer and general news sources, travel information and a very good list of Internet resources.

Findlaw   -  This site's focus is legal topics: cases and codes, government resources, international law and trade, and more.

Healthfinder  -  a government site for health information. It has a search engine, or you can browse by topic for information on popular health issues: AIDS, tobacco, seniors, minority health, and more. Also, there's a selection of health related online journals.

Voice of the Shuttle  -  a comprehensive site for humanities research, covering anthropology, history, literature, media studies, and many other social, cultural and educational areas. Also, a selection of tutorials on Internet search techniques on the General Humanities Resources page.

Libraries on the Net

The Internet Public Library  -  experience an online library. You'll find a Reading Room, a Reference Center, an Exhibit hall that displays virtual art, services for youth, and Pathfinders, which are guides written by IPL staff that are designed to help you get started doing research on a particular topic.

Library of Congress  -  Some examples of research sources include a series of detailed background studies for seventy-one countries around the world, the American Memory Collection, a digital library of historical documents and photographs; a database of bibliographies for research in science and technology, and social sciences; and an Entrepreneur's Reference Guide to Small Business Information. It also provides some subject specific links at their Find it... Research Centers.

Other Internet library sources

Libdex   -  Locate an extensive set of links to libraries on the World Wide Web.
Also try LibWeb.

WebCATS: Library Catalogs on the World Wide Web  -  an extensive set of links to libraries on the World Wide Web.

Hytelnet  -  Also provides an extensive set of links to libraries on the World Wide Web. Plus, instructions on how to search various library catalogs using telnet. And, links to a number of specialized databases and bulletin boards.

Librarians' Index to the Internet  -  includes carefully selected subject resources, an Internet search section with the LII's choice of search engines, virtual reference links to business and other information and a What's New? feature. You can subscribe to the LII New This Week mailing list to receive weekly updates on some of the best new sites on the web.

Xrefer   -  Operates much like a library reference desk. Provides a gateway to 50+ reference works from the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Locate your favorite sonnet or find out more about quantum theory.

Best Information on the Net  -  Resources chosen by librarians at O'Keefe Library, St. Ambrose University. The organization of this site will appeal to many academic researchers. Headings include Important Sites by Major, Reference Desk, and Hot Paper Topics.

LibrarySpot   -  Links to libraries online plus a reference desk and a reading room with books, journals, magazines, newspapers, newswires, and speeches.

The Michigan Electronic Library (MEL)  -  MEL offers a reference section and an exceptionally well-organized set of subject links, which are selected by content specialists for quality, reliability, and relevance.

National Library of Canada  -  Similar to the Library of Congress's online service. It also includes access to a collection of Canadian online books and journals. The NLC lists Canadian information by subject according to Dewey Decimal System, and provides links to web sites with more information at Canadian information by subjects.

Databases

Information stored in databases is now often referred to as the "invisible Web" because regular search engines are not able to search databases directly. To gain access to the invisible web, you need either to visit a site that has been set up for searching databases, or to know about a database and go directly to its home site to search.

ERIC  -  database for educational research.

QPAT-US  -  stores the full text of all US patents issued since 1974. You need to register and login each time.

The BigHub   -  provides access to over 1,500 specialty search engines for searching databases on the web, allows you to search directly. This database is useful for business directories, science databases, job listings, government and health information and for finding people on the net.

The Cornell Gateway Catalog  -  Some of the databases in this resource are proprietary, meaning that you must be affiliated with Cornell University to gain access to them. But, there are hundreds of databases here. For example, US government databases; the Journalism Periodicals Database; the Economic Research Service publications databases; and Psyche: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Consciousness.

Direct Search  -  Gary Price's Direct Search is a very long list of many database resources on the web. Price also maintains a number of unique lists such as the Speech and Transcript Center. However, you need to have access to George Washington University's web pages.

Infomine   -  a gateway to scholarly resources on the web. Here, you will find databases, indexes and searchable full-text sources for biology, engineering, government, the arts and social sciences. From here, you can also gain access to Achoo where you can search the National Library of Medicine biomedical database, Medline.

Invisible Web  -  one of the largest gateways to database resources on the Web. This site provides a browsable directory of searchable databases that can help you find hidden content on the Web.

ProFusion   -  a metasearch tool from Intelliseek, the same company that developed the Invisible Web. Direct searching of about 500 database sources has been incorporated into ProFusion.

Invisible-Web.net  -  a selective directory of high-quality and informative database sites that are not visible to normal search engines. Offers a category and then subcategory search that lets you see the types of databases available.

Lycos Databases   -  provides quick access to as many as 7,000 searchable databases for individual topics, look under Reference, and then under Searchable Databases.

The National Institutes of Health  -  an authoritative source for health information. You can find full-text consumer health publications and search the Combined Health Information Database.

Search   -  provides a listing of over 100 specialty search engines and a pull- down menu that will let you search within a particular topic area, such as business, entertainment, or news.

Nice - for a price

Consumer Reports Online  -  provides information such as "e-ratings" for online shopping sites and customized reports for new cars.

Dialog  -  gives access to roughly 50,000 publications and has portals for business, science, and technology. Traditionally, aimed at information professionals, but a new service, Open Access, allows you to buy access to selected information using a credit card.

Electronic Library  -  a comprehensive general reference with content from a range of sources. A full-text service in which you can type a keyword, and the screen displays up to thirty items containing that word.

Hoover's Online  -  a well-established source for information about companies.

Lexis- Nexis  -  a well-established database service used for research in newsrooms and university libraries.

NewsLibrary -  a full-text news library archive. Download full-text versions of over 16 million stories for $1.95 per story. Search for free and pay per view.

Northern Light  -  offers web searching along with options to search its special collection of more than four million articles that were originally published in print. Complete articles range from $1.00 to $4.00 for each article you select to view. The Special Collection covers Arts, Education, Government, Health, and Medicine, and it includes hundreds of popular and special-interest publications.

D&B's Telebase   -  offers telnet and web access to hundreds of commercial databases, including Dialog, DataStar, Dun & Bradstreet, and NewsNet.

Media on the Web

UniSci  -   a specialized news source.

Village Voice  -  a weekly.

NewsLink   -  a massive set of links to news sources. Sponsored by the American Journalism Review. Broadcast news sources are included.

Alternative Press Center  -  has links to an excellent collection of publications considered to represent an alternative view of the news. It also has developed a set of links to 350 alternative online resources where you can access "the other side of the story."

Broadcast.com   -  a classified list of broadcast events on the Net, including archived radio and news broadcasts.

CIC Electronic Journals Collection  -  aims to be an "authoritative source of electronic research and academic serial publications." There are links to many freely distributed electronic journals.

CMPA Reading Room  -  Sponsored by the Canadian Magazine Publishers Association, this is an important site for links to Canadian magazines online.

The Drudge Report  -  one-click access to headlines, newspapers, news wire services and top columnists.

Editor and Publisher Media Links  -  with links to more than 1,500 online newspapers, this resource is one of the most comprehensive.

Fastboot News Links  -  a good place to locate newspapers by country.

Kidon Media Links  -  with links to more than 1,500 online newspapers, this resource is one of the most comprehensive.

Moreover   -  a tool for journalists. You can search for headlines in 200 categories of news.

My Virtual Newspaper  -  offers up-to-date links to newspapers around the world.

NewsDirectory   -  another mega-site that provides separate indexes for English-language newspapers, magazines, and computer publications.

News Index   -  a news-only search engine that lets you search for current news stories. You can have the results of five queries sent daily to your email account.

NewsLink   -  includes links to radio and television media sources and lists "most linked to" newspapers, dailys, alternative, and campus newspapers.

Newsroom  -  aims to provide the best sources for today's news.

Omnivore  -  global coverage of today's news. Use this source for access to current stories from world news.

On-line Journals List  -  compiled by the University of Texas Health Science Center, this list links you to online sites of journals publishing in science, news, business, art, and entertainment.

Ultimate Collection of Newslinks  -  browse through more than 3,700 links to newspapers around the world. Directory is organized geographically.

Government information on the Net

Federal Internet Guide  -  published by the Washington Post. It includes links to popular US government sources, including Departments of Education; Energy; Health and Human Services; and Housing and Urban Development.

LSU Libraries' US Federal Government Agencies Page  -   compiled by David Atkins.

Government Resources  - Whitewater Anderson Library.

Canadian Government Information on the Internet  -  by Anita Cannon.

For information on access to regional, European, and other North American governments, check the listings at the University of Sydney's Government Guide or the International Governments resources that you will find listed at the Librarian's Index to the Internet.

Also, FYI

The Ultimate Yellow Pages  -  provides a directory with contact information for US businesses. Organized by region and category.

BigBook   -  offers a similar resource.

Corporate Information  -  for more comprehensive business information resources (some at a cost.)

LibWeb  -   also provides library resources.

The Labyrinth  -  a Georgetown University library that provides texts related to medieval studies.

Decameron Web  -  from Brown, is a full-text resource for Boccaccio's work.

Berkeley Library  -  a source for great books online. This site allows you to sample what texts are available in digital format.

Britannica.com  -  is a searchable annotated web directory of carefully chosen web sites.

The Spire Project   -  an in-depth resource for finding specialized information on the web. Find out more about databases on the web, including the popular education database ERIC.

IncyWincy   -  combines directory searching and database searching. Preselect categories, then fill out a form to submit searches to selected databases.

The University of British Columbia   -  provides a list of guides to digital libraries.

Online Text Collection  -  find online texts.

Galileo  -  a great set of links to electronic journal collections.

The InvisibleWeb Catalog  -  provides access to over 10,000 databases, archives, and specialty information sources that are not easily found using traditional search engines.

New Zealand Digital Library  -  a truly amazing collection of computer technology reports (27,000 at last count.)

Total News  -  one of the many news search services on the net.

Search for individual magazine articles at Findarticles.com and at MagPortal.

Stay up-to-date with all the news about the news at these sites:
Editor and Publisher, Poynter.org, and at Cyberjournalist.net.

Check out Indymedia for a different view of the news. Its purpose is to create grassroots coverage of world economics and political issues.

Top News Sources on the Web

ABCNews.com  -  good source for national and international news.

BBC Online  -  up-to-the-minute news coverage.

CANOE/Canadian Online Explorer  -  first-rate Canadian source for the news.

Chicago Sun-Times  -  includes a searchable database of Roger Ebert movie reviews.

Christian Science Monitor  -  a well-established and respected online news source.

CNN   -  top stories and program transcripts from CNN.

The Globe and Mail  -  many articles from each section of Canada's national newspapers.

The New York Times  -  full-text articles from the last 365 days of the newspaper are available from the online archives.

Newsweek   -  weekly coverage of news events.

Time  -  top stories, and it provides a news search for additional information.

The Times   -  several full-text articles from the daily edition are available for free, as is the complete text from the London-based Sunday Times.

USA Today   -  regularly updated news, plus a number of useful archives for research.

US News Online  -  breaking news and background stories developed by US News.

Washington Post  -  value-added service with its Search the World database. Lists additional resources.

Government Information Sources on the Web

CIA - The World Factbook 2002  -  provides factual information for all countries of the world.

Federal Web Locator  -  operated by the Center for Information Law and Policy, this site offers well-organized links to home pages for governmental branches, agencies, departments, and corporations.

FedStats   -  links to seventy-plus US federal government agencies that produce statistics of interest to the public.

FedWorld  -  pull-down menus provide quick access to government information, documents, and files.

Government of Canada  -  the Canadian government's official central site.

Government Resources on the Web  -  developed at the University of Michigan. Another comprehensive and well-organized reference site for US government information.

GPO Access  -  a gateway to many full-text databases of US government information

Infomine   -  from the main screen, select Government Information.

Library of Congress: Federal Government: General Information Resources  -  a gateway to much US government information, including facts and figures, speeches, reports, news releases, and legislative documents.

100 Top Government Sites  -  a gateway site that provides links to popular US government sites and organizations, like Amnesty International and the International City Government Resource Center.

Parliament of Canada  -  current information about the Canadian Parliament's activities and a useful collection of background papers.

Thomas Legislative Information  -  named after Thomas Jefferson, this site summarizes recent US government activities: major bills, the Congressional Record, committee information, historical documents, and much more.

United Nations Web Site Locator  -  allows a systematic search of UN information. Links to home pages of UN departments and agencies, indexing them according to subject.

The White House  -  features information from the executive branch of the US government.

Focus on... Telnet

You can obtain telnet clients for both Macintosh and Windows from Tucows.