| Information need | Search strategy |
| Kartoo Visual Search Enginesa search engine which displays results graphically on a road-map of sorts. good hits fast. | Vivisimo the next time you need to search for something on the Web. It's a refreshing, albeit a bit limited, alternative to Google or Yahoo. It categorizes your results in an easy-to-use list. Type in "pyramids" and Vivisimo gives you categories for the Great Pyramids, the food pyramid, and more. Excellent tool for grades 4-12 doing basic Web research and a time-saver for us adults. |
| I need a few good hits fast. |
Google returns
important, relevant hits quickly with bold terms; pages cached in case the
site's down. Weights importance and value on others' links. Ixquick Metasearch submits your search (use phrases, boolean logic, wildcards) to major search engines and displays results that are universally ranked in the top ten. |
| I have an general broad academic subject and need to explore or focus it. |
Infomine -
high-quality subject tree; librarian-selected Librarians' Index to the Internet - "a thinking person's Yahoo" ¹ Northern Lights ² organizes results into folders by concept Encyclopaedia Britannica provides a topic article and Web links |
| I have a general popular or commercial topic and need to explore or focus it. |
Yahoo
a "tree" with sites submitted by users GO focuses on entertainment, recreation, leisure and lifestyle |
| I have general keyword(s) and need help refining my search strategy. | HotBot
SuperSearch's template helps you create a Boolean or phrase search, or
limit by media type, date, domain, etc. FAST Search Advance Search ² template casts a fast, wide net. Excite suggests word lists to refine your first search term. Search for more on-target results based on successful hit. Altavista suggests phrase search terms on your results page. |
| I bet this search has been done before. | Ask
Jeeves! prepares answers to common questions asked in natural language. Direct Hit a "popularity engine" which ranks your hits based on other searchers' behaviors. |
| I need quality, evaluated pathfinder guides prepared by a subject expert. | AlphaSearch and WWW Virtual Library search or browse
subject-organized full-text
documents, databases and gateways New Athenaeum guide to guides with reading level estimated Argus Clearinghouse librarian/academic evaluated subject guides About.com popular/commercial evaluated subject guides BUBL LINK- organized by Dewey number (European focus) |
| I need balanced information from verified sources for a school research project to take home. | Local Libraries catalogs |
| I want to search on often-ignored words in a phrase (e.g. "Vitamin A" or "to be or not to be"). | Infoseek includes little words (such as a, to, be, not )in the search |
| I need a pinpoint search using a unique phrase or word. | AltaVista works best for needle-in-the-haystack search for unique word or phrase (Himalayan cat not cat) |
| I need information on a proper name (a place, person, or object). | AltaVista
and Infoseek search with capital letters to force
an exact case match on the entire word (e.g. Al Gore and NeXT) A person search on HotBot SuperSearch will retrieve the name in both reversed and normal order (e.g. Picasso, Pablo and Pablo Picasso) |
| I need biographical information. | Biographical
Dictionary - quick identification of a name Biography.com - database of 20,000 paragraph-length biographies Lives links to biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters, narratives, oral histories, collections by profession, region, era |
| I need a company's Web site. | 1Jump direct to company's Web site using company or brand name, stock ticker symbols, name of an executive or employee, geographic terms (ZIP, postal, area code, city name) |
| I need US government information. | FedWorld browse government databases or Web sites, keyword searches on government Web pages or reports |
| I need hard-to-find or late-breaking information. | Inference Find
a "metasearch" which queries multiple engines simultaneously;
likely to pick up rare or recent information not widely indexed YahooNews updates continuously from newswires; with full coverage" of hot topics Northern Lights Current News updates headlines, weather, and sports continuously; can search two weeks archive |
| I need current information from magazine or newspaper articles. | ProQuest
Direct has full text of over 450 magazines and newspapers and can be searched from
school or home. (Get password from Library) AJR NewsLink links to newspapers and magazines, mainly US and Canada News Directory links to online English language media worldwide TotalNEWS and Northern Lights search current news UnCover free search of large current multidisciplinary journal index, but full-text delivery is fee-based |
| I need accurate, objective information on hot topics. |
Social Issues -
Multnomah County Library's Homework Center BIOTN compiled by librarians at a Catholic university about controversial current events issues (e.g. gun control, human rights, censorship) |
| I need statistical data. | Statistical Information help page at Nueva |
| Is there almanac-type information on the Internet? | Information Please (almanac facts) CIA World Factbook (country facts) |
| I need primary sources. | Online Digital Library links US focus: American Memory, U.S. History, California Heritage Ancient Greece: Perseus Project, |
| I need images and sounds (photos, art, designs, logos, videos, music, noises), media types (Java, VRML) or file extensions (.gif) |
Amazing Picture Machine (NCREL) small,
education-appropriate pictures American Memory US historical images and sounds; search by formats (maps, motion pictures, photos and prints, sound recordings) AltaVista Photo Finder searches17 million images, audio clips, video files from the web and private collections HotBot: SuperSearch template has options for media type Columbia University's WebSEEk catalogues 650,000 images and videos on Web sites Lycos RichMedia (sounds, images, videos) powered by FAST Jacob Richman has compiled an list of quality picture/art sites. |
| I need a map. | Geography Maps |
| I want to get advice and opinions from others. | Ask Kids'
Connect question answering and referral by librarians AskA+ authoritative, non-commercial experts, suitable for K-12 Pitsco's Ask an Expert volunteers with varying levels of expertise Liszt catalogs discussion groups by topics |
| I need a virtual librarian. | KidsConnect, Internet Public Library Reference, Debbie, Marilyn |
| I want notice of new sites as they're announced. | Scout Report Signpost reviews of new sites not yet listed on expert sites |
| I've got a good search to rerun automatically. | Informant
repeats your search, sends e-mail when hits change. Excite's NewsTracker tracks your news topic, refining search based on results Northern Light Search Alert Service runs your search on large database |
| I want to see sites just for kids. | KidsClick! Yahooligans! |
| I want to see other sites | Subject |
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