Subject Directories Research Articles

Best bet Internet: reference and research when you don't have time to mess around

While Internet has been called the world's library for its enormous store of information, its maze of material can keep researchers from gaining quick and easy results. This guide aims to give tips for quick reference. The author has compiled and profiled more than 500 ready-for-reference sites. She examines best subject directories, offers tips on various search engines at your fingertips, explains how E-mail discussion lists and news groups can aid in reference, evaluates and categorizes each site, and suggests when to use such often forgotten tools as gophers, veronica and jughead. This book offers tips and tricks designed to help librarians satisfy their patrons on spot.

Writing abstracts for online databases: results of an investigation of database producers’ guidelines

The article reports on one area of research in an eLib MODELS supporting study which had three investigative areas: an examination of current database producers’ guidelines for their abstract writers, a brief survey of abstracts in some traditional online databases, and a detailed survey of abstracts from three types of electronic database (print‐sourced online databases, Internet subject trees or directories, and Internet gateways). The examination of database producers’ guidelines, reported here, gave a clear view of the intentions behind professionally produced traditional (printed index based) database abstracts and provided a benchmark against which to judge the conclusions of the larger investigations into abstract style, readability and content. The article concludes with a summary of recommendations for abstract writers.

Web search engines

The World Wide Web is emerging as an all-in-one information source. Tools for searching Web-based information include search engines, subject directories and meta search tools. We take a look at key features of these tools and suggest practical hints for effective Web searching.

A Comparative Study of Internet Search Engines by Applying “Cost Effective Treatment for Myocardial Infarction” as a Search Topic

The Internet has become one of the necessities in the medical sciences and has created a global information village. It is essential to know various features of the Internet and to utilize it efficiently in each field of science. A comparative study of Internet search engines was conducted for a specific search topic, “cost effective treatment for myocardial infarction.” The data sources were published conference reports, journal articles, personal communications, and Internet resources. Data on features of the Internet search engines were obtained by browsing each of the 20 search engines selected and by communicating with individuals in charge of each search engine when needed. Actual searches on the topic were conducted by using the 20 search engines. Search term variety for cost effectiveness ranges from pharmacoeconomics to medical economics, providing a total number of more than 10. Search term variety for myocardial infarction ranged from heart failure to coronary heart disease, and at least five major terms exist. Basic search features differ from one search engine to another and a user should be familiar with those differences. The number of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and contents of each search engine are also different. The number of records retrieved ranged from 0–22,000 among different search engines. Lycos and Magellan gave a fairly good hit percentage or relevance factor. The system design of the Internet search engines is based on open search architecture (key word indexes) or it allows the creator of the program to index his/her own page (subject directories). These different approaches resulted in the existence of varying degrees of function of the Internet search engines. Aims and scopes of this paper include not only to retrieve scientific papers and articles but also to locate information on scientific meetings, scientific presentations, and other scientific resources. Some commercial search engines enable users to access those information sites.

WWW Search Tools in Reference Services

An introduction to World Wide Web Search tools for reference services, including robot-generated services, review/rating services, metasearch engines, and subject directories.

Creating a World Wide Web resource collection

Argues that collection development librarians, because of their experience in the areas of collection, organization, evaluation, and presentation, are uniquely qualified to create World Wide Web subject resource collections for an academic audience. By learning how to use Internet subject directories and searching sites, and by acquainting themselves with basic HTML tags, these librarians can create guides which can become valuable tools for all Internet users. In the process, they can also expand their own library collections by providing access to networked information which would have otherwise been inaccessible to their users.