Overview
Learn the differences between searching by subject or searching by word, and become familiar with the respective strengths and weaknesses of the search tools. |
Part of being a Web searcher is being able to distinguish between different resource types - directories, search engines,and specialty resources - and then using the right resource type for the search question.
2 Ways of Organizing Information
Subject Organization: is achieved by people who categorize items on the Web according to what the site is about. This is the subject directory, or subject index.
- smart browsing of these directories is a key skill: it is more like searching for topics first, and then specific information second
- some directories also help in locating a specialty subject directory or database
Word Indexing: is the cross-referencing of words on Web pages to their locations. Search engines collect and index the words and provide access to the word-index.
Clustering: is a third form that combines word indexing with subject arrangement: the search engine performs a keyword search and then groups pages into "topics" according to their text.
- Example: Clusty.com; Kartoo.com
Invisible Web
There are thousands of specialty databases on the web that can't be searched and indexed by a search engine.
For example: Digital archives in a library or museum site
- Infomine, Librarian's Index to the Internet, Scout Report Archives, and the Resource Discovery Network also help you to find subject-specific databases, research guides and reference works.
- Hot Tip: use a search engine to locate databases, archives, repositories, directories, digital libraries, etc. by using Google's synonym search (tilde) --Canadian History ~ database
- OR "online searchable database" "Canadian history"
Don't Forget the Public Library
The local public library also provides access to content in premium database for free.