How to locate and evaluate information and resources on the free Web

SEARCHING GUIDELINES Strategies for effective and efficient information-seeking:

• Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html "I need to" guide to sites recommended by Debbie Abilock, creator of NoodleTools
• Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet http://www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/tutorials/search/index.asp Simple tutorial to improve search strategies.
• Things To Know Before You Begin Searching http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ThingsToKnow.html From UC Berkeley, includes comparison table of search tools, a 5-step search strategy, and links to recommended search tools.
• How to Choose a Search Engine or Directory http://www.internettutorials.net/choose.html Table of "if you want to search for or by / Choose this search tool" from SUNY Albany University Libraries

SEARCH TOOLS Different tools for different information needs:

• http://itools.com Itools "Quick access to the best internet tools" via search boxes for kinds of queries.
• http://www.ask.com/ Ask.com Meta-search engine
• http://clusty.com/ Clusty.com meta-search engine
• http://ixquick.com/ Ixquick.com multi-language meta-search engine
• http://www.kartoo.com/ kartoo.com meta-search engine which presents results in a 'map' showing relationships and relevancy of sites to search term
• http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en Google - Advanced search guides the user through Boolean search strategies.
• http://alltheweb.com/advanced?advanced=1& AlltheWeb - Advanced search uses query filters to execute a more exact search

SEARCH TOOLS FOR KIDS Special search engines for elementary and middle school students classroom:

• http://www.askforkids.com/ Ask.com for Kids "Uses natural-language technology that allows kids to ask questions and perform web searches
• http://www.awesomelibrary.org/student.html Awesome Library - K-12 Education directory for Kids Search for classroom topics or personal interests by keyword
• http://www.kidsclick.org/ Kidsclick.org Web search designed for kids by librarians; search over 600 subjects by keyword
• http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/ Yahooligans; the web guide for kids Includes simple search box, directory of kid-safe sites, interest categories, pop culture, and cyber safety activities for parents and teachers to use.
• http://animalsearch.net/ AnimalSearch; family-safe search engine for animal related websites. Searchable by animal group, type, and geographic regions.

SUBJECT DIRECTORIES AND PORTALS Topical website lists compiled by information professionals and subject experts:

• http://www.about.com/ About.com Hundreds of Guides maintained by experts: each site includes original articles, selected links, and community feathers like chat rooms.
• http://www.altavista.com/ AltaVista.com "Extensive database supports complex Boolean searches. Can search in many languages. The optional Family Filter can screen out some objectionable content."
• http://directory.google.com/ Google Directory "The web organized by topic into categories."
• http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/ Internet Public Library: Pathfinders "Expert Guides intended to help you get started doing research on a particular topic, both online and at your local library"
• http://www.virtuallrc.com/ Virtual Learning Resource Center Organized and maintained by a retired school/academic librarian; indexes a wide variety of other portals for a total of 100,000+ student-friendly pages.
• http://lii.org/ Librarians' Internet Index Organized and maintained by librarians, featuring keyword search and special collections
• http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html Pinakes: a subject launchpad links to major subject gateways and scholarly collections experts
• http://vlib.org/ The WWW Virtual Library "Widely recognised as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web" run completely by volunteer subject experts.
• http://search.yahoo.com/web/advanced?ei=UTF-8 Yahoo Advanced Search Includes fields for creating very specific searches, search by Creative Commons license, with SafeSearch for kid-friendly sites, and by country or language of site.

INVISIBLE/DEEP WEB Unique resources available in specialized online databases:

• http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv_Web.html Those Dark Hiding Places: The Invisible Web Revealed comparison of, and links to, directories and portals, deep web databases, specialized search engines.
• http://infomine.ucr.edu/ Infomine: scholarly Internet Resource Collections Annotated and indexed links to online academic journals, conference proceedings, textbooks, discussion lists, etc. university, graduate, research
• http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm Direct Search Search center and links to the "search interfaces of resources that contain data not searchable/accessible from general search tools "
• http://www.gigablast.com/ Gigablast Locates Word, Excel, PDF, and other non-HTML files, and "older copies"of websites via The Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

WANT EVEN MORE? check out the list of **Top 25 Web 2.0 Search Engines

• compiled by the folks at the Online Education Database.