Tips and Tricks for Searching the Web

I taught a workshop for the Wisconsin Educational Media Association on searching the internet.

Here are some of the sites I talked about during that workshop. This would be a good page to bookmark--you can jump to many good beginning search sites from here.

Basic searching:

Boolean Searching on the Internet: this collects all the basic information in one place. (http://library.albany.edu/internet/boolean.html)

The Spider’s Apprentice: this site seems to be created for people who want to get their web page listed in search utilities, but it has a lot of information on search utilities and how to use them. (http://www.monash.com/spidap.html)

Evaluating Internet Sites: How can you tell if the information on a site is accurate? This site will help. (http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/inform.htm)

Using Search Utilities

Yahoo This is an example of a web directory--the 'subject catalog' of the web. (http://www.yahoo.com)

Google This is a search engine--it looks for specific words and phrases on the web. (http://www.google.com)

Ask Jeeves: Here you can ask questions in real language--but there are some tricks to the wording. (http://www.askjeeves.com/)

Alta Vista: Another traditional search engine. Check out their 'translation' feature. (http://www.altavista.com/)

Findspot: Here you'll find access to all the major search utilities as well as easy access to tips and search suggestions. (http://www.findspot.com/default.htm)

Webplaces: from here you can link to a huge number of useful sites, from search utilities to yellow pages. (http://www.webplaces.com/index.htm)

General Portals--entries into the internet

Library Spot: this site is an online reference librarian..from here you can go to lots of general, educational, and specific topical sites. (http://www.libraryspot.com/)

Boucoup is a good web directory, "the ultimate source for free information." Links for teachers and students. (http://www.beaucoup.com/)

American Memory: information from the extensive primary source collections in the Library of Congress. (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html)

History.org is a great history site. (http://www.history.org)

Virtual Marching Tour is an example of what you can find on the Revolutionary War from History.org. (http://www.ushistory.org/march/index.html)

Civil War Page: an index of information available on the Internet. (http://www.civil-war.net/)

Educational Portals--specifically focused on helpful educational resources

MarcoPolo: no-cost standards-based internet content for the k-12 teacher, brought to you by a consortium of educational organizations. An amazing resource--plan to take a while to check it out. (http://marcopolo.worldcom.com/)

Go to Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page for lesson plans, links, etc. for teachers. (http://www.carolhurst.com/index.html)

Ask an Expert gives kids and other researchers a chance to ask questions of experts in various fields--great for finding information for reports, etc. (http://www.askanexpert.com/)

Badgerlink, specifically for Wisconsin residents, has full text magazine articles from hundreds of magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias and more. (http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/badgerlink/)

The Awesome Library: just what it says...an awesome collection of web sites arranged by category. (http://www.awesomelibrary.org/)

The Best Children's Literature on the Net is a collection of full-text children's books. (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Jardin/1630/)

Great Math Sites: from CESA 8 (http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/it/mathandweb/default.htm)

Illuminations: adventures in mathematics...this is part of the Marco Polo site. (http://illuminations.nctm.org/index2.html)

Math Lesson Plans from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (http://illuminations.nctm.org/lessonplans/index.html

Historical Fiction for Children: lots of resources for teaching historical fiction. (http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/historical.htm)

Kids Portals--specifically focused on things kids would like.

KidsClick: web sites collected for kids by librarians (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/)

Yahooligans: a web directory with sites especially for kids. (http://www.yahooligans.com/)