Internet Directories and Search Engines

A Carolina Day School Library Helpsheet

Why use an Internet directory instead of a search engine?

Directories gather and evaluate internet information and organize it by topic or subject discipline. Most annotate or rate the sites they list and are searchable by keyword or topic. Search engines mechanically examine web sites for words or phrases you supply, which can lead to irrelevant "hits." Directories, however, are compiled and analyzed by actual human beings, which oftentimes makes them better for finding quality information. They will present you with fewer returns on your search, but those returns should be of higher relevance.

General Interest Directories :

The Librarian's Index to the Internet . http://lii.org/

"Our motto: ‘Information You Can Trust.' The Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII) is a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 9,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness.

Open Directory Project . http://dmoz.org/

A cooperative effort by thousands of "editors" to find and annotate web pages. "over 3.8 million sites - 53,056 editors - over 460,000 categories"

Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com/

The granddaddy of them all, often confused with a search engine ( Yahoo! , however, only searches its own site of previously gathered resources—if it cannot find a match, it gives your search to Google , a search engine). Most sites are accepted as submitted; there is little content evaluation, but the database is huge.

KidsClick . http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/

"KidsClick! was created by a group of librarians at the Ramapo Catskill Library System, as a logical step in addressing concerns about the role of public libraries in guiding their young users to valuable and age appropriate web sites." Contains close to 4000 annotated Web resources grouped into categories and sub-categories. The reading level of each site is also given.

LookSmart . http://www.looksmart.com/

Family-oriented directory with more than 24,000 categories in areas such as Automotive, Home & Family, Health & Fitness, Hobbies & Interests, Shopping & Services, Society & Politics, Sports & Recreation, Travel & Vacations. Used as the directory on some search engines (such as AltaVista).

About.com . http://about.com/

"The About network consists of hundreds of Guide sites neatly organized into 23 channels. The sites cover more than 50,000 subjects with over 1 million links to the best resources on the Net and the fastest-growing archive of high quality original content. Topics range from pregnancy to cars, palm pilots to painting, weight loss to video game strategies."

The Invisible Web . http://invisible-web.net/

"Some of the best resources [1,000+] the Invisible Web has to offer. The directory includes resources that are informative, of high quality, and contain worthy information from reliable information providers that are not visible to general-purpose search engines."

Scholarly Directories :

Internet Scout Project . http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

"Librarians and educators do the filtering for you, reading hundreds of announcements each week looking for the online resources most valuable to the education community." Search for links on their web page or subscribe to one of their weekly email reviews of new and interesting sites (email lists are available for general sites, science and engineering, business and economics, and K-12 teaching resources). Funded by the National Science Foundation.

Academic Info .   h ttp://www.academicinfo.net/

Directory of academic websites intended for high school and college students.  Over 25,000 resources listed.

INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections . http://lib-www.ucr.edu/

Contains close to 20,000 links to "important university level research and educational tools on the Internet.

Substantive databases, electronic journals, guides to the Internet for most disciplines, textbooks and conference proceedings are among the many types of resources included." Searchable within each major topic. Maintained by California university librarians.

BUBL LINK and BUBL 5:15 Catalogue of Internet Resources . http://bubl.ac.uk/link/index.html

"BUBL LINK is the name of a catalogue of selected Internet resources covering all academic subject areas and catalogued according to DDC (Dewey Decimal Classification). All items are selected, evaluated, catalogued and described. Links are checked and fixed each month. BUBL 5:15 provides an alternative interface to this catalogue, based on subject terms rather than DDC. The aim is to guarantee at least 5 relevant resources for every subject included, and a maximum of 15 resources for most subjects, hence the name 5:15. Big subject areas are broken down into smaller categories. However, the upper limit of 15 is not rigidly applied, so there may be up to 35 items for some subjects."

Argus Clearinghouse . http://www.clearinghouse.net/

"The Argus Clearinghouse provides a central access point for value-added topical guides which identify, describe, and evaluate Internet-based information resources. Our mission is to facilitate intellectual access to information resources on the Internet. In order to avoid duplication of effort, our focus is intentionally narrow."

Quick Reference Directories :

Internet Public Library Ready Reference Collection . http://www.ipl.org/ref/RR/

Sites are "chosen to help answer specific questions quickly and efficiently. Sources are selected according to ease of use, quality and quantity of information, frequency of updating, and authoritativeness." A few of the choices: Almanacs, Associations & Organizations, Biographies, Calculation and Conversion Tools, Style and Writing Guides.

Refdesk.com . http://www.refdesk.com/

Bob Drudge is a Family Therapist and a social worker who began his page to try to organize sources that he frequently uses. Besides links to such helpful ready reference sources as Bartlett's Quotations , a currency converter, stock quotes, area and zip codes, etc., he also has links to myriad other sources, including news organizations and networks (such as AP or NBC), columnists, online magazines, weather sites, and homework help.

DeskRef . http://www.rcls.org/deskref

Links to ready reference materials in 31 categories. Includes directories, indexes, statistics, calculators, grants, maps, timelines, consumer information, price guides, etc. Maintained by the Ramapo Catskill Library System.

FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources . http://www.findlaw.com/

The best single starting point on the Web for doing legal research. Full text searchable database of all law reviews and journals on the Internet. Updated nightly. Another search interface, Law Crawler , helps you focus your search on legal issues on the Web. Also includes Legal News , legal forms, organizations, law firms and lawyers, judicial opinions and case law, consultants, and more.

RefLaw . http://www.washlaw.edu/

Internet law ready reference resources, from the Washburn University School of Law Library.

Google Groups . http://groups.google.com/

Sometimes that tough reference question has been addressed in a newsgroup. Here you can search news postings back to March 1995. Actually a search engine rather than a directory, but very handy. Google acquired the DejaNews groups in February 2001.               

Search Engines:

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