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COPYRIGHT 2003 Information Today, Inc.
Although many academic libraries offer basic Internet instruction, today's searchers have become increasingly Internet savvy and have little interest in general Internet seminars and workshops. However, I've identified a growing need for locating targeted science and math resources--both general and highly specialized--especially for higher education. This level of information can be found in a broad spectrum of sources via the Web. Unfortunately, many of these sources are either challenging to find or too expensive, making it difficult for smaller college and university libraries to meet the demands of science and math students and faculty. This article outlines several search tools, presents search tips and techniques, and provides brief abstracts for some of the best free, high-quality, Web-based sources of science and math information aimed at higher-education students and faculty.
WEB DIRECTORIES AND PORTALS
Using the popular general-purpose search engines to find reliable, up-to-date, higher-level science and mathematics information is definitely not the best way to go. Oh, you will get many hits in Google, All the Web, MSN, and Yahoo!, but do college students, professors, academic librarians, and other information professionals really want to sift through the hundreds of thousands of "hits" to find the hidden gems? The answer is a resounding, "No!"
Librarians, faculty, and university students that I'm in contact with agree that it takes too much time to find the "good stuff," especially in the highly specialized areas of science and mathematics. Since millions and millions of Web sites have been created in the last decade or so, and general-purpose search engines attempt to index everything that anybody puts up on the Web, it has become increasingly hard for us to find the quality among the quantity in these general search engine results. However, many of these frustrated searchers do not know about, of are not encouraged to use, some very good, free, noncommercial Web directories that are great starting places to locate other targeted directories, databases, and sites for quality advanced science and math information.
One of my favorites is Librarians' Index to the Internet [www.lii.org], an often-overlooked starting place for beginning research of any kind, including higher-level science and math. Rita Vine, a professional librarian and Web search expert, writing in the July 21, 2003 issue of LLRX ["Selecting Web Sites for 'Beyond Google' Resource Discovery," www.llrx.com/features/beyondgoogle.html, cites Librarians' Index to the Internet (LII) as one of her "5-Star Subject Starters," stating that this directory is a very useful...
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