Long Island University - Southampton College Library

Searching the Internet

Confusion now hath made his Masterpiece!
William Shakespeare, MacBeth

The open and freewheeling structure of the Internet makes it a popular communication medium but creates havoc when trying to use it as an information retrieval resource. Unlike a well-maintained library, the Internet has no central authority or control over the quality of the information place on it. In addition to the lack of quality control, is the staggering amount of information (both good and bad) available. It is quite normal for Internet users to spend hours looking for some information without ever finding it or knowing if it indeed exists.

Fortunately, there have been recent attempts to bring some sort of indexing control or organization to the Internet. Currently, the most popular organizing application is the World Wide Web (WWW). The designers of the WWW took advantage of the underlying web-like structure of the Internet and interlinked sites using the concept of hypertext. Hypertext and hypermedia approach information in a nonlinear (web-like) fashion. In contrast, traditional print media is in linear form. The downside of hypertext is that it is easy to become lost while following links.

There are now many enterprising companies that are attempting to create indexes for information on the World Wide Web. These indexes are generally called Search Engines. However, Search Engines are not necessarily capable of searching everything available on the Internet, such as web-accessible databases. This "invisible" information can be searched using the so-called Invisible Web Services. Another type of Search Engine are the MetaCrawlers or Meta-search engines and they will query multiple search engines all at once. Other types of organizing tools are known as Directories, Portals or Subject Guides and they catagorize WWW sites by subject. Directories are usually edited and maintained by humans whereas Search Engines are automated. There are also specialized search engines that find archived messages posted to a USENET group or sent to a Listserv (Mailing List). These search tools can make doing research on the Internet easier to deal with, and you may even find something useful!

NOTE TO OUR STUDENTS: Your time is valuable so don't waste it on the Internet. The Internet is not always the first or best choice for library research. Often information can be found easily and more quickly through online databases or even print resources. Be sure to review the available LIU Online Databases for finding research information.

Directories and Subject Guides

Academic and Professional

AcademicInfo

BUBL Link

InfoSurf: Resources by Subject

InfoMine - Scholarly Internet Resource Collections

Internet Archive

Internet Public Library

Internet Scout Project

Librarians' Index to the Internet

Commercial Portals

Open Directory Project

YAHOO

Major Search Engines

These engines or indexes are the largest and some offer advanced searching techniques, including phrase searching, proximity searching, ranked relevance, and Boolean operators. These indexes are limited because the Internet is so vast and decentralized. Keep in mind that an index is only as good as its database. If you are not finding what you need, please consult with a Reference Librarian.