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 Using e-mail Finding information Search
strategiesSearch enginesInformationgatewaysSpecificsearchingEvaluating information      |
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Finding Information Finding specific
types of information
The World
Wide Web contains millions of pages of valuable information which is not
easily found using conventional search engines like Google or AltaVista. Such information is often
referred to as the "deep," "hidden," or
"invisible" web, and often resides in databases which are not
indexed by search engines. For example, the NRF's Women-in-Research
database contains information about over 1000 women researchers in South
Africa. Conventional search engines will find the "entry page"
for the database, but will not find information contained in the database
itself. Some useful starting points for finding information in and about
the "invisible" web are CompletePlanet invisible-web.net Finding higher education institutions A comprehensive list of South African universities and technikons see the Yenza! page on South African tertiary institutions. Yahoo
offers a searchable
directory of higher education institutions around the world: Some search engines offer "white pages" (people and residential information) and "yellow pages" (commercial information) directory services. One of the problems with searching for information about people, such as e-mail, mailing address telephone and fax numbers, is that there is no world guide to this information. Some countries have very comprehensive facilities but for many - including South Africa - this aspect is not fully established. The simplest place to start may be to find the Web site of the institution or organization for which the person works. Many Web sites include a facility for searching for people associated with the institution and with this you may be able to find their e-mail address, telephone number and other contact details. Yahoo People Search offers a searchable
international directory: If you know that the person is active in an electronic discussion group, newsgroup or
mailing list it may be possible to view the archive of discussions and locate address
details from messages posted to these groups. Try searching Deja,
which was recently acquired by Google:
Finding mailing lists, newsgroups and discussion groups This section provides information on finding e-mail discussion lists and newsgroups. For information on using these tools visit the Yenza! section on using mailing lists, newsgroups and discussion groups. Directories of mailing lists/newsgroups with a scholarly focus H-NET Humanities and Social Sciences Online JISCMail
(formerly Mailbase) General mailing list/newsgroup directories Tile.Net
Google Groups (formerly Deja) Alerting / current awareness services Electronic Current Awareness Gateway Finding newspapers and online news-related resources The Online Media
Directory
provides a searchable directly of online newspapers and other media around the world: Moreover.com
NewsNow ABYZ
News Links See the Yenza! page on electronic journals for information on finding online journals or the Yenza! page on South African online journals for a list of online local journals. Useful starting points for finding general reference tools such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, maps and thesauri are:
The Internet Public Library Reference Collection
Refdesk Yahoo's directory of online
reference tools Apart from the general search engines such as AltaVista, there are a number of specialized search engines which look for particular types of information. Examples are:
Search Engine Watch maintains a
list of specialized search engines at: SearchAbility
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