Uncovering the Web

Can your favorite search engine find all there is to find on the Web?

It finds all we need to find, right guys?

Think again.

• Search engines access a relatively small part of the Web, known as the “

free

Web” • A large portion of the Web, inaccessible to the search engines, is known as the “Invisible Web”

What’s not on the

free

Web?

• Around 90% of the books on our library’s shelves, still under the protection of copyright • The full-text of many magazine and newspaper articles • Expensive reference and nonfiction books, like literary criticism, and in depth biographical and historical works

Isn’t the free stuff on the Web just as good?

And why can’t we get this stuff for free?

Publishing is a business!

• • • Serious

authors

are in the business of earning money for their hard work

Publishers

also expect a return on their work and investment

Copyright

laws protect “intellectual property” from theft

Your teachers expect quality!

• Material from the

subscription services

is likely to be viewed by your teachers as more authoritative • You may have to defend some of the sources you find on the

free

Web • You may want to dig deep on the

free

Web for some harder to find sources.

I’d like to see an example of that!

Free Web databases!

For example:

Say you are looking for photographs of the Battle of Gettysburg You may find some good ones through an image search on your favorite search engine

But did you know there is a database DEVOTED to Civil War photographs?

Search engines cannot pick up those photos of Gettysburg in that rich database because the database content is not searchable until you are actually in the database.

Try this database!

Selected Civil War Photographs http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

But how do you find a database like that?

• Use the word

database

with your search terms. • Use a tool like Librarian’s Internet Index (lii.org) to identify specialized databases • Use a search tool specifically designed to pick up items the other search engines miss a search tool for the Invisible Web • Look for portals, or gateway sites, relating to your subject area

Other Web content may be

invisible

to your search engine: • Files not written in html (some search engines can locate alternate formats) • Sites requiring a login, like the free

New York Times Book Review

• Longer files with content beyond the reach of robots or spiders • Pages created by a search • Private information owned by a company or organization • Pages that are new or not frequently linked to

Some search tools for the Invisible Web

Invisible Web Directory http://invisible-web.net/ CompletePlanet http://www.completeplanet.com/index.asp

Incy Wincy http://www.incywincy.com/ OAIster Search Interface http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/index.html

Pinakes Subject Launchpad http://www.hw.ac.uk/libWWW/irn/pinakes/pinakes.html

And . . .

The Invisible Web also includes

subscription

, or

proprietary

databases!

Presenting:

Redwood High School subscription databases http://rhslibrary.org

EBSCO Databases I • Magazines (MAS Ultra – Student Ed.) • Newspaper Source • Science Reference Center • History Reference Center • TOPICsearch • Health Source • Columbia Encyclopedia • Middle Search Plus • MagillOnLiterature Plus • MagillOnHistory

EBSCO Databases II • Advanced Placement Source • ERIC • Professional Development Collection

This is the good stuff Ignoring these databases is like asking your folks to get premium cable and watching basic cable stations all the time. It’s a real waste!

Any questions?