Resources For  Basic Web Searching Skills

Starting Points for Searching the Web

Blue Web'n Learning Sites Library
Blue Web'n is a searchable database of over 1,200 selected Internet sites of value to educators and students. Resources (lessons, activities, projects, resources, references, and tools) are categorized by subject area, audience, and type.

Chico High School Library Helpful Bookmarks
The best searches start where someone else has gone out on the Web and found good links to information, and then organized them in a helpful order. Here is your very own CHS Library layout of selected links to information on the Web, as well as subscription reference works such as encyclopedias, full text magazine indexes, poetry collections.

ECB Surf Report: Web Sites for Teachers
Collection of pre-selected and screened links by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board. The site opens with highlights of recent information resources and Web sites. Please note the subject categories to the upper left.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)
Federal agencies provide "resources that would enrich the Internet as a tool for teaching and learning, with hundreds of federally supported education resources available at this site.

The Gateway to Educational Materials
Created to provide educators with quick and easy access to the substantial collections of educational materials found on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites.

Great Web Sites for Kids
Links to resources selected for teens by the librarians of the American Library Association. "Children's librarians evaluate books, magazines, tapes, and software for children to find the best of all. Web sites are no exception."

KidsClick! Web Search
Especially for elementary and middle school teachers and students: A good place to start browsing, because the links have been selected for their use by K-12 students, by librarians and teachers.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
A huge number of links (over 10,000) to high quality information resources on the Web has been evaluated, selected and organized by librarians for easy access.

Primary Sources On the Web
This is a collection of primary sources that were selected for their potential use in K-12 class research.
 

Search Engines, Directories, and Multi-Searchers

Searching the Web, A Collection of Engines and Directories (C.H.S. Library)
This is a convenient place top start testing some of the popular search engines. Notice how some of them have specialized features that focus on certain types of information, such as images or news stories.

Search Engines Showdown: Comparison
"Compare Search Engine Features, Size, and Strategies." Very clear explanation of the types of searching that can be done on the Web. Note the nice sub-topics: Search Engines, Directories, and Multi-Search.

Search Engine Watch
A clearinghouse for ratings and information about Web search engines. Find the best searchers for your purpose. Be sure to read the article "Search Engine Math" to learn the basics of structuring effective searches.
 

About Internet Searching With Search Engines

The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value
"Searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean. While a great deal may be caught in the net, there is still a wealth of information that is deep, and therefore, missed. The reason is simple: Most of the Web's information is buried far down on dynamically generated sites, and standard search engines never find it."

Power Searching with Digital Logic
Jamie McKenzie's 10 step tutorial on great techniques and successful strategies for searching the Internet.

A Student's Guide to Research with the WWW
"A tutorial guide to conducting research on the World Wide Web for first year college students. The professor synthesized work on research methods and page evaluation to provide students with a framework for managing their own Web research.

The Good Stuff Is Often Hard to Find: Evaluating Web Sources

Evaluating World Wide Web Information
The Purdue University Library offers a simple, visual approach to evaluation through an examination of several key Web page elements.

Kathy Schrock's Collection of Critical Evaluation Surveys
Three useful evaluation surveys (for elementary, middle and secondary schools), plus links to related resources for the critical evaluation of Internet resources.

Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills for World Wide Web Resources
An unusually thorough presentation on the evaluation of Web resources, including both text and powerpoint versions, plus checklists for evaluating particular types of information sources: Advocacy, Business/Marketing, Informational, News, and Personal sites.