Smart Searching, part one There is more out there than the “free web”

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

It finds all we need to find, right?

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 engine, is known as the “invisible web”

So, what’s not on the free web?  Around 90% of the books on our shelves  The full text on many magazine & newspaper articles  Expansive reference books, like literary criticism, in-depth biographies, & historical works

Why can’t it all be free? (some things you need to know about the publishing biz)  Serious authors are in the business of making money for their hard work  Publishers expect a return on their work  Copyright laws protect “intellectual property”

And remember, your teachers expect quality  Material from subscription services is likely to be viewed by your teachers as more authoritative  You may have to defend some of the sources your find on the “free web”  You may want to dig deeper.

I’d like to see an example!!

There are some “free web” databases!!!  For example: you want to find some pictures 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 - Selected Civil War photographs

But how do you find a database like that?  Use the word database with your search terms  Use a tool like Librarians index (lii.org) to identify specialized databases

But there is more to the web than free databases!!!  LAUSD’s Digital Library with over 30 subscription databases. id=33,245998&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP id=33,245998&_dad=ptl&_schema=PTL_EP  Gale e-books, which is a collection of all Gale reference books you can access from home. odhs

This is the good stuff  Ignoring these databases is like asking your parents to get premium cable and watching basic cable stations all the time.

The “free web” vs. Databases  Use the “free web” or internet when you: Are willing to evaluate the web site’s content Want other world-wide sites Want government information Want to go to a specific web site Want information on a unique topic  Use databases when you want: Newspaper articles Magazine articles Encyclopedia articles Biographical information Statistical information Authentic information

Works Cited Los Angeles Public Library. The internet vs. Databases. Valenza, Joyce. Uncovering the Invisible Web. Springfield Township Virtual Library.