Using the Internet for Basic Research

Definition: A large number of sites, categorized and organized by a human into categories. A directory can be general (such as Yahoo) and encompass a large number of topics, or very specialized and on a topic such as history (for example the World Wide Web Virtual Library WWW-VL: History) or Medieval studies. The University At Albany (SUNY) has a nice tutorial see: Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques http://www.internettutorials.net/search.html

Examples

• Librarian's Internte Index http://lii.org
• Best of History Web Sites http://www.besthistorysites.net/
• WWW-VL: History http://vlib.iue.it/history/USA/index.html
• Digital Librarian http://www.digital-librarian.com/
  

Definition: A type of software program, that sends out a spider or bot, sometimes called indexers that creates an index to the locations to the web sites and pages it finds on servers. Sometimes they index how they link to other pages. All search engines process this indexing differently, so you should use more than one search engine, as your results may vary.

Examples:

• Google http://www.google.com
• Altavista http://www.altavista.com/
• Alltheweb http://www.alltheweb.com/
• Search Engines Worldwide http://home.inter.net/takakuwa/search/
• Internet Search Engines (U. Albany --SUNY)http://www.internettutorials.net/choose.html

Definition: A search engine that searches through multiple search engines. Useful for difficult topics and hard-to-find concepts. Overwhelming for common subjects.

Examples

• Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com/
• Vivisimio http://search.vivisimo.com/
  
  

Definition: The portion of the Internet inaccessible by search engines because the information is contained within a database, for instance something like Ebay. This is often becase the database charges a fee for acces or has information not meant for the general public, such as a government database for NASA engineers. Also, the manner in which bots search and "index" the Internet lead them to look for internconnections between websites. A large part of the Internet is not connected in this manner, but exists as a separate database. These bots will not search internally in a database. For a fuller explanation see: The Deep Web (brightplanet) http://www.brightplanet.com/technology/deepweb.asp

Examples

• Invisible Web (book companion site) http://www.invisible-web.net/
  Under U.S. and World History are a number of links to databases in history. This is a companion site to a published book by the same title.
• Complete Planet http://www.completeplanet.com/
  Searchable access to databases contained in its site.
• Direct Search http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm
  Compiled by Gary Price. One of the authors of the Invisible Web book and website listed above has an even larger website with lists of other databases and other sites inaccessible by traditional search engines.
  

• Thinking Critically about World Wide Websites http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/
• Cyberbee Web Evaluation Guides http://www.cyberbee.com/guides.html
• Public History Resource Center Rating System http://publichistory.org/reviews/rating_system.html

Examples of deceptive websites

The obvious:

• World Trade Center Ariliner http://www.baronage.co.uk/2001/recessio.html

Those intended to teach

• The Commisar Vanishes http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/commissar_vanishes/
• Hitler Diaries http://www.sniggle.net/kujau.php
  (see also Hamilton, Charles, The Hitler Diaries: Fakes that Fooled the World. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1991.)
• Differing versions of the Gettysburg Address (Nicolay and Hay) http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gadrft.html

From propopaganda to the outright questionable

• Martin Luther King Jr. -- A True Historical Examination http://martinlutherking.org vs Martin Luther King Center http://thekingcenter.org
• Institute for Historical Review (Revisionists or Holocaust-Denial) http://www.ihr.org vs. Nizkor Project http://www.nizkor.org
• Reformation Online http://www.reformation.org

For more Info:

Drobnicki, John A. and Richard Asaro. "Historical Fabrications on the Intenet; Recognition, Evaluation and Use in Bibliographic Instruction," in Evolution in Refernce and Information Services; The Impact of the Internet. Di Su, ed. New York: Hayworth Press, Inc., 2001.

Hoax Busters website (not really historical but does have an urban legends and hacked history listing) http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

Urban Legends and Folklore: Historical: http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/

SniggleNet: The cluturejammers encyclopedia http://www.sniggle.net/ -- not sure about the quality of this site yet.

Tutorials for Students

• Finding Informaton on the Internet: A Tutorial: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.htm\
• Big6 http://www.big6.com/

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