Neil Fisher
SLM 521
Search Engines
So, you need to find something on the Internet? Well, this is a list of some search engines which should be able to help you in your quest. I’ve organized this list by starting with general information search engines to more specific search engines that teachers and students at the middle and high school level may find useful. Happy surfing!
General Information Search Engines:
DOGPILE – this engine is very user friendly and is considered a meta-search site. It searches for the best matches from 10 to 15 different search engines depending on what you are looking for. You may also search in directories pertaining to Images, Shopping, Multimedia, News, and Message Boards, as well. They even have a “Yellow Pages” search as well as a “Joke of the Day.” I’ve always come away from my searches with something of use with Dogpile.
http://dogpile.com/info.dogpl/
GOOGLE – this is another meta-search site and it usually delivers a greater variety of useful matches than Dogpile does. It is very user friendly and offers a highly effective Advanced Search feature. It has many Subject Directories devoted to web topics covering everything from News to Sports to Foreign Languages. If you want to do a quick search of what all the other search engines out there have to offer on your topic, Google is the best place to start.
Teacher Resource Search Engines:
LESSON PLANS PAGE – this site offers teachers 2,000 plus lesson plans for grades K to 12 absolutely free. It offers lesson plans on almost every available subject and it has a search feature which allows you to find many topics of interest to teachers such as class management strategies and curriculum planning. It has an Education Discussion Forum which allows you to contact other teachers for new ideas, help, or just to have a little chat. I especially liked that it offers lesson plans with a Multi-Disciplinary approach.
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/
TEACHERS.NET – this is another useful site with access to sites that may be helpful to teachers. It’s search engine is reliable and provides some really good matches depending on what subject you’re scanning for. It’s best feature is a large Lesson Bank which includes lesson plans for all grade levels in all the major subjects. It also has a Chat feature which allows you to get in contact with your fellow educators.
Student Resource Search Engines:
QUESTIA – this probably the largest online library on the Internet and it boasts close to 400,000 online books, journals, and publications. It’s search engine is capable of Advanced Searches and even offers you hints on writing research papers as well as hints for more effectively searching for information on the topic you want. In looking for information for reports and papers, this should be one of your first stops.
INFOMINE – this site allows you to search 118,342 Academically Valuable Resources in 12 databases by major study subject area. I think this is one of the best search engines for students to use since it allows you to be very, very specific in its Advance Search feature such as narrowing down your topic by Field, Display, and Media.
LIBRARIAN’S INDEX TO THE INTERNET – this site is an excellent resource for students to use since it has such an extensive set of Subject Directories on just about every general area of information possible. It also has a very user friendly Advanced Search feature and I like that it has a side column dealing with Current Themes in education and the news.
Best Sites for Information on Europe and Democracies:
EUROPEAN UNION IN THE U.S.A. – this site offers a direct link to the European Union home site and is constructed as part of the EU’s outreach program to America. With this site’s exhaustive A to Z index of web links to all subjects concerning Europe as a whole, I find it hard to beat when you want to find information concerning anything related to Europe.
OPEN DEMOCRACY – I feel that there is no better site than this when you want to find out all sorts of information on the issues facing the democracies of the world. It’s search engine is highly reliable and it allows you to search for topics by world region. It is billed as a channel for learning knowledge and learning partnerships and it succeeds in this task quite admirably.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/home/index.jsp
DOE/MOFFITT LIBRARY AT BERKELEY – this is one of the best Government and Social Science collections of information in the U.S. and has a search feature allowing you to browse for data on a variety of topics concerning Europe, the U.S., and the rest of the world’s governments. I have found it highly useful for research projects I have done in the past and I don’t think it will let you down in your search.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/doemoff/gov_info.html