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Other Strategies for Web Searching

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Summary:

This section covers finding information online. It includes information about search engines, Boolean operators, Web directories, and the invisible Web. It also includes an extensive, annotated links section.

Don't limit your Internet searching to using search engines. Be creative and think about which Internet sites might have the information you are looking for. For example, might any of the following lead you to the sites that will provide the information you are looking for?

Looking for information about job opportunities? Look at some of the sites listing job vacancies. Try university websites that sometimes list jobs through their placement offices, or try professional organizations which also sometimes list jobs in that field. Or look through the websites of various large companies because they usually have a section on job opportunities in their company.

Looking for information likely to be discussed on newsgroups or chat rooms? Look through the lists of newsgroups or use a search engine.

Looking for information about a current topic? Check the newspaper and current newsmagazine sites. Most have a search engine for articles in their publications.

Looking for data that might have been collected on a government site? Start with sites such as the Library of Congress or The White House. If the data concerns a state or a foreign country, is there a site for that political entity?