[WEB4LIB] all in one search engines and search techniques

[Carole Leita]

Andrea,

I work with a State of California project that's providing Internet access
equipment and training for public libraries in the state. Equipment for
public and staff and training mostly for staff. We maintain a Web site with
training materials for librarians (see my signature block) and have a
couple of items we maintain that may be of help. We provide and update
regularly a Search Tools Chart that gives basic information on each of the
major searching tools - we also make an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document
Format (PDF) copy available for ease of printing (2 pages) for libraries
who like to have handouts for themselves and users - The Search Tools Chart
is at http://www.infopeople.org/src/chart.html 

We also maintain a one-page chart for the advanced searchers you may have -
Search Engines Quick Guide - http://www.infopeople.org/src/guide.html (also
available in PDF.

The Best search tools page is for efficiency in searching - bring the best
tools together yet not too overwhelming - it's at
http://www.infopeople.org/src/srctools.html

Finally, you should check out the Librarians' Index to the Internet (see
below) - a database of over 5,000 annotated Internet resources useful to
public library users. The indexers are a team of more than 80 librarians
working in all types of libraries.

Carole
_____________________________________________
Carole Leita, leita at infopeople.org
Coordinator, Librarians' Index to the Internet
http://www.lii.org/
InFoPeople Web Site Manager
http://www.infopeople.org/

At 03:44 PM 6/28/99 -0700, Andrea Mandel wrote:
>At our library we are trying to assist in enabling our patrons to me
>more independent when using the computer.  We try to offer as many
>handouts as possible to enable them to reach their goals most
>effectively.  Since most of the search engines differ as to how to form
>booleans, etc (many better at differing searches!) - is there any site
>that offers characteristics of each that we may use to pass on to our
>patrons?  Also, I use both Metacrawler and Dogpile if I am having
>trouble finding something with the traditional search engines.  I have
>found them to be inconsistant often not even giving me sites remotely
>related to my search terms.  Is there better "all-in-ones"?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Andrea Mandel
>Librarian
>Marple Public Library
>Broomall, PA  19008
>610-356-1510
>mandel at voicenet.com
>
>
>
_____________________________
Carole Leita, leita at wenet.net