Collaborative Weblink Service

by George Pilling, District Library Media Specialist     

Internet Searching 

Internet searching is difficult.  It can take tremendous amounts of time, plus prior knowledge about a subject.  It also takes ability to read quickly, prioritize, and arrange ideas in your mind.  For most student projects, a print or online encyclopedia is the best first choice to help a student narrow a topic before searching, and to increase prior knowledge. It is also good practice for students to summarize encyclopedia articles so as to show them how to avoid plagiarism.

For links to information about Web site evaluation, plagiarism and copyright, see appropriate links at www.tucolib.info. 

Search Engines for students:

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!

www.ajkids.com

http://www.eduscapes.com/42explore

Kid's Search Tools http://www.rcls.org/ksearch.htm

www.awesomelibrary.org 

Search Engines and Directories:

• Children's search engines are actually searchable directories of sites that have been selected for appropriateness and appeal to children.  Bookmark these for your classroom: 

  • Kids Click - Excellent directory from UC Berkeley http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/

  • Ask Jeeves for Kids - Also excellent, but slightly more commercial www.ajkids.com

  • Yahooligans - Commercial, but still valuable and appealing www.yahooligans.com

• "Secret" librarian reference sites. Try these when you get tired of the commercialism of the rest. 

  • The Internet Public Library: www.ipl.org

  • Librarians Index to the Internet: www.lii.org

  • Library Spot: http://libraryspot.com

• General Search Engines and directories

  • Four to Explore gives 4 web sites on many topics, especially chosen for usefulness to children.  Four web sites seems to be an excellent number - about all a student can handle in a reasonable time frame.  Try it at http://www.eduscapes.com/42explore  

  • WebBrain uses a very interesting directory/search engine structure: www.webbrain.com.  Use the web at the top of the page to narrow down your topic. Web sites on that subject are listed in the bottom half of the screen.

  • Dogpile is my favorite metasearch engine www.dogpile.com 

  • Google has compiled the largest number of web sites. www.google.com 

Collected April 2002 by George Pilling

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