Open Web

There are two basic types of search engines: indexes and directories.

Indexes are search engines that use spiders and robots to collect website information and then return results that match the string of characters you type in. The vast majority of search engines today, including Google, are indexes.

Directories classify information and use people to determine the categories and provide indexing of websites. Directories list websites arranged by topic. Yahoo originally became known for this type of search, but the Web is so large that their directories quickly became outdated.

Search engines can retrieve web pages out of context. Always try to determine the source of information. One way to do this is by looking at the URL, which will reveal who is hosting the page.

Our library's periodical records are now linked to Google Scholar. Google Scholar, a subset of Google, contains links to full text journal articles, books, theses, etc. You can access Google Scholar here.

If off campus, you will be prompted for your ADS account and password. This identifies you so that you may receive linked articles directly from our databases when you do a search. Search results are usually ranked by “relevance”, which takes into account many factors including the number of times your search term appeared in the website.