University and academic institutions such as James Cook University are a very useful resource when seeking quality information on the internet. With the right search approach you may be able to access Subject Guides recommending specific internet resources in the area you need. Subject Guides are usually developed by librarians in consultation with faculty and lecturers in the courses offered by educational institutions. The guides are usually constantly updated, monitored for quality, and reviewed for relevance by information experts in their field who keep up to date with what is required by lecturers, course providers and industry.
Some resources listed will only be accessible by university staff and students, but often there will be free online resources selected and recommended because of their quality. These websites are often appropriate for school use and general knowledge.
There a couple of different search techniques to try when seeking online academic Subject Guides.
It is possible to search Google University (http://www.google.com.au/options/universities.html) which lists universities alphabetically and has worldwide coverage. Only some of the major Australian universities are listed, such as Monash University, QUT and University of New South Wales. Click on the link to the university and Google University allows you to search within that institution's web pages. For example, clicking on University of New South Wales and entering “criminal law subject guide” as a search takes you straight to the Library's Subject Guide page for criminal law.
An alternative approach is to first find the university home page using a search engine. Once within that homepage, locate the Library homepage and either browse looking for Subject Guides, Subject Resources or Pathfinders, or search within the site if such a facility is available.
The third way to search is to choose Advanced Search within a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Alltheweb. Type your topic name together with the words “subject guide” in the search space, for instance “biology subject guide”. Most importantly, restrict the domain in advanced search to .edu or .edu.au to restrict the results to educational sites within Australia. In this example the first result returned in a Google Advanced search was the Central Queensland University's Biology Subject Guide which provides a list of Biology-related web sites.
Need some help searching the Web? Contact us and we'll do our best to help. Anything useful or interesting will be included in future articles (Confidentiality and your privacy are assured).
Thuringowa Library Services - Information Desk
Ph: 4773 8601
Email: infodesk@thuringowa.qld.gov.au
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Searchlight is a weekly column written by CityLibraries Townsville. It is published in the Townsville Bulletin newspaper and on this 'blog every Monday. Searchlight aims to make your internet searching more effective, efficient and fun by reviewing search tools, providing searching hints and tips, and helping with tricky search topics.
