The Invisible WebThe Invisible WebThe Invisible WebThe Invisible Web

Cynthia RooleyCynthia Rooley

Computer ResearchComputer Research

The Visible Web• Remember that MYTH about you

can find everything on the web?• The visible web is accessible by

search engines, meta-searches, and web directories.

• 7,500 Terabytes and 208 Billion pages.

Terabyte?• Computer terms for storage.• ONE Terabyte is a 1000 gigabytes or think

of iPOD with 250,000 songs OR 300 full feature videos.

• ONE gigabyte is a 1000 megabytes or think 500,000 pages of type.

• One megabyte is a 1000 bytes.• Trivia: 20 TBytes to hold Lib of Congress

The Invisible Web• 91,000 Terabytes and 550 Billion Pages• Why is that?

– Non-HTML formats, like Doc. PDF, PPT, etc.– Dynamic Pages that change constantly– Numerous databases such as libraries,

copyrighted materials, and private databases.

So How Do I Find It?Those Dark Hiding Places: The

Invisible Web Revealed     - Robert J. Lackie, Associate Professor-Librarian, Rider University

• http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv_Web.html

Hidden Content• Directories and Portals when you: • have a broad topic • want selected, evaluated, and annotated collections • prefer quality over quantity • Invisible or Deep Web [searchable sites and databases]

when you: • are looking for information that is likely in a database • are looking for information that dynamically changes in

content • Search engines [general and specialized] when you: • have a narrow topic • want to take advantage of the newer retrieval technologies

Remember those Directories?

• Librarian’s Internet Index.(LII.org). Websites you can trust. Websites related to current events, holidays, and popular and important issues. 20,000 sites, 14 topics and 300 related topics.

• InfoMine (infomine.ucr.edu). Scholarly resource collection includes 900 full text magazines .

• About.com. Organizes thousands of topics including Invisible Web. Try Typing Invisible Web.

Secret Password• The first password to get to the

invisible web is….• Think of your subject or your topic and

add the secret password, DATABASE.– Example: Animals and DATABASE– Nuclear DATABASE– Science DATABASE

Free Magazine Databases

• FindArticles.com 10 million+ articles from general interest, academic, and industry publications. Find info by topic, and limit search to “FREE Articles only.”

• MagPortal.com Free available magazine articles using keyword searching or category browsing. 200 magazines and links similar articles to each other.

• HighWire Press: Free Online Full-text Articles (highwire.stanford.edu) Free Full-Text life science articles, Browse by topic.

Specialized Search Engines

• Scirus (scirus.com/srsapp/) 450 Million science specific pages, includes journals, reports, data, and science sources.

• UFOSeek.com UFO and Paranormal Search Engine. Index of 57,889 paranormal, spiritual and UFO sites.

• AlltheWeb.com (meta crawler by yahoo) This is the largest, freshest indices, includes PDF, MS Word, News, Pictures, Audio, Video and multimedia “Singingfish” search engine.

References• As a consultant for NicheUSA with its ZoomerOne

(software tool for finding best web resources) product, I help with educational website recommendations. If you are interested in quality Web sites, directories, and portals for social studies, science, math, and language arts for kids (grades 3 to 12), then visit my recommended listings housed on the NicheUSA' Education ZoomerOne links homepage (http://eduzoomerone.wikispaces.com/).

• Send comments or questions about this workshop and/or Web site to Robert J. Lackie (rlackie@rider.edu), including if you would like permission to link to Those Dark Hiding Places: The Invisible Web Revealed (http://www.robertlackie.com/invisible/index.html).

• Copyright © May 29, 2001, Robert J. Lackie, Rider University Libraries.  Updated March 16, 2008.

Federated Search• Simultaneous Search of Multiple online

Databases for automated, web-based LIBRARY and information Retrieval.

• Known as a PORTAL. Enter search query and search in all owned databases in the portal, such as OPACs and Bibliographic Databases, Government-operated Databases.

• WorldwideScience hosted by US Dept of Energy.

• Vivisimo.