Internet Searching and Indexing

Prevent information overload with better indexing and retrieval strategies!

In the fast-changing world of the Internet, the skills of the librarian are indispensable for managing the overwhelming amount of available data. Internet Searching and Indexing examines the tools and procedures available now and for the future that will help librarians, students, and patrons search the Internet more systematically, while helping information professionals design more efficient, effective search engines and Web pages.

This comprehensive volume offers usable information for people at all levels of Internet savvy. Its clear explanations of the various ways search engines are structured will help new users take advantage of their attributes to design more effective retrieval strategies. It suggests practical ways for information professionals to use traditional library tools and concepts to make the Web more accessible. Moreover, it shows how the Web can be tapped as an immense resource to help librarians in the process of subject classification.

Internet Searching and Indexing offers specific guidance on:

• how to classify various Web search tools and take advantage of their capabilities
• using signposts such as indexes, directories, and metadata to improve access to information on the Web
• the advantages of using facet analysis in Web page organizing, indexing, and searching
• the links between Internet subject trees and conventional bibliographic classification
• guidelines for interface design for developing Web-based OPACs
• applying Library of Congress subject headings to classifying Web subject access . . . and more

  With the vast amount of information that is added to the Web each day, finding data is becoming more time consuming and more complex. Internet Searching and Indexing will help you decrease the time you spend searching for the information you need and assist you in cataloging, classification, indexing, and creating quick and effective retrieval methods.

Dolores Zegar Judkins

This book consists of 11 papers on the tools and procedures for searching the Internet and how Internet pages can be modified and indexed to facilitate more efficient retrieval. It is copublished simultaneously as Journal of Internet Cataloging, v.2 no. 314, 2000. The purpose is to give basic guidance for beginning Internet searchers, discuss conceptual issues about the organization of knowledge and the subject approach to searching the Internet, present the current state of Internet searching tools and indexing procedures, and offer analyses of the principles, techniques, and tools that can be used in the future. Librarians, Web page developers, information professionals, and Internet users in general from beginners to experts are the intended audience. There are three parts to this book: search engine characteristics and effective use; classification and its contribution to Web organization, indexing, and searching; and subject cataloging and the Internet. The search engine section includes papers on the overview of the Internet and basic search tools for the beginner, understanding search engine design to facilitate retrieval, and the use of metadata. The classification section includes information on indexing systems, current methods of organizing information on the Internet, and future scenarios for Internet classification systems. The final section includes papers on Web-based OPACs and a proposal for using USE (Universal Subject Environment) to catalog the Web. Because of the nature of the Internet, this book is somewhat dated (e.g. Google is mentioned only once very briefly), but the basic information on search engine use and search techniques is still useful forbeginners. The sections on indexing and cataloging will be of interest to those people looking at how to classify the plethora of information available on the Web. I know of no other books that discuss the concepts of Internet searching and indexing in this manner.

Thomas, Alan R., MA, FLA (Pratt Institute); Shearer, James R., MA, ALA (Thames Valley Univ, London)