Los Angeles Valley College Library 5800 Fulton Ave. Valley Glen, California, 91401-4096 Phone: 818-947-2425 Fax: 818-947-2751

Finding Web documents (pages or sites) can be easy or seem impossibly difficult. 

• due to the sheer size of the WWW, currently estimated to contain 2 billion documents. 

• because the WWW is not indexed in any standard vocabulary (unlike a library's catalogs which assign Library of Congress or some other widely accepted standardized subject descriptors to their documents, or a journal-article index which uses its standardized subject descriptors).

Define your topic and Identify keywords

• write down your topic  and identify the keywords or phrases

• identify specific keywords for the most important concepts. Think of synonyms, including singular/plural, spelling variations, different endings, etc.

• identify broad subject areas the might include the  topic

• identify organizations or government agencies that might be involved with  the topic

To summarize:

• Take a look at some of the resources for learning more about the WWW.

• Look for materials at Web sites that focus on more scholarly resources.

• Use search engines and subject directories to locate materials on the Web. 

• Links for learning how to find information on the Internet.

  • Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial : a very thorough tutorial from UC Berkeley

  • Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet : explains searching strategy, query design, Boolean and other advanced search operators, filtering based on fields, and specialty searches

  • Internet Tutorials - University at Albany Libraries : excellent collection of beginners' tutorials

  • T is for Thinking (ICYouSee) : Ithaca College Library; one of the best introductions to using the Internet

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updated 02/07