Sunday, 24th December 2006

Wikiasari, Community Search Engine; What About Info Pro Community Constructed Databases and Search Tools?

Wikiasari, Community Search Engine; What About Info Pro Constructed Databases and Search Tools?
Barry Schwartz on SER summarizes several posts about a new "community" powered web engine from the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales. We were sad but not surprised to see that any mention of several (any) "librarian/info pro community" (compiled, annotated, maintained) search tools weren't mentioned in most of the discussions.

As we've said in many posts since the first days of RS, these resources aren't the largest (in overall size) but they have clear collection development policies and focus on quality of the underlying content versus overall size. It would take many posts to list all of them, but here are a few examples to review, know about, and use.

General
+ Librarians' Internet Index
The "What's New This Week" list of new entries is available as a web page, newsletter, or RSS feed.

+ Intute
A collection of many subject focused databases, formerly known as the Resource Discovery Network. Intute is also home of The Virtual Training Suite.

+ Internet Public Library
Expanding! Now a consortium of library and info science programs build and maintain the database.

+ Infomine
From the University of California, Riverside.

+ AcademicInfo.net
Librarian Mike Madin continues to hand pick resources for this directory.

+ homeworkNYC.org
From the NY Public Library.

Subject Focused
+ GlobalEDGE
Global business resources compiled by the team at the Center for International Business Education and Research at Michigan State University.

+ The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
Note the value-added metadata included with each entry.

+ National Science Digital Library

+ MedlinePlus
An amazing set of resources compiled, updated, and maintained by the information professionals and subject experts at the National Library of Medicine. You'll find an encyclopedia, directories, interactive tutorials, and over 700 health topic pages loaded with links to quality material and much more. The MEDLINEPLUS-NEW mailing list is also very useful.

Again, these are just the tip of the iceberg. If you've never visited or used these resources, MORE THAN worth a look.

See Also: Speaking of Wikipedia, Here's a Recent Interview with Larry Sanger Founder of Citizendium
Sanger was also a founding member of Wikipedia.

Category:

• Search News (ResourceShelf)
• Source File (ResourceShelf)

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