Search Help from Librarians

The journalist's best friend on the net, librarians. Use their expertise and advice:

Plus, for general library resources not related to searching:

The best:

  • PublicPolicy Library seeks to "place public policy knowledge in the public domain."
  • NelsonSearch Searches news databases
  • News of the week   The Poynter Institute's David Shedden gives journalists useful links for a top story of the week.
  • Behind the headlines  A UK academic site that provides good resources and web pages for top stories in the news. Operated by the  Resource Discovery Network.
  • UK librarians - BUBL   UK academic site with wide selection by topic or country
  • US librarians' Index to the Internet     Excellent resource, mainly American
  • RefDesk    One stop shopping for everything from Finding Experts to Finding News
  • Brittanica      Encylopedia Brittanica editors  find the best sites for you
  • DocuTicker DocuTicker a daily update of new reports from government agencies, NGOs and think tanks compiled by US librarians. Though mainly American, the resources can be as varied as the effect of globalisation on children’s mental health, road fatalities in the UK and money-laundering worldwide.

International:

US:

  • US librarians' Index to the Internet     Excellent resource, mainly American
  • Internet Public Library -Subjects An annotated collection of high quality Internet resources, selected by the Internet Public Library that guarantees you accurate, factual information on topics from blogs to science to news.
  • Nueva School: Choose the best search engine    Excellent guide to the best ways to use each search engine
  • Nora Paul's Great Scout    Poynter Institute expert's list of the best web sites
  • News of the week   The Poynter Institute's David Shedden gives journalists useful links for a top story of the week. While usually an American story, the issues are frequently of world importance.An excellent way to find the best news sources for a current story.
  • Harvard Research   Tap into the wealth of research at Harvard University with this well-organized site. You can search by topic, researcher or keyword. The results give you abstracts, links to articles and contact names for interviews. The main subject areas are Mind, Body, Society,Space, Earth,and Technology.
  • PublicPolicy Library. For journalists who want deep background on a major issue, you'll find policy papers and resources for free from think tanks,governments, and universities -- over 700 policy and research papers, You can search by subject, author, country,institution, or title or browsed by topic under four categories: social policy, economic policy, international issues, and political thought.
  • Digital Librarian  Margaret Vail Anderson, a librarian in New York offers her "Choice of the Best of the Web." There is no search box, but you'll find nuggets buried in the subject categories that vary from Islam to Science.
  • US PoliSci.com   Excellent political background
  • US - Gary Price's Search List
  • Cornell Gateway
  • AlphaSearch

  • LibrarySpot

UK:

  • UK librarians - BUBL   UK academic site with wide selection by topic or country
  • Behind the headlines    The RDN's 30,000 resources are selected, catalogued and described by subject and information professionals drawn from over 60 UK education institutions.
  • Spire Project Lessons for getting the most out of search engines and a guide on how to find anything useful in the black-hole that is the UN online.

Canada:

 

Return to JNet's Main Search Help Page