Portals, Ready Reference, and LibrariesAccessEvaluationOrganization

Access

Search industry and libraries facilitate access to online information.

Portals are the search industry’s answer library collections

Libraries use, organize, and collect web information too. Portals are usually just called “library home pages.” Or sometimes “ready reference collections.”

Portals

Sites that contain a search function, but also services such as free email, free home pages, maps, phone books, email, directories, news, and company information, etc. ("sticky" features)

They want to be your entry to EVERYTHING on the Web, not just searching

Portals

Examples: Yahoo Myway.com msn.com Aol.com

Library homepages

Provide access to a number of resources, too…more than just the free web!:

Example UC-Berkeley Libraries http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/

A hybrid: Refdesk.com http://www.refdesk.com/

Ready Reference Collections

Collection of online ready reference sources also facilitate access:

City College of San Francisco http://www.ccsf.org/Library/readyref.html

Wilton Library http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/ref.asp Loyola University

http://www.loyno.edu/~hobbs/readyreference.html University of Oklahoma http://www.ou.edu/webhelp/rr/ DeskRef http://www.rcls.org/deskref/

Librarians

And then, of course, we have the living, breathing, walking, INTELLIGENT guide to all the Web…and more!:

Organizing

Use these pre-made resources (portals, library home pages, ready reference collections) or organize your own

Useful for personal reference Useful when compiling a collection for

patrons/customers

Organizing

Finding sites Bookmark sites you find as you are

searching Search the invisible web Look for meta sites or other authorities on

your topic Evaluate all sites for yourself

How to Evaluate a Web Page

Evaluating content from the user's perspective, not design principles, but authority/accuracy

Who maintains the content? What is the content provider’s authority? Is there bias? Examine the URL (who owns the URL?) Examine outbound links Examine who links to it Is the information current? Use common sense