On all of these questions, there are many ways to get to the answers you want. You may come up with a different strategy of your own, which is fine -- the answer is what counts. But keep in mind that different search engines will give you different answers, so it's worth your while not to stop when you find one answer -- try a different route and see what else you may find.

Remember that to find answers to ready reference questions you can always go to a reference desk on the net, such as the one at Librarians' Index to the Internet (http://lii.org) or at the Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/ref/RR/static/ref00.00.00.html). You can also search through the reference sources at xrefer (http://w1.xrefer.com/) or Bartleby (http://bartleby.com/). And remember that the web is more than web sites -- it's a delivery system for your online catalog, magazines, newspapers, and even full text books. It's also a communication system; consider searching newsgroups. If you think you'd like to use a specialized search engine or database, lii.org/ and SearchAbility http://searchability.com/ and InvisibleWeb http://www.invisibleweb.com/ can help you find the appropriate specialized tool.

The general search engines you'll be playing with are:

• AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/
• All the Web (formerly known as FastSearch) http://www.alltheweb.com/
• Ask Jeeves http://www.ask.com/
• Google http://www.google.com/
• HotBot http://hotbot.lycos.com/
• MSNSearch http://search.msn.com/
• SurfWax http://www.surfwax.com/
• Vivisimo http://vivisimo.com/
  
  
  
  1. A kid wants to know where to find Christmas clip art.

     Hint 1: This is a good time to use Ask Jeeves for Kids (http://www.ajkids.com/) to make sure you get not only kid-safe but sites chosen because they're kid-safe and appealing to kids. Ask your question in plain English, e.g., Where can I find Christmas clip art?.

     Hint 2: Go to a good directory, like Librarians Index to the Internet (http://lii.org/) and type clip art or even holiday clip art.

     Hint 3: Go to any search engine and type in Christmas clip art (or holiday clip art). HOWEVER, if the child is standing there, you might want to make sure the search engine's family filter is switched on before you hit enter.
     
     
     

  2. You have a student looking for information on school prayer, but there are way too many sites and she doesn't know enough about it to know how she wants to narrow her search.

     Hint 1: This might be a good time to try out Vivisimo (http://vivisimo/). Type in "school prayer", and see if its cluster results help her narrow her search.

     Hint 2: Use AltaVista and type in school prayer + faq. Notice they will come from a variety of viewpoints. Also note that Alta Vista suggests terms that you can either add to your search or replace your original search with.

     
     
     
     

  3. You were out of town during the election and missed local election news. Now you want to find out about whether the referendum of riverboat gambling passed in Scott County.

     Hint: On Google or AltaVista or Alltheweb, restrict your search to News first.
     
     
     

  4. You have a college student asking whether there is research about whether fat people are discriminated against in employment.

     Hint 1: Try this in HotBot, Google and Alta Vista, using the advanced search so that you can do a boolean search. Your search statement will need to take into account the different ways each of the elements in this search might be described: (obese OR obesity OR weight) + (employment OR hiring OR promotion OR compensation) + discrimination + (research or study)

     Hint 2: Any time people want research, think about using full-text databases, since the majority of scholarly research is still reported first in journal literature. Again, you'll need a search statement that reflects the different terms that may be used to describe the problem.

     Hint 3: Don't forget to try your own online catalog. There may be books specific to this topic, but a more general book on employment discrimination may have some excellent information on this particular kind of discrimination.
     
     
     

  5. You are building a new library that's going to open three years from now, and you want to know whether the wireless networks are reliable enough that you can plan on using wireless technologies.

     Hint 1: Use different search engines and type in wireless + libraries.

     Hint 2: This would be a good time to listen in on what discussion groups are saying about it. Go to Google and click on groups and then type in wireless + libraries.
     
     
     

  6. A faculty member wants to know what kinds of scientific imaging resources are available?

     Hint: Use All the Web and type in scientific imaging software. Note that mostly you are getting commercial products. Now click on Fast's Search Scirus option, which searches only scienctific resources. Type in scientific imaging software, then change settings to search journals only. Note that the results page shows you ways to narrow your search results.

     Hint 2: You suspect that what the faculty member really wants is to know what the different software packages do and how well they work. Go to any search engine and type in "scientific imaging" + software + review. Then try the same search substituting the word "comparison" for "review." Then try searching scientific imaging + software + faq and scientific imaging + software + comparison. Compare your results.

     Hint 3: you suspect the faculty member doesn't want to pay for the software. Add the word "free" to your search.
     
     
     

  7. Your students have no real concept of what else was going on in the world at the same time as the Civil War.

     Hint: what you need is a TIMELINE or CHRONOLOGY, but it has to include events other than the civil war itself. Suggested search phrases: civil war + timeline + literature, or civil war + timeline + religion, etc. Or just search for timeline + literature or timeline + technology or whatever. [to see why a timeline is such a useful teaching device, see Timeline of the U.S. Presidents http://chaos1.hypermart.net/pres/tusp.html.]
     
     
     

  8. Your students have come up with a site on Martin Luther King that looks plausible on the surface but seems to have an anti-King slant. You want to check on its credibility.

     Hint: Use the link function in either Google or AltaVista or to find out who links to martinlutherking.org . Type link:martinlutherking.org
     
     
     

  9. My students need information on the Delaware Watershed.

     Hint 1: Ask yourself who would collect information on this, and the names of numerous government agencies will come to mind. Use Google, click on Advanced Search, and select Government Search, which takes you to Google Uncle Sam (direct address is http://www.google.com/unclesam). Type in Delaware Watershed. List all the different government agencies are represented in the first two pages of results. Compare these results with the results from a general search engine.

     Hint 2: If they're looking for research or magazine articles, use one of your full-text periodical databases.
     
     
     

  10. You want to determine the defaults for search engines on your public computers. Go to each search engine and explore to see if it allows you to set preferences or options, and which kinds.
      
      
      
  11. A patron wants a diagram of a diesel engine.

      Hint 1: Type diagram + diesel engine on any search engine.

      Hint 2: on search engines with specific image searches, click on the image search first and then type in diagram + diesel engine

      Hint 3: Use Ditto.com http://Ditto.com/, an image search engine. Compare your results.

      Hint 4: Do they really just want a diagram, or are they trying to figure out how the diesel engine works? Go to How Stuff Works http://www.howstuffworks.com/

      Hint 5: You really liked the idea of How Stuff Works, but the explanation didn't satisfy you. Look up How Stuff Works on Google or AltaVista and click on the "similar pages" feature to see what resources like it are out there.
      
      
      

  12. Someone wants to know what E's real name is. She has his album titled "A Man Called E," but the liner notes don't give his real name, or any other information about him. She'd also like to find out what else he's done and where she can find lyrics. See how much you can find.

      Hint 1: try searching with E, and you'll realize how unsearchable it is. Try searching the album title in quotes in http://google.com/ and in FastSearch http://www.alltheweb.com/

      Hint 2: find a good general rock music encyclopedia or directory through lii.org or by typing rock music + guide into a general search engine. Then, inside the encyclopedia or guide, look up either E or the album title.
      
      
      

  13. You'd like to use a quote you sort of remember about Puritanism being the fear that someone might be happy. What's the exact phrasing, who said it, and where?

      Hint: standard search engines are hopeless for quotes because the people who put them up don't necessarily get them right and they for sure don't tell you where they came from. As noted above, there are sources that search through online reference books. Try X-Refer http://w1.xrefer.com/. Use the pulldown menu to select quotations and type in Puritanism .

      Hint 2: Try the same strategy in Bartleby (http://bartleby.com/), selecting one of the quote books from the pulldown menu.
      
      
      

  14. I want to find what patents already exist for insulated glass.

      Hint: this is a two-stage operation. Use and standard search engine and type patents + database. Click on one of them and do your search inside the patents database.
      
      
      

  15. A middle school student is researching Victoria Woodhull for a History Day project.You want to make sure she uses quality historical scholarship and primary documents.

      Hint 1: What, you're not using your online catalog? The best starting point for a serious history project is a good biography. Show them the other stuff too, but make sure they walk out with a good book.

      Hint 2: try one of the free full-text databases available to you.

      Hint 3: If you have neither, run this search in FindArticles.com (http://www.findarticles.com/PI/index.jhtml).

      Hint 4: for primary resources, in any search engine try these statements: Victoria Woodhull + primary sources; Victoria Woodhull + documents; Victoria Woodhull + speech; Victoria Woodhull + newspaper. Other possible tricks: restrict by domain (.edu or gov or org) or add terms like LIBRARY or EXHIBIT or MUSEUM
      
      
      

  16. A student's teacher has insisted students must use books in their research papers but all the books on his topic -- abortion -- have been checked out.

      Hint: Go to the On-Line Books Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ and type abortion in the title search. (You don't want to do a subject search, which includes entire LC classifications.)
      
      
      

  17. You want to find out what the public thinks about war with Iraq, but you don't trust a general search engine or news reports on polls because they often don't tell you exactly what question was asked.

      Hint: Use Polling Report http://pollingreport.com/, which reprints a wide variety of polls over time, complete with the exact questions respondents answered.
      
      
      

  18. A patron with a sunburn and lots of freckles wants to know if there's any link between freckles and skin cancer.

      Hint 1: Try Medline Plus (http://medlineplus.gov/) for medical information in laypersons' terms. Look for an entry on "risk factors."

      Hint 2: Use any search engine with the statement skin cancer + risk factors + freckles. You'll get the answer (yes) this way too, but Medline will offer extremely useful and reliable patient information as well.
      
      
      

      No more hints. You've got the hang of this by now.
      Try these questions on the search engine of your choice.
      
      
      
  19. You want to find out the fuel economy of a used 2000 Chevrolet Metro you're thinking about buying.
      
      
      
  20. Your patron would like a pattern and directions for an Ohio Star quilt block.
      
      
      
  21. A patron who lives in the northeast corner of Iowa wants to know the deer hunting regulations for Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
      
      
      
  22. Your patron can't remember how to play Spite and Malice. Can you find the rules for it?

      
      
      
      

  23. You'd like to do a display on fiction centered around sports, but most of your novels are not subject cataloged. How could you find reading lists of sports fiction on the web?