An important form of field research. Surveys consist of a series of questions that individuals respond to on paper, in person, on the telephone, or on a computer. Electronic searches used to locate works for which you know the title or part of the title. See Searching by Title in Searching an Online Library Catalog . Like a Web index, you can search a Web directory for all entries that contain a particular set of keywords.
Directories differ from indexes, however, in the way they organize information.
Web indexes simply compile a growing number of records. Web directories, in contrast, organize information into groups of related records. Using Web Directories on Using the World Wide Web . A Web index is similar in function to a database or library catalog. Web indexes contain millions of records on Internet sites, much as a database or library catalog contains records on books, periodicals, government documents, or other materials that might be found in a library.