As if finding these new gems amid the vast clutter that is the Internet is not difficult enough, we must also learn to evaluate the quality of what we find in our searches. I am relieved to be able to say that help in dealing with all this is on the upswing. In addition, there are several general search tools that make a point of evaluating Internet sites and including annotations, reviews, and ratings in the information you get back when you enter a query. More and more libraries are putting up guides to selected Internet resources or are incorporating cataloged electronic files of value into their online catalogs. Comparative studies of the most heavily -used search engines are emerging, allowing you to pick two or three that work best for your area of study.
Subject gurus are busy compiling specialized source lists.
And an increasing number of papers on the quality of Internet documents is being published. There is even a listserv for people who want to discuss quality issues. So, if you waited until now to take a look at what the Internet can offer you, things are considerably different from what they were even six months ago and are likely to get even better for the serious searcher. In fact, the Internet is beginning to look a lot like the world of print publishing we all know and love. Since there are as yet no publishing standards on the Internet, some of these questions may be hard to answer.