Find It Online: The Complete Guide to Online Research, Second Edition
Since its first publication in 1994, this guide has been an essential tool for journalists, researchers, lawyers, professors, librarians, business executives, and students. The new edition has been updated by award-winning journalist Schlein to include tips and search strategies from 20 information industry experts. In the introduction, Schlein states that he aimed to make the work "considerably more global in focus," and in fact the title does not do it justice. This is more than an annotated list of thousands of web sites-it is a coaching tool that shows readers how to do comprehensive and reliable research in hundreds of disciplines, regardless of information container. Schlein explains when a particular set of data is best found on a free or fee-based web site. When no digital source exists, he refers readers to the "best" container, whether it is a print resource or a person. Unfortunately, this book does not explain where to find information about P2P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing systems such as KaZaA, so information about music research is scarce. Online music resources are better discussed in Chris Sherman and Gary Price's The Invisible Web. Another weakness is the lack of an accurate well-crafted index. Instead, the index functions as a keyword list and not a topic guide (e.g., "separated by adoption" and "minor traffic violations" are main entries and are not cross-referenced under their respective subjects). These faults aside, this work is still well recommended for all libraries because of its comprehensiveness; other similar works, like Reva Basch's now dated Researching Online for Dummies, are targeted to newbies and specific audiences.Kara L. Giles, Dominican Univ. Lib., River Forest, ILCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.