I. Is there a future for print reference collections?

II. Is the free web always the right place?

III. Googling and other fun search tools: the basics of reference work

IV. Going beyond Google: building a virtual reference collection

V. Start building your own collection now!

• Google and library web reference collections:

  Search engines are the best tools we have so far to search the web. They are the only means to provide some type of structure to an exponentially growing world of electronically available information.

  On the other hand, the sheer number of words indexed by search engines increases the likelihood that they will return hundreds of thousands of results to simple search requests. Keep in mind that such search tools will return lengthy documents in which your keyword appears only once!

  A library web site with a selective collection of Internet sources may save teachers and students hours of wandering about from web page to web page. Such a collection of web sites may directly address curriculum needs and type of information that is developmentally appropriate for students.
   

•  Virtual reference collections:
  
  a. Questions and tools to answer them
  
  b. Tools for building virtual reference collections for your school library
  
  c. Guidelines for building a web collection:

  - create useful categories based on your school/teachers’ needs.
  
  - within each category alphabetize and provide brief descriptions for each web site (may use the descriptions from the web sites themselves, if available and accurate).
  
  - be selective, not inclusive, using reputable, already established web collections.