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Part III - Mining the Internet for Forums and Resources

Search engines and site index tools can either dramatically increase your productivity on the Web or completely frustrate you. A number of hints will allow you to more succesfully employ these resources for your needs:

• Try a few different search engines to find the one that is best suited for your Internet work. They all function slightly differently.
• Know when to do keyword searches and when to browse through subject headings. (Keyword searches are better if you're looking for information that might appear under a variety of different main topic headings whereas browsing techniques are more efficient if you're looking for something specific under a specific topic area.)
• In a keyword search, be as specific as possible.

There are many, many sites which are simply indexes of other sites under a given topic. Of these, many are indexes of "multicultural" or "Multicultural Education" sites. And of these, many include helpful descriptions of the sites they list. These can help you weed through the hundreds of "multicultural" sites to find more specifically what you're looking for.

Some multicultural site indexes:

1. Multicultural Paths from the Multicultural Pavilion
2. The Diversity Database from the U of Maryland
3. LION Multicultural Forum from Librarians Information Online Network

So, what do you do with resources once you find them? These three options allow Web users to record the location of a specific Web site, save a page or resource onto your computer or disk, or print out a page, respectively.

Bookmarking:

By "bookmarking" a Web site, you tell your Web browser to save the site location so you can call it up later without having to search for it or type in its URL. You can then index your bookmarks into categories to make them even easier to file through. To "bookmark" a file, pull down the Bookmark icon from the menu, and click on "Add to Bookmarks." Now, even after you shut down and restart your computer, the site will be listed under your bookmark file. (On browsers other than Netscape, bookmarks may be referred to as "favorites.")

Saving:

If you find a text-based resource which you want to keep, but you don't have access to a printer, you can "Save" the file to your computer or disk. To do this, pull down the "File" menu and select "Save As." Make sure you select where you want to save the file. Save the file as "text." This will save the file as close as possible to how it appears on your screen. Saving as "source" will give you the coding of the site, useful only if you're a web designer.

Printing:

If you have access to a printer, you can print out online resources by choosing "Print" from the "File" menu. Many Web browsers have a "print" button, making this process even easier!