Web Subject Guides / Web Directories
These are directories of selected Web sites. For the most part, real-live people have chosen the links on these pages; they are not the machine-generated lists that you get from search engines. Search these sites when you are looking for a broad topic.
Many of these sites provide updates by e-mail or RSS. See also Reference Desks for directories of quick reference sites and Web Current Awareness for sites that provide regular updates of useful new Web sites.
This page:
Library-Style Subject Guides |
Academic Subject Guides |
Popular Subject Guides |
Web for Kids
Library-Style Subject Guides
- Infomine Scholarly Internet Resource Collections - Quality as well as quantity; uses Library of Congress subject headings (UC Riverside)
- Internet Public Library (IPL)
- Subject Collections
- Pathfinders - Guides to specific subjects
- Librarians' Internet Index (LII) - "Websites
you can trust"
- LII Classic Content - Some favorite sites of the LII team
- Michigan Electronic Library (MEL)
- Best Information on the Net (formerly Where the Wild Things Are: A Librarian's Guide)
- Internet Resources from College & Research Libraries News - Lists on selected topics
- Digital Librarian: A Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web
- FirstFind.info - A service of Westchester (N.Y.) Library system
- Librarians' Resource Centre (Special Libraries Association, Toronto Chapter)
Web guides compiled by or for librarians or using library classification schemes. For how-to advice, see Cataloging the Internet.
- Library of Congress Research Centers
- Alcove 9 - A "virtual alcove" of the Library of Congress' Reading Room for humanities and social sciences
- Web Guides by the Library of Congress Digital Reference Team - An eclectic mix of subjects, but if yours is there, you'll find some good stuff
- The Learning Page - Aimed at educators
Library of Congress:
- New York Public Library: Best of the Web
- Sage - Resources selected by librarians at UC San Diego. Some resources are restricted to UCSD.
- The Virtual Chase - "Teaching legal professionals how to do research." This site by a law librarian covers more than just legal research, including using search engines, researching companies, finding people, and finding factual information in many areas. Frequently updated.
- Virtual Reference Library - General collection of links with an emphasis on Ontario and Canada (Toronto Public Library)
- Internet Scout Project home page - Includes research on creating other resource-discovery sites.
- Scout Report, current issue. Also available by e-mail subscription.
- Scout Report Archives - Browse or search
- Internet Scout Weblog
- Scout Toolkit (No longer updated)
Internet Scout Project:
- Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL):
- BUBL Link: Catalogue of Internet Resources - Browse by Dewey class
- Also available as a subject hierarchy
- Cyberdewey
- Suite 101 - Like About.com, has editors for different subject pages
- Webrary by Morton Grove Public Library
- CyberStacks (Gerry McKiernan, Iowa State)
- See also Reference Desks and Librarians and the Internet
Dewey Decimal Classification:
Library of Congress Classification:
Academic Subject Guides
- Academic Info - By former librarian Mike Madin
- Intute - Database of academic sites
created by UK universities (Formerly Resource Discovery Network [RDN])
(What's this?)
- Pinakes - Links to some choice subject and general portals. Named for the catalog of the library at Alexandria. (UK)
- Encyclopædia Britannica's Internet Guide
- Needle in a Cyberstack
- Telson Spur - An unusual arrangement of subjects
- UniGuide Academic Guide to the Internet
- WWW Virtual Libraries
- See also:
Popular Subject Guides
- Yahoo! - The original and still the best at what it does
- Yahoo Directory - Go straight to
the hand-picked good stuff. Read about new additions to major
categories in RSS
feeds
- Yahoo International - Sites focused on other countries and languages
- About.com (formerly the Mining Company) - No longer as great as it used to be; more than 300 pages have been cut
- LookSmart
- Open Directory Project
- A collaborative Web directory assembled by volunteers (dmoz.org)
(via xmlhub)
- Zeal - Like Open Directory Project, uses volunteer editors. Results become part of the LookSmart database.
- Zenome
Web for Kids
- KidsClick - Sites chosen by librarians
- 4Kids.org
- Ask for Kids
- Blue Web'n - Web sites recommended for teachers and school librarians
- Great Web Sites for Kids (American Library Association)
- Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages by Net-mom Jean Armour Polly
- Internet Public Library:
- Internet Sites for Kids
- Mrs. Gray's Research Sites for Kids - A Google custom search engine that searches the major kids' sites
- ThinkQuest Library - A collection of 5,000 sites built by kids for kids as part of ThinkQuest's Internet Challenge
- Yahooligans - Yahoo for kids
- Child Safety on the Information Highway
- See also Fact Sources for Kids