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

Web guides compiled by or for librarians or using library classification schemes. For how-to advice, see Cataloging the Internet.

• 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)

• 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)

Dewey Decimal Classification:

• Bulletin Board for Libraries (BUBL):
• BUBL Link: Catalogue of Internet Resources - Browse by Dewey class
• Also available as a subject hierarchy
• Renardus - A European directory that acts as a gateway to subject gateways; loosely organized by Dewey Decimal classes, but also searchable by keyword
• Cyberdewey
• Suite 101 - Like About.com, has editors for different subject pages
• Webrary by Morton Grove Public Library
• Wolverhampton Web Library

Library of Congress Classification:

• CyberStacks (Gerry McKiernan, Iowa State)



• See also Reference Desks and Librarians and the Internet

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:
• Academic Search Engines
• Invisible Web

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:
• KidSpace
• TeenSpace
• 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