Looking for the needle ...

USHA THIAGARAJAN, Learning Connections, Chennai.

The shelves contain all that is given to express, in all languages. Everything the minutely detailed history of the future, the archangel's autobiographies, the faithful catalogue of the Library, thousands and thousands of false catalogues, the demonstration of the fallacy of those catalogues, the demonstration of the fallacy of the true catalogue, the Gnostic's gospel, the commentary on that gospel, the commentary on that commentary, the true story of your death, the translation of every book in all languages, the interpolations of every book in all books.

When it was proclaimed that the library contained all books, the first expression was of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some page. The universe was justified; the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope.

Unfortunately, this idyllic library is ill-served by man, the imperfect librarian who is forever in search of the catalogue of catalogues...

Jorges Luis Borges describing the total library in Library of Babel.

The Internet with its vast storehouses of information is probably the closest representation yet of the total library as described by Luis Borges. And like in the library of Babel, locating precisely what you need is still a problem. But the Internet is young yet and methods for navigating through it are still evolving.

What makes searching the Internet so difficult is that there is no organised central search system - there cannot be, given the diffuse nature of the web - instead there are many search engines. The phrase "search engine" is used loosely to include directories like Yahoo! which is a database with short descriptions of sites organised in categories and updated by humans. It also includes real search engines like Altavista, Excite and HotBot. "Real" search engines employ automated software spiders that "crawl" the web searching out new sites which are then indexed in the search engine's database, Khoj and sawaal are among the popular Indian search engines yielding information on Indian websites.

Typically a search engine's database can contain millions of URLs. URL refers to Uniform Resource Locator, the unique "address" of a website, which often includes a clue to its location; "edu" sites for example are maintained by educational institutions, "org" sites are the work of non-profit organisations and "com" sites have ties to the world of commerce.

Meanwhile you can get started with what my search engine found for me when I asked for sites on vaccines. Among the many sites that were delivered, I found Access Excellence a good pick as it was easily navigable, clearly categorised, and provided links to many other sites. Access Excellence, a website launched in 1993, is an educational programme that provides high school biology and life science teachers access to critical sources for new scientific information.

Classic Collection

http://www.accessexcellence.com/AE/AEC/CC

The classic collection, an ongoing series examines these people and events that have changed or defined the face of scientific knowledge.

Some of the chapters included in the classic collection are The Heart and the Circulatory System; Radioactivity; Historical Figures; A Visit with Dr. Francis Crick; Vaccines - How and Why?

http://www.accessexcellence.com/atg/

This I think is a particularly interesting activity idea. I found it in the Activity Exchange center. It is intended to demonstrate how trees are veritable climatic engines. The activity can be extended to estimate the amount of water transpired in a tropical region of our planet and turn your schoolyards into ecological laboratories.

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Tips for Teachers:

The best way to choose a search engine is to test drive a few and find one or more that consistently yields the most relevant information. Pick a topic you know well, then run the same search on several engines. Because you are aware of the nuances of the subject, you will quickly be able to evaluate how effective each one is at ferreting out very specific information.

Once you are comfortable with at least two of the many search engines, bookmark them. Remember no single search engine will give you everything you want.

Also be sure to help your students learn how to search the Internet. Once they are proficient, you can give students your "wish list" and have them retrieve information. Asking them to explain their search strategies increases the value of the assignment. This is a very high interest activity for students and saves you time.

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