A great deal of the really good content on the www is contained in databases, so what, you say. Well, most search engines are unable to access these databases in their search process. In other words, this is data you'll never locate unless you know it's out there and you know exactly how to access it.

As I said in the above paragraph search e-sources for the most part are unable to access information contained in these Web-accessible databases. They are however able to access the search e-source or interface associated with these databases, if you know how to search for them that is.

Here is an example (a picture is worth a thousand words they say, or should that be changed in this new millennium to "a screen shot is worth a thousand bits of data")

The trick is to search for the specific topic you're interested in with the Boolean "and" together with the word "database" in your query.

Searched the web for medicine.

Have a look at the results produced using only the word medicine for our search. Results 17,900,000 documents found, but no databases.

Now perform that same search using medicine and database.

Now we look at the search string "medicine and database. First you'll notice that the search e-source tells us that our "and" is not necessary (see article "Search with the power of Boolean operators" in the OU Interactive Library)

We have returned 1,390,000 results. (More than 16 million less than the above search) Not only have we eliminated many millions of useless data references, but we have produced a much narrower search field with highly pertinent information to be found in the hundreds of databases we are now able to peruse.

This type of searching will produce highly targeted results without having to dig through millions of rag tag commercial sites, message boards and discussion lists. You'll generally find that these results come without all of heavy graphics and hype you'll fine with a wider search method.

"Your Success Is Our Success"