Variety of Information Published on the Web

The Web offers a wide variety of information resources for research. Some of the various types of Web information are listed below.

• Ebooks and Ejournals

  A growing number of books and journals are published in electronic format. Some of these are electronic versions of print books and journals, while others are published only in electronic format. To see the wide scope and variety of electronic books and journals, try these sites:
  
  Books:
  University of California Press eScholarship Editions - http://texts.cdlib.org/ucpress/
  Project Gutenberg - http://www.promo.net/pg/
  Oxford Text Archive - http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/
  
  Journals:
  Electronic Journal Miner - http://ejournal.coalliance.org/
  LookSmart Find Articles.Com - http://www.findarticles.com/
  Directory of Open Access Journals - http://www.doaj.org/

• Primary and Secondary Sources

  While the Web is filled with secondary sources of information in the form of current news, articles, and reports, the Web is also an excellent place to locate primary sources of information. Scholars may publish their research directly on the Web or original documents may be available through digitization. Some examples of sites with primary or secondary sources are:
  
  Primary:
  Library of Congress American Memory Project - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
  Utah Skiing Photo Archives - http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/skiing.html
  
  Secondary:
  Encyclopedia Britannica Online- http://www.britannica.com/

• Scholarly and Popular Information

  As with print resources, both scholarly and popular information can be found on the Web. As with any resource, you must evaluate all information to determine the quality. Be sure to look carefully at Web information because the sources may not be obvious. Examples of scholarly and popular information are:
  
  Scholarly:
  BMJ (British Medical Journal) - http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/
  Free Medical Journals.Com - http://www.freemedicaljournals.com/
  
  Popular:
  Time Magazine - http://www.time.com/
  People Magazine - http://www.people.com/

• Associations and organizations

  Many associations or organizations now have web sites which can provide valuable information for researchers, including reports, studies, statistics or general information about the association's specialty. In addition, researchers can determine the purposes of an organization to help evaluate resources found throughout the research process. Some examples of association or organization Web sites:
  
  American Medical Association - http://www.ama-assn.org/
  American Association of Retired Persons - http://www.aarp.org/
  American Heart Association - http://www.americanheart.org/
  Public Citizen - http://www.publiccitizen.org/

• Government information

  Publications of the U.S. Government are paid for with public money so many of them are available through open access on the Web. State and local government sites also offer useful information. Government publications are an excellent source of statistical data and information about laws, regulations, planning and policy. With Web publishing, researchers can conveniently access information directly from government agencies. Some examples of government information sites:
  
  GPO Access http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - http://www.epa.gov/
  Internal Revenue Service - http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/
  THOMAS: Legislative Information - http://thomas.loc.gov/
  State of Utah Home Page - http://www.utah.gov/main

• Multimedia Formats

  One advantage of the Web is its ability to distribute many formats of information. There are some types of information that require more than just text and images. Sometimes sound or video is the best way to represent a concept. Examples of various formats are:

  Video:
  Eye Movement Disorders -http://library.med.utah.edu/neuroophth/
  Internet Movie Database Movie Trailers - http://us.imdb.com/Sections/Trailers/
  
  Sound:
  The Auscultation Assistant - http://www.wilkes.med.ucla.edu/intro.html
  

TIP: Not all information on the Web is available for free. Many valuable electronic resources that you will learn about in Module 3 may be limited to use on your campus or through your library's remote access services because the library pays subscription or licensing fees.