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More information on this topic can be found
in Chapter 4 of the textbook.
Directories are basically subject catalogs. (Virtual libraries are specialized directories, but we'll get to them in Unit 5). They consist of topical lists of internet resources arranged hierarchically. The main benefit of directories is that they are compiled and catalogued by actual human beings (as opposed to machine programs like spiders and robots).
Major www directories:
Although you can search a directory using keywords (which will search the contents of that directory and not the entire world wide web), the structure of directories is best used for going from general to specific topics. For example, if you wanted to find Howard Community College's web site, you could start in Yahoo! with their Education category, and then drill down through Colleges and Universities, then By Region, then U.S. States , then Maryland, then Counties and Regions , then Howard County@ and finally, Howard Community College@, where you'd find the final link to HCC's web page. This may seem incredibly circuitious since you already know the final destination you want to see, but this is a handy system for going from a general topic to a very specific one. For instance, when you're exploring a topic for a paper, it can be very useful to use a directory search to get an overview of all the possibilities of specialization within the topic before you start narrowing it down.
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© Howard Community College 2002
Last updated: 16 Apr 2003
