What are Subject Directories and when should I use them?

Subject Directories consist of large catalogs or indexes of web sites covering a multitude of subjects that have been reviewed, gathered together and organized by human editors. Directories are organized hierarchically into many different subjects or categories. This makes it very easy for a user to browse through the lists of web sites found under each subject or category. Today’s directories also provide a search option that enables users to search within the directory in addition to browsing it.

Differences between search engines and subject directories

There are a number of differences between search engines and subject directories. For one thing, the number of web sites found within subject directories tends to be smaller than those of most search engines, which means that the result lists tend to be smaller too. Also, while a search engine typically includes (or indexes) every page of a given web site, a subject directory typically only links to the site’s top-level page or home page. This often means less duplication for the user going through a search result list. Finally, subject directories are maintained by human beings who look at the content of web sites. As a result there is less likelihood of retrieving results that are out of context or not ‘on-track’ with a user’s search terms.

When Should I Use A Subject Directory?

When you want to locate information about a broad or general subject rather than a specific piece of information (REMEMBER: subject directories are arranged by category and tend to link only to a site’s home page rather than to many pages within a site)
When you want to see and evaluate a number of sites on one topic (often recommended by experts)
When you want to avoid the many "false-hits" that turn up on search engines

Examples of Subject Directories

LookSmart (http://www.looksmart.com)
Open Directory (http://dmoz.org)
Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com)

Academic Subject Directories

Also called virtual libraries, library gateways or clearinghouses these search tools are just like other subject directories offering many web sites hierarchically organized into different categories. They stand apart from commercial directories (e.g. Yahoo! or About.com), however, because they are often maintained by educational institutions (rather than for-profit companies), they also tend to focus on academic subject areas rather than general topics such as cars, gardening and stamp-collecting. As with other subject directories, users can easily browse through different categories or search the directory’s contents.

The difference between general and academic subject directories/clearinghouses

In contrast to general subject directories, these search tools tend to index web sites of higher quality. For this reason, these are good search tools to start with when you need information for a class assignment. In addition, many of these tools offer web site reviews or annotations from subject experts. As with regular subject directories there are usually not overly large sets of search results to contend with.

Examples of Academic Subject Directories, Virtual Libraries and Clearinghouses
Clearinghouses or Virtual Libraries

Argus Clearinghouse (http://www.clearinghouse.net)
WWW Virtual Library (http://www.vlib.org)
Librarian’s Index to the Internet (http://lii.org)

Academic Subject Directories

Best Information on the Internet (http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/)
SOSIG – Social Science Information Gateway (http://sosig.ac.uk/)
Voice of the Shuttle (http://vos.ucsb.edu) excellent starting point for humanities research