Web Feet Online

By Dale Farris, Secretary
Golden Triangle PC Club
July 2002

If you thought those marvelous paper-based collections of annotated Web site URL's were not enough, RockHill Communications continues to kick it up a few notches with the addition of online access to all their wonderful sites. Web Feet Online is the electronic, Internet accessible approach to finding superb, professionally reviewed Web sites for all age groups. This electronic access to Web Feet sites can be added to an existing subscription to the paper-based, 3-ring binder approach, or it can be implemented as the primary access for computer owners.

Note: Click here for a separate review of the Web Feet paper-based catalog of annotated web sites.

Web Feet is a research tool designed to help you save time and find the best resources available on the Internet. This service is not another Internet search engine, but instead collections of pre-selected sites that have already been reviewed by professional librarians, educators, subject-area specialists, and editors. Web Feet can be described as a super results engine. You'll find high-quality sites in Web Feet, not thousands upon thousands of sites to sort through, as you would with an Internet search engine. That's what Web Feet is all about - giving you not the most information, but the precise information you need, and very quickly.

Web Feet provides the best Web sites for thousands of curriculum areas, general knowledge topics, and common personal interests. For each subject, Web Feet features stand-alone sites as well as gateway and directory sites that will help you to go beyond the collections to other high-quality Web sites. For example, the Cornell Theory Center (CTC) Math and Science Gateway is maintained by CTC, a high-performance computing and interdisciplinary research center. This approach ensures that you get what experts identify as the latest, best information available on the Web. All resources are evaluated for age appropriateness, credibility, ease of use, and value to schools and libraries.

Web Feet is available in three formats: Print, Online, or as MARC records for library catalogs. Schools, public libraries, college libraries, and special libraries can also choose from several Web Feet collections to meet their needs. These include the Web Feet K-8 Collection, the Web Feet Core Collection (middle school to adult), the Web Feet K-12 Collection, and the Web Feet Health Collection.

The reason Web Feet is such a productive research tool is because their editors and advisors ensure that sites are selected by experts. An advisory board of librarians and educators directs the editorial selection and evaluation process. The collection is also fully annotated. Annotations help students and library customers evaluate resources quickly and find exactly what they want.

The collection is also expanded and updated monthly. New topics are added each month to the Core, K-8, and K-12 Collections. Additionally, previously published topics are researched and updated monthly for these collections. All Web site addresses are checked and updated on an ongoing basis. The online access means you will of course always be directed to the most updated sites made available, while owners of the print collection have to wait for their monthly updates in the mail.

The electronic material is fully searchable, with full annotations, Library of Congress (LC) subject headings, LC and Dewey call numbers, audience descriptions, and live links to the Internet. A team that includes librarians, teachers, curriculum experts, and subject-area specialists evaluates every site selected for inclusion in Web Feet.

All Web sites are revisited on a regular basis to ensure that topic coverage is current. You can search the site database in a variety of practical, easy-to-use ways, including keyword(s), browse by LC subject, title of Web site, author or sponsor, or LC or Dewey call number. Unique features are designed for educators, such as the ability to search by grade levels and curriculum areas.

Why Web Feet Is Now So Important

In today's reality of endless Internet web sites, finding the right site with the answer to a question has become even more challenging than looking for a needle in a haystack. Now, instead of having to find the gem in merely one haystack, we face the daunting task of looking through a vast field of countless haystacks, only one of which has exactly what you need.

To the rescue comes a variety of newly emerging resources designed to aid the online researcher. These include the ever increasing number and diversity of online search engines, web browser add-on search utilities, specialized online databases, online directories and paper-based directories. While all these tools are soon mastered by the savvy researcher and reference librarian, lay folks usually have access to few of these tools and certainly have very little experience in maximizing the value of these many resources.

Ironically, this ever increasing abundance of information on the Internet has meant an accompanying growth in importance in professional information specialists, just the opposite of what one might think would have happened to this profession. Contrary to popular belief, the explosion of information on the Internet has not meant the end of information specialists. The paradox is that while the onslaught of information on the Internet continues to grow, this has overwhelmed novices and increased their need for professionals trained in how to most effectively and efficiently find their needed information. Among the many new search tools used by information professionals is the superb Web Feet Internet directory from Rock Hill Communications.

Web Feet represents one of the better of these search tools that is designed to be of help primarily to teachers, researchers and librarians. To participate in the online service, you subscribe to an annual enrollment (see pricing below), and for a very reasonable price, you receive access via the Internet to Web Feet's electronic search service that allows you to retrieve URL's related to your search topic.

Search Options

Once you set up your account and receive the official password, this opens the main search page. Here, you can choose to search by Keyword, Library of Congress Subject Keyword, Title of Web Site Keyword, or Author/Sponsor Keyword. You select the option, and then enter the keyword in the search field and click the green Go button to begin the search.

Quick Search

Use the Quick Search for broad keyword searches. This default keyword search will give you sites that have your keyword(s) in the Web Feet Online Full Record, including the annotation. You also can search for keywords in a Web site's LC Subject, Author/Sponsor, or Title. Your search results for a Quick search most often will be Brief Results, but the result will be a Full Record if only one match is found.

To do a Quick search, click Quick at the top of the search page. Use the pull-down menu to choose the type of keyword search you want (Keyword, LC Subject Keyword, Title of Web Site Keyword, or Author/Sponsor Keyword). Enter your keyword(s) in the open field. Click Go.

General Search

The General search lets you expand or limit your keyword search. Like the Quick search, the default keyword search will give you sites that have your keyword(s) in the Web Feet Online Full Record, including the annotation. You also can search for keywords in a Web site's LC Subject, Author/Sponsor, or Title. You can choose to match all words or any words, to match as a phrase, or to match how closely the words appear. Your search results for a Quick search most often will be Brief Results, but the result will be a Full Record if only one match is found.

To do a General search, click General at the top of the search page. Use the pull-down menu to choose the type of keyword search you want. Enter your keyword(s) in the open field.

Choose one of these options:
Match all words. The matches must include all of your keywords.
Match any word. The matches must include at least one of your keywords.
Match as a phrase. The matches must match your keywords in the order in which you enter them.
Match within [specify number] words. Your keywords must appear within the word span you specify. The order does not matter. Click Go.

Expanded Search

Like the Quick search, the Expanded search will give you sites that have your keyword(s) in the Web Feet Online Full Record, including the annotation. You also can search for keywords in a Web site's LC Subject, Author/Sponsor, or Title. The Expanded search enables you to further omit, add, or limit certain words in your search to find the results you need. This means Boolean searching is supported. For example, if you want to find sites about wild dogs, you might search on “dogs” AND “wild” NOT “pets.” Your search results for a Quick search most often will be Brief Results, but the result will be a Full Record if only one match is found.

To do an Expanded search, click Expanded at the top of the search page. For the first keyword or phrase that you want to use, choose the type of keyword search you want from the pull-down menu at the left (Keyword, LC Subject Keyword, Title of Web Site Keyword, or Author/Sponsor Keyword). Enter your keyword(s) in the open field. Select a Boolean search expression (And, Or, or Not) from the pull-down menu at the right, and do the same for other keyword or phrases in the lines below. Click Go.

Browsing

The Browse List (the list you get as a result of using a Browse search) varies, depending on the type of list by which you chose to search (LC Subject, Title of Web Site, Author/Sponsor, LC Call Number, or Dewey Call Number). You can page through the list using the previous and next links at the top and bottom of the list.

Each list you find reflects the Web sites contained in all Web Feet collections (Core, K–8, Health, and others). If you do not subscribe to all collections, some of the items in the list may be unlinked. These sites are in Web Feet collections to which you do not subscribe.

If you browse by LC Subject or Author/Sponsor, the number of titles will be listed in the right column. This number reflects the sites found in all Web Feet collections. If you click on an LC Subject or Author/Sponsor in that list, you may find that the number of sites in your list is lower than indicated under Titles if you do not subscribe to all collections.

For example, if you subscribe to Web Feet K–8, a Browse by Subject: "Biology" shows that 12 sites are classified with this subject. When you click on the Biology link to view sites in this subject, you get a list of 9 sites. The remaining 3 sites are in other Web Feet collections designed for different audiences, such as Web Feet K–12. In the same Browse for Subject: "Biology," "Bioorganic chemistry" is included in the alphabetical list, but it is not linked because the site classified with this subject is not in Web Feet K–8, but is in a Web Feet collection to which you do not subscribe.

Each web site in the directory in the print edition, as well as the online edition, is briefly annotated, and includes a screen shot of the home page and the complete URL to get to the site. Web Feet's experienced librarians, educators, and subject area specialists recommend and describe the "best" Web sites in many subject areas, from history and science, to genealogy and cooking. Thousands of sites on hundreds of topics are included, and the content is reviewed, updated, and expanded monthly. A rigorous criteria and site evaluation process makes Web Feet a more reliable and credible source of sites compared with the results in some of today's online directories and search engines.

The professionals involved in organizing the Web Feet URL's include experienced teachers, librarians and editors. This team of experts includes a site in Web Feet ONLY if they think it is an "outstanding site in its subject area." Having a site receive a Web Feet "Seal of Approval" says to teachers, librarians, parents, and students that the site is especially valuable for research, teaching, or general interest, and most importantly, is safe for student use. This added level of professional involvement in the review and screening of the many included sites means this resource can be considered by targeted customers as a highly important "first use" resource when needing to search for relevant and appropriate web sites to integrate into the classroom, or to provide in response to a customer's request.

Typical Uses

This collection is an excellent tool for all teachers at all levels of public school, especially elementary and middle school level, and librarians in public libraries. You can use the information in planning curriculum units, as a "safe" way to browse the database for sites, as the trusted directory of sites to send children looking for information, and as a very helpful time saver for teachers. This is an excellent resource that is absolutely essential for all schools and public libraries.

For public librarians, this tool is as essential as the always important "ready reference" titles that are within an arm's reach of the reference librarian. Increasingly, folks with questions are requesting web site URL's for their needed information. With Web Feet, it is very easy to use this organization of thousands of URL's, and finding the right one is now more easy than ever. In addition, with the extensive involvement of the many professionals in producing this handy guide, you can always feel comfortable when referring your customers to these already heavily screened site suggestions.

Tools Built Into Web Feet

Hundreds of categories with thousands of excellent web sites
Alphabetical organization of categories
Professional screening and filtering of sites
Calendar Connections of upcoming events
Subject index
Monthly revisions of web site changes
New sites added monthly
Web Feet Online providing online access to the material for subscribers
Focus on the needs of students, teachers, researchers, reference librarians
Very reasonably priced

Ease of Use

Web Feet can be used by professionals, as well as students and parents, and the print edition is designed in three-ring binders that include heavy stock paper, crisp screen shots of web site home pages, and highlighted URL's for easy reading when entering into the address field in browsers. The electronic version is designed to provide essentially the same results as in the print edition, but with the obvious main difference being that the URL for the retrieved site is set up as a hyperlink. This means if you want to go to that site for more information, just click on the link. With the print edition, obviously you need to manually enter the URL into the address bar of the browser.

With the electronic access, this also means that the updates and revisions are going to be integrated into the search results, while with the print edition, you have to wait until you receive the monthly updates for insertion in the included 3-ring binders.

Students can use the organized material in formalized assignments that require them to search Web Feet sites to retrieve results for reporting back to their teacher or their class.

Recommendations

Web Feet easily can be considered an essential investment by all schools and public libraries, to be added to the already growing bag of tricks and tools used to help folks get the right information they need from the right web site. For the price of the electronic access, users will of course need to weigh the expected volume of use of their computer, to best determine the cost-effectiveness of the electronic edition.

In most library situations, I think the paper-based, 3-ring binder collection is a certainty, especially since there are still many computer users with little experience with Internet searching, using keywords, and Boolean terms. For these situations, the print edition will be just what these folks need. In other larger libraries, I suggest the electronic edition to be added to the desktops, and I also think having a few copies of the print edition will also be well received by many customers.

In school libraries and the classroom, I think these organizations should seriously consider negotiating pricing for access by many students at the same time from multiple machines. The dependability and reliability of the high quality of the sites included in the massive Web Feet Online catalog justify opening access to many students to this marvelous information tool.

While Web Feet is certainly NOT the most complete directory of web sites, this is not its intent. Rather than striving for collecting the most web sites, instead Web Feet provides an excellent, filtered collection of solid, substantial sites that are tailor-made for the targeted customers. You will find no URL's to sex sites here, and no sites with "little knowledge value."

Think of Web Feet as one of the major tools that needs to be included in your entire collection of resources used to help you find your way in the maelstrom of web sites. You can be assured a Web Feet site will be a site of substance that will be very well received by your customers looking for answers they can trust. On your burgeoning "ready reference" shelf of reference tools, surely containing other web site directories, you can now add this one to the list of "must haves."

Prices

$495 Core Collection - 1-year subscription - includes updates and new monthly content

$300 K-8 Collection - 1 year subscription

$595 K-12 Collection - 1 year subscription

$ 65 Web Feet for Health - 1 year subscription - Existing subscribers
$ 95 Web Feet for Health - 1 year subscription - Non subscribers

Call for network and consortium pricing

Contact

Rock Hill Press
Rock Hill Communications
14 Rock Hill Road
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004-2132
1-888-762-5445
610-667-2040
FAX 610-667-2291
info@rockhillcommunications.com
www.rockhillcommunications.com
www.webfeetguides.com