Unit 1: Online Environment

The invisible web also referred to as Deep Web, Dark Web, private web primarily because access is limited to specific user populations like college student bodies, agency employees,  or public library card holders. Access is limited because the college, agency or library has paid a high price to purchase the rights to make a high quality organized collection of information  available for its patrons.

Students are one of  the primary users of invisible web resources. Frequently teachers ask students to locate an article from a magazine, scholarly journal, or newspaper. Students looking for articles of any variety can find what they need using a database like InfoTrac-General Reference Center Gold, ProQuest, etc. This is one of the most common mistakes students make  -- spending hours with Yahoo looking for an article when all they really needed to do was consult an Invisible Web database . The Invisible web is not something that you hear about frequently so just remember when you need an article you usually need a database not a search tool.

In additional to full text articles, students also can organize a paper or narrow down a topic by using the list of subdivisions provided for broad subject searches. Take a look at the subdivisions for and InfoTrac search about Afghanistan. 

How do folks discover what is available on the invisible web? They can visit the local institution and ask a librarian or they can search a variety of resources that index the contents of the invisible web.

In the last year several new deep web search tools have surfaced to assist folks in navigating a body of information several times larger than web pages found by traditional search engines. The Complete Planet and the  Invisible Web Catalog are the latest invisible web search tools joining Gary Price's well established Direct Search. 

Chris Sherman and Gary Price, Direct Search, are two of the foremost experts on the Invisible Web. Bright Planet has done an excellent job of providing FAQ's about this new and huge part of the world wide web.

Exploring the Invisible Web. Price, Gary and Sherman, Chris. Online. July, 2001.
Proxy required.

Getting to Know the Invisible Web. Smith, C. Brian. Library Journal, July 2001.
Proxy required.

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Content of invisible web resources varies depending on the subject matter covered. We do know that the actual size of the invisible web is about 500 times greater than the searched by search engines.  

• Databases may  include citations (author, title, date) for periodicals indexed, abstracts,  and  full text periodical magazine and newspaper articles and reference text material. SIRS is completely full text. FirstSearch and Cambridge Scientific supply only  citations (author, title, date). Many peer reviewed, scholarly academic journals are indexed in proprietary databases.

• Original content including statistics and corporate intelligence data based on in-house research  might also be available. 

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What does not exist
While the invisible web  resources provide a wealth of  unique information,   it does not  usually provide  copyrighted books, historical documents, court cases, public records; photographs, sound files,  interactive simulations, chat,  and discussion groups .

Glossary -- Common  terms seen on the Invisible Web
abstract : summary of an article, main points, important statistics and individuals are often mentioned

advanced search: allows user to customize their search 

back files: the archive or older articles included within an index or database

bibliographic record: cataloging information about an item (author, title, article title, date, pages)

citation: basic bibliographic information or finding information for a cataloged item or a database item

email: electronic mail often provided to Internet Services, but can be unique software package -  Microsoft Outlook

full text: complete text of an article 

marked list: user selected bibliography of item in a database

union lists: alphabetical list of periodicals owned by  libraries within a given system or institution -  NVCC's 5 campuses

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