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When writing a book or article on a particular subject it is
important to have as much up-to-date information on it as
possible.
Before the Internet came along research involved multiple visits
to the local library, ploughing through newspapers, periodicals
and journals, and took many months to complete.
Fortunately the Internet can short circuit a lot of the time and
effort involved when researching. Unfortunately though it can
also slow us down.
With millions of websites, mailing lists, forums and newsgroups
covering just about every topic under the sun, it can be a
daunting task for a technologically challenged author to get to
the information needed for that next masterpiece.
Hopefully this article will help you find your way through the
data jungle, and help you to be more time and cost effective
by finding those sites dedicated to your topic.
Once you have found them you can then bookmark them in
your browser so you do not lose them again!
Finding sites that cover your subject
The first thing to do is to locate any websites that are dedicated
to your chosen subject.
The AskJeeves search engine is a good place to start. The
engine allows you to ask a question in plain English such as "Where
can I find information on Bill Clinton?".
AskJeeves will return all resources that answer this question
including any websites dedicated to this topic and associated
topics (such as Monica Lewinsky!).
Neat eh?
Try it for yourself by going to http://www.askjeeves.com.
AskJeeves will get you started and will help you to home in on
your topic quite quickly. However this is not the only place to
look for help.
Libraries are still extremely important and useful resources and
many of the larger libraries around the world are now online.
Just imagine being able to browse through libraries across the
world from the comfort of your own home or office!
How do you find them I hear you ask?
My starting point is always "LibWeb", a site dedicated to listing
links to major libraries across the globe. You can find them at
http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Libweb/. They currently link to
2,700 pages from libraries in over 70 countries.
To get more help then try these two sites:
The BBC Webguide
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/webguide/
Research a wide range of subjects at Beaucoup
http://www.beaucoup.com
These links should give you more than enough material to work
with.
Keeping on top of your subject
Finding sites dedicated to your topic is only half the battle. If
you are to do your job properly as an informed author you will
need to keep abreast of the changes in your chosen field. This
you can do by perusing newspapers, magazines and trade
periodicals but this can be time consuming.
Here again the Internet can help us.
Most newspapers and magazines can now be read online and
even better can alert you to changes and significant events
happening in your field. They do this by sending you an email
on a regular basis containing news items of relevance to you.
The question we need to answer then is how can I find such
sites and start this flood of targeted information to my email
box?
Well you basically need to visit the following websites. Some of
these will keep you updated for FREE, others will charge you a
fee. Take my word for it, you do not need to pay a fee to get
good quality information to your email box!
Try these sites for size:
PR Newswire - http://www.prnewswire.com
NewsBytes - http://www.newsbytes.com
PR Web - http://www.prweb.com
WebWire - http://www.webwire.com
Internet News Bureau - http://www.newsbureau.com
Each of these sites has a facility to register for news updates
on topics of your choice and have them sent to your email box.
Once you have registered you will start to receive press
releases, company information and news items from the major
publications around the world. You can then use this information
as the basis for your books and articles giving the credit for
your sources where necessary.
Summary
When using the Internet for your research it is important to
remember the old saying "Work smarter not harder".
Hopefully this article has shown you how to do that by getting
targeted information quickly and easily without having to sift
through millions of websites.
Greg Spence
Get Published! Online Website
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