A portal or gateway site is the best place to begin research. These sites, which are intended to serve as "jumping off" points, will lead the researcher to a variety of useful sources that have been selected because of their relevance or quality. A portal site may include thousands of links on a wide range of topics, or may be very specific in scope and point to a small number of resources.
Portal sites may allow keyword searching, provide topical, hierarchical browsing (drilling down) or both search and browse capabilities. Another useful starting point for research is the search engine, particularly those that are subject-specific.
Hardin MD
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/index.html
A portal to disease/health-related resources organized by medical condition. It is developed and maintained by Health Science librarians at Hardin Library at the University of Iowa.
HealthFinder
http://www.healthfinder.gov/
A consumer's Web directory to the Internet. Can be searched by keyword or browsed by topical area. Provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
MedlinePlus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
Provided by the National Library of Medicine for anyone with a medical question. MedlinePlus is a gateway for consumers and health care professionals giving access to current, medical information. It includes reviewed government and non-government publications, brochures, databases, and Web sites.
WebMD
http://Webmd.com
A comprehensive vortal for finding information about diseases, doctors, hospitals, health insurance and the business of health, health news, links to useful sites, etc. Portions of the site are fee based and are intended for practicing health professionals, but large sections are free and geared toward the consumer.
intute: health & life sciences
http://www.intute.ac.uk/healthandlifesciences/
Intute organizes over 18,000 Web resources for education and research and makes them searchable by keywords or browsing. These resources are "selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists."
The Internet Public Library Subject Collections (IPL)
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/
Core internet resources are arranged by discipline and then by more specific subject area. An option is also available to find associations or serials related to the subject. These sites have been selected and organized by librarians. A link to pathfinders on very specific topics is also available.
Search Engine Guide
http://www.searchengineguide.com/
This guide indexes over 3,000 directories and search engines. Organized by category and searchable by keyword.