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.
AgNIC: Agriculture Network Information Center
http://www.agnic.org
A searchable gateway to quality agricultural information on the Internet as selected by the National Agricultural Library, Land-Grant Universities, and other institutions.
Biology Browser
http://www.biologybrowser.org/
A portal of selected quality Internet resources on a wide range of biological and zoological information. Choose to browse by subject or by animal name/group. The Web site is produced by Thomson Zoological LTD.
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."
Forestry AgNIC
http://forestry.lib.umn.edu/agnic/
A Web directory of over 1,500 organized forestry links developed by the University of Minnesota forestry library.
Gene Almanac
http://vector.cshl.org/
A educational vortal for learning about all matters related to genes and genetic research. Includes multimedia tutorials and well as links to other useful information available on the Web.
AcademicInfo
http://www.academicinfo.us/
A listing of topics leading to scholarly Web sites suitable for research at the high school and college level. Browse by topics presented or use the keyword search function to find Web sites on a specific topic. Within each topical listing is a sub-category of portals and general resources. Web sites are selected because of their usefulness to students, educators and researchers.
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.
Search the intute: health & life sciences site to find information about molecular biology software.
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