Abstract: 

A structured, systematic overview is presented of contemporary methods and 
systems to find information through the Internet and the WWW about a 
particular subject, to support for instance scientific research, and 
decision making in general. 
The intended audience includes of course all participants who want to 
sharpen their Internet searching skills; also experienced searchers who 
organize tutorials or guides related to information sources and searching 
may get some ideas. 
During the half day that is available, a selection from the following 
topics can be discussed: 
·       basic difficulties in information retrieval, and how to take these 
into account 
·       an overview of information that available on the WWW 
·       dictionaries and encyclopedias 
·       Internet subject directories for browsing 
·       Internet indexes for text searching 
·       making better search queries with general thesaurus systems that 
are available free of charge 
·       meta-search systems on WWW servers or on the user’s client computer 
·       the invisible web and how to exploit its contents, even though it 
is hidden away from text search systems 
·       finding images/pictures 
·       using image retrieval systems on the WWW to find relevant texts 
·       finding books 
·       finding journal articles 
·       fee-based databases 
·       using fee-based electronic journals 
·       open access electronic journals 
·       current awareness systems 
·       citation searching of journal articles through the WWW 
·       analyzing and exploiting citations (hyperlinks) on WWW pages to 
particular other known WWW pages 
·       using computer-based network interest groups 
·       evaluations of information retrieval systems and queries 
·       concretely used, existing search systems, compared with a 
desirable, ideal retrieval system 
·       evolution and trends in information services on the Internet 
·       evaluating the quality of information sources and Internet-based 
information in particular.