Research Strategies

Try searches in Google, but also try other less well-known search engines such as:

dogpile or metacrawler (searches google, yahoo, live search & ask.com)
clusty searches and clusters results... check it out for a different searching experience
super cool podscope searches on podcasts for related audio
mahalo's links are added by humans instead of by spiders crawling the web, plus no spam!
check this ever-evolving list of search engines
don't forget the Internet Archive's wayback machine for historical research of virtual worlds / early days on the web, and ideas about places like Second Life.

Also try social bookmarking sites like:

These will lead you to content and information other users have already found / commented on, which provides a entirely different lens of research.

Synonomous searches useful in engines like Google. Try searching the string - second life virtual worlds listservs -(or end with blogs, youtube, articles, journals, wikis, etc. instead). Try searching "second life" in quotes.

Social Software / Multimedia Search

Social software and multimedia sites can be a great place to do alternative research. One can find images, comments on images, videos, audio and more... individual pages might lead to undiscovered blogs, sites, wikis...

Wikis

Try searching "second life" and wiki or wikis

SecondLife wiki
SecondLife Business Communicators wiki
SecondLife on wikia
When used judiciously, Wikipedia is a great resource for up-to-date information about virtual worlds, SecondLife, etc. but read about why Wikipedia may not be the best resource for scholarly inquiry.

Listservs

Search "second life" and listservs

Invent-L

Invent-L exists to support discussion among educators, artists, students, and other interested parties concerned with the apparatus of electracy.

Second Life Research List

Ohio Learning Network Second Life List

Contact Information

Tricia Juettemeyer

248 Kresge Library

Email: juetteme@oakland.edu

IM on: AOL - tjuettemeyer or MSN juetteme@oakland.edu

Blog Search

These search engines will specifically search for blog content. The more engines you search in, the broader results set you will return... remember, that not all search engines function with the same search algorithm... the same search in two places will often return entirely different results. Using the search engines of blog aggregators and feed readers, like bloglines is a great way to search within blogs other users have already found.

Open Access Journals

First Monday

First Monday is one of the first free, openly accessible, peer–reviewed journals on the Internet, solely devoted to the Internet.

Fibreculture : internet theory + criticism + research

Australian peer-reviewed international online journal, includes articles on: information and creative industries, national and international strategies for innovation, research and development, education, media and culture, and new media arts.

Old School Research (aka Databases)

Lexis-Nexis

Excellent place to find current newspaper articles. Indexes full-text articles for most major papers. Follow these steps to locate articles from major papers in the US.

Click on Power Search
Under Select Sources select U.S. Newspapers & Wires
Enter your search keywords using search connectors
Limit by date to reduce results

Search broadly across many general purpose library databases using quick search.

Also consider browsing the library's e-journals related to Communications & Mass Media and Education

Oakland University, Kresge Library
2200 N Squirrel Rd., Rochester, MI 48309
(248) 370 - 4426

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