This section of the tutorial provides training in the use of the world wide web, particularly freely available websites. The web is a useful source of vast amounts of current information. It is important to understand the difference between the web and subscription databases, which can appear to be the same to the researcher using a computer within an educational institution.

A subscription database is an electronic tool that you (or your institution on your behalf) have subscribed to, such as ATLA or EEBO. If you are not using a computer within an educational institution it is normally necessary to first login in order to use this type of tool. The content provided (or cited) in databases has usually been subjected to the same peer-review process as a published printed work. Further information about using this type of resource is available in the previous 'using electronic resources' section of this tutorial.

Websites are freely available and can be published by anyone, there is no official evaluation process and no official organisers.

This section will help you to:

• use the Google simple and advanced search interfaces to search the web
• consider other search engines
• use metasearch engines
• understand about the invisible web
• access academic portals
• properly evaluate web resources
• access subject-based online training