Despite its somewhat ominous name, EEVL is an exceptional guide to engineering, mathematics and computing resources on the web.
I’ve written before about the value of non-commercial web directories. One of the directories I mentioned in a previous SearchDay article was the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). The RDN project is actually made up of individual subject gateways.
One of these gateway is called EEVL: The Internet Guide to Engineering, Mathematics, and Computing, an essential resource for those of you who do research or have an interest in these subjects.
EEVL (pronounced “EVIL” and formerly known as the Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library) is built by U.K. based librarians and information professionals who review and annotate each entry in the directory. Advertising is not accepted.
Under the leadership of Roddy McLeod, a librarian at Heriott-Watt University, this well designed, up-to-date, and highly useful directory/database has just cataloged its 10,000 record. When not working on this and other projects McLeod is the compiler of the monthly Internet Resources Newsletter. Both EEVL and the newsletter are available for free.
What will you find at EEVL? I could write for several pages about what is available and barely scratch the surface. The best way to see what’s there is to visit and look around on your own. Here are a few highlights.
- Keyword search the entire database, limit your search to a specific subject area (engineering, math, computing), search only “key sites” (what EEVL considers the top 20% of Sites) or browse by subject area.
- An impressive “Advanced Interface” offers additional limits (subjects, location, resource types).
- Searching under the “Web Sites” tab offers an option to search the full-text of sites included in the directory. This is an example of a focused or targeted crawler. You can search all sites in the directory or by subject (engineering, math, computer science).
- Each “Full” record contains a description, keywords (to enhance retrieval). Records also contain subject heading to easily find related sites.
- Records can be output in XML.
- Links point to news resources in the engineering, mathematics, and computing world.
- A full-text search engine provides access to over 150 engineering e-journals.
- Detailed tutorials are available, geared at different groups of searchers.
- The What’s New page is perfect for developing your own collection of useful content.
In summary, EEVL is an exceptional, very easy to use guide to high quality engineering, mathematics and computing information on the web.
Gary Price is the Guest Editor of SearchDay, and publisher of ResourceShelf, a weblog covering the online information industry.
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