Internet Text Research

WorldCat:  the "front-end" of OCLC FirstSearch, a search engine linked to American university, private research, and public library online catalogs.  This must be used from within Goucher's firewall because it is a subscription service.  The link is located near the bottom of the right menu.

WorldCat.org's advanced search: the commercial front-end of OCLC FirstSearch, free but impossible to control for printer/publisher or city.  You can tell it is not intended for scholarly work because the "Language" of publication option does not include Latin and the only Greek it will screen for is Modern Greek (post-1453).  The .org site's strength is that its returns will tell you how far your host computer (e.g., Goucher's network in Towson) is in miles from the various copies it finds.  Results are stacked from nearest to furthest.

OLLI's Advanced Keyword Search:  always make sure you can use your own local search engines as well as possible before using more widely focused resources.  Finding a copy of the book you want in Berlin may not be as useful as finding a copy you can walk to.  Just don't stop at OLLI.

University of Karlsruhe Library virtual catalog: an extremely powerful Continental research library search engine that is especially useful for locating copies of early printed books, and for locating copies of books for sale via online bookstore catalogues.

Search Engines vs. Databases: a prose explanation of the difference between these two online entities and the way they work together to enable, and to frustrate, the researcher.

The First Internet Worm: Bookworms attack manuscript and early printed books by chewing small wandering holes through one of their wooden binding boards, which is thought to be what really attracts them.  (None have ever been observed in action!)  They chew on, penetrating deep into the parchment or paper and, sometimes, exiting through the opposite binding board.  An Internet "Worm" penetrates networked computers and (usually) incapacitates them by using up more and more of their computing power to propagate new versions of itself on other systems.  Rapid evolution of software and hardware in the 21st century makes almost inevitable the sorts of "exploitable" gaps in system security exploited by designers of worms, viruses, ransomware, and other criminal code.