Directories or Metaindicies

These sites can serve two purposes: they allow you to browse for information and allow you to perform a focused search.

Browsing: These sites arrange resources according to topics so exploring is a lot like wandering through a section of the library. You may find items of interest that you bookmark so you have direct access to them when you need them. Examples might be patient information sites, a specialty society or a site listing CME opportunities arranged by topic, date and/or location.

Focused Search: Most of these sites allow you to limit your search to the contents of their sites or a particular directory within the site. This can really help to hone your search. Searches can sometimes point you to specific pages of on-line medical texts such as the Merck Manual (http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/) or Abstracts of the Cochrane Collaboration (http://www.cochrane.org/) or the on-line Emergency Medicine Textbook (http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/).