Alternatives to using Search Engines
nInstead of doing a “cold” search in a search engine, use the virtual libraries compiled by:
§libraries
§professional organizations and associations
§government agencies
§city, county, & state agencies
Think about information by CATEGORY, then use the resources compiled by libraries, professional organizations & associations, gov. agencies, etc.   A few examples to look at:

Real & Virtual Libraries
Alumni Medical Library    http://med-libwww.bu.edu/
Internet Public Library   http://www.ipl.org/
Associations & Prof. Organizations
ALA     http://www.ala.org/library/weblinks.html
American Cancer Society   http://www3.cancer.org/cancerinfo/specific.asp
Gov. Agencies
U.S. Census Bureau   http://www.census.gov/
Mass. Board of Registration Physician Profiles
     http://www.docboard.org/ma/ma_home.htm
World Health Organization   http://www.who.int/
Cities, counties & states
Massachusetts Online   http://www.magnet.state.ma.us/
Boston Online     http://www.boston-online.com/index.html

An issue is, however, that no one librarian can be aware of all of the information that is available in all of these sources and sites.  Sure you can go out and search the WWW and look around, but if you have a patron waiting for help, you probably won’t have the time to browse -- risking that the information you need may not even be on the WWW. This is why it becomes increasingly important to create your own collection of WWW resources with which you are familiar, that you can go to more quickly and easily.