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Aardvark: Asian Resources for Librarians

As we often say in our Web Search Pacific workshops, the best tool may not be a general search engine but some other resource specifically designed for your research needs. One of those specialised resources you may want to add to your tool kit is Aardvark, an information-related portal for knowledge workers and library professionals.

This site is built and maintained by iGroup, an information business based in Bangkok, with offices throughout Southeast Asia. The site offers a well-organised collection of resources, including:

Links to over 700 library science e-journals
A list of upcoming conferences and exhibitions of interest to information professionals
A searchable and browsable collection of online articles on information-related topics such as copyright, digital object identification, knowledge management, open access and blogs
The current issue and a searchable archive of back issues of Access: Asia's Newspaper on Electronic Information Products & Services
A browsable and searchable collection of almost 500 Asian databases, ranging from agriculture to transportation

This last feature, the collection of Asian databases, is a particularly valuable tool for finding hidden and invisible web content. You can browse all 479 entries, or you can search by keyword or general subject. Unfortunately, there is no ability to strictly limit your search by country, although you can include the country name in your keyword search, which will retrieve all records that have that name in any field.

Each entry includes a one- or two-sentence description of the database; information on the country, owner, host and general subject of the database; an indication of whether access to the database is free or fee-based; and a link to the database itself. Note that there is a fair bit of variation in the length and depth of the database descriptions. You may get your best results by searching for the country name AND using the pull-down menu to select a broad category.

I was especially taken by the "Ask our librarian" page. This is not an anonymous "Ask an expert (and hope for the best) service"; rather, this librarian has a name (Ms. Edwina Fung) and she promises to provide a URL where the answer to your question can be found, within 24 hours during week days. She responded to my queries within the hour, and said that, unless the request is for an opinion or in-depth analysis, she will do her best to provide the resources that answer anyone's question.

The next time you cannot find the right resource, or you do not know where to start, try Aardvark for some useful hidden web resources and the personal touch of Ms. Fung.

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