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Finding one's way around the web's vastness can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. At typical modem speeds, the World Wide Web can seem more like the World Wide Wait, and finding the information you need can bring to mind phrases like "needle in haystack" and "watching paint dry." Luckily facilitators of web circumnavigation abound, and a few particularly capable ones are described below in the hope that they will make your journeys a little shorter and your bounty much more gratifying.

Basic Necessities

When embarking on an Internet voyage don't forget to bring your urls (pronounced "earls," rhymes with pearls). URLs (uniform resource locators) are merely webpage addresses, and below we describe some that are superior launching pads for psychologist-Internauts desiring to hone their navigational skills. Just click to go directly to any website of interest to you.

Don't be afraid to ask for directions

Those needing instructions in the basics of Internet navigation will find comprehensive guidance at Patrick Crispen's Roadmap for the Internet [http://www.beonthenet.com/mapindex.html]. This self-paced web-based course will teach you everything you've wanted to know about the Internet, the web and more.

The Internet for Beginners: Drivers Ed for the Information Superhighway, offered by a psychologist, Ray Arsenault, Ph.D. This interactive course will teach you the nuts and bolts of email, navigating the Internet, conferencing, and newsgroups. Interested parties can call Dr. Arsenault at 508-475-7171 or send e-mail to Workshops@POBOX.com

John Grohol, psychologist and pioneer in online mental health has a new edition of his book, The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online, 1999, Guilford Press, [www.guilford.com] which can be ordered through Guilford's website or found at AnyPsychBook [http://www.behavior.net/AnyPsych/index.html] where you can also search by author, title, or browse by subject.

Other beacons in the night include a host of search engines that can be found at

Alta Vista [http://www.altavista.com/]

Mamma.com [http://www.mamma.com]

Dogpile [http://www.dogpile.com/]

Northern Light [http://www.northernlight.com/]

Inktomi's HotBot [http://www.hotbot.com]

SearchSpaniel [http://www.searchspaniel.com/]

Inference Find [http://www.inferencefind.com]

Infomine [http://infomine.ucr.edu/]

If that's not enough, The Mining Company [http://websearch.miningco.com/internet/sites/websearch/] provides helpful links to specialized search engines of all varieties.

Make the best of your search efforts by learning basic search engine strategies at Search Engine Watch [http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/math.html].

When you're ready, sophisticated search strategies can be learned at Web Searching, Sleuthing and Sifting [http://www.angelfire.com/in/virtuallibrarian/ismain.html] and Power Searching for Anyone [http://searchenginewatch.com/facts/powersearch.html].

Find out what people are talking about on the web. Deja News [www.dejanews.com/] searches only within newsgroups for messages on the topics of your choice. Very powerful search capability.

Liszt [www.liszt.com/] finds mailing lists by topic. Contains thousands of mailing lists and instructions for subscribing. Type in the word "psych" and you will get about 170 mailing lists to consider.

Maximum Psychology

The sites listed below are comprehensive sites for psychology-related information.

Mental Health Net [http://mentalhelp.net/] is Dr. John Grohol's omnibus page, boasting links to 6500 online resources. The page includes links and resources for professionals, self-help materials, and mental health organizations. It contains a managed care glossary, general professional and managed care discussion groups, and much more.

Dr. Clayton Tucker-Ladd gives psychology away at Psychological Self-Help [http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/] providing an outstanding full-text resource for patients, downloadable, free of charge, and filled with valuable information about navigating life's challenges.

Myron Pulier, M.D. [http://www.users.interport.net/~mpulier/] of the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, provides an excellent resource of 3200 mental health organizations all over the world indexed by name, along with 800 meetings and events indexed by place and date.

All things APA reside at APA's homepage [http://www.apa.org/].

It includes full-text of the Monitor, Clinicians' Research Digest, Practice Directorate information, information for consumers, conferences, employment, convention information, public interest, science, education, division and state psychology links. Very comprehensive.

Ken (Knowledge Exchange Network) is brought to us by the U.S. Government Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services [http://www.mentalhealth.org/ ], and contains a plethora of information on such topics as cultivating and enhancing resilience, interventions for preventing school violence, disaster response guide, state resources, publications and links to name but a few.

DSM-IV diagnostic classifications are listed alphabetically and numerically on Dr. Bob's Page [http://uhs.bsd.uchicago.edu/~bhsiung/tips/dsm4.html]. Robert Hsiung, MD created this comprehensive page which also contains useful Psychopharmacology Tips [http://uhs.bsd.uchicago.edu/~bhsiung/tips/tips.html ].

Free (sic) Medline can be accessed at Medscape [http://www.medscape.com/] and Healthgate [http://www.healthgate.com], but the best Medline, in my opinion, is at Biomednet [http://www.biomednet.com/db/medline]. This useful page keeps track of your past searches, provides "cited by" links (links to papers citing your reference) and evaluated searches.

PsychInfo [http://members.apa.org/welcome/pi111.html] at APA is fee-based (recently $79.00 for a one-year subscription) which includes 111 years of abstracts (1,065,577 records published from 1887 to present) plus a growing database of full-text articles from APA journals. A treasure-trove!

Psych Journal Search [http://www.cmhc.com/journals/ ], developed by John Grohol and Arrmin Guenther, has a database of 1,626 psychology, psychiatry, SW and MH-related journals, ejournals and epubs, and provides search capabilities online. You can find journals based on topic, language, publisher, or amount of info available (TOCs only, abstracts, or full-text) including links.

The Source, NIMH [http://www.nimh.nih.gov/], contains information on grants, projects, committees, meetings, conferences, and press releases.

Drop in on "the other APA" [http://www.psych.org/] . This handsome page features free access to current and back issues of Psychiatric News and the American Journal of Psychiatry as well as consumer information, publications, and practice guidelines for depression, schizophrenia, AIDS and more.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) [http://www.samhsa.gov/ ] webpage contains considerable information on government resources for mental health and substance abuse.

The webpage of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry [http://www.aacap.org/web/aacap/] contains information for the public, parents, caregivers, and professionals including current research, practice guidelines, managed care information, and present and back copies of the Journal of the AACAP.

Internet Mental Health [http://www.mentalhealth.com/], an encyclopedia of mental health information by a Canadian psychiatrist, Phillip Long, MD, provides information on diagnosis, treatment and medication.

Dr. Ken Pope maintains a website "Abstracts & Articles; Therapy Research & Therapist Resources; Ethics, Malpractice, & Psychology" at http://kspope.com which provides online access to free full-text electronic preprints and reprints in such areas as assessment, supervision, malpractice, working with torture victims, suicidal risk, sex abuse, pseudoscience, testifying as an expert witness, depositions and cross-examination, therapists as patients, primary prevention, ethics, and conducting online lit searches. The site also presents tables of research findings (e.g., a table comparing the findings from the national studies of therapist-patient sex) and other resources.

Lost your copy of The Interpretation of Dreams or The Varieties of Religious Experience? Don't worry. They're here on Dr. Russ Dewey's PsychWeb [http://www.psych-web.com/]. This site also provides links to 737 Psychology Departments, psychology journals online, product links and more.

For the analytically oriented, Sigmund Freud & the Freud Archives [http://plaza.interport.net/nypsan/freudarc.html] and the American Psychoanalytic Association site [http://apsa.ort/] contain listings of meetings, conferences and training. For the cognitively inclined, Stanford's Cognitive and Psychological Sciences Index [http://matia.stanford.edu/cogsci/onepage.html] contains information on organizations, meetings and resources related to cognitive science and psychology. The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives [http://www.dana.org/brainweb/] is a helpful resource for clinicians interested in brain diseases and disorders.

The various ERIC [http://www.accesseric.org/sites/barak.html] databases contain over 850,000 educationally-relevant abstracts available at no cost. A database of over 10,000 tests and research instruments can also be accessed at ERIC [http://ericae.net/].

The Association of Test Publishers [http://www.testpublishers.org/memserv.htm] provides contact information for test publishers including links to their web pages.

Books

Just Books and Behavior OnLine have teamed up to help you find psychology books at AnyPsych Book [http://www.behavior.net/AnyPsych/index.html]. Search by author, title word or subject, or browse through a selection of featured books. If they don’t have it, they say they will order any title in print.

Software

One hundred and thirty downloadable psychology shareware programs are available from ShrinkTank [http://www.shrinktank.com/psyfiles.htm ]. A listing of computer billing and office management programs provided by Ed Zuckerman, Ph.D. at Mental Health Net [http://mentalhelp.net/guide/pro24.htm ]

Continuing Education Online

Impatiently waiting to learn about the very latest developments in your specialty area? A cure for foot-tapping can be found at PsyBC [www.psybc.com] where the experts meet and discuss the most current issues in their field. PsyBC offers APA approved CE credit in a virtual seminar format, with an opportunity to interact with the presenters and others who are taking the class via email.

Honing your skills and earning CE credits without leaving the comfort of your home can also be accomplished at AudioPsych [http://www.audiopsych.com/] which provides approved CE courses for psychologists and other MH professionals, utilizing Real Audio, which allows you to listen to, rather than read, text online. The presentations include video, synchronized slides and notes which appear automatically in your browser. $12 -$15/credit hr.

WebEd -at http://ceus.com/ offers basic courses in a self-paced format and include quizzes and online assignments. Communication with the instructor is available via email.

Distance Learning: On-Line Education Library of Resources at www.integralink.com/olel/ Listing of institutions offering courses online.

Online case conferences are held at Behavior online www.behavior.net/ with experts in various areas presenting and discussing cases with participants.

Be Careful Out There

Never, never download a program from the Internet without checking for viruses. In my opinion the best virus protection programs can be obtained from McAfee [http://www.nai.com/] or Symantec (Norton) [http://www.norton.com/]. And don't forget to update your program regularly as new viruses are continually appearing.

With the help of the sites listed above, your Internet travels should be speedy and productive. If you have a favorite link or comments on any of the above, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Email me at lopresti@home.com

Copyright notification: Portions of this article previously appeared in the NJ Psychologist, Spring 1998.

Copyright- Rona LoPresti, Ph.D.