Several have asked how I found "Bees are My Business."  To tell you the
truth, I can't remember. I do remember there were about a dozen copies
available and the one I picked was not only the cheapest, but also the
closest.

   Apparently some folks haven't found how easy it is to find things on the
Internet. With a little experience you'll find that it's a more wonderful
tool than you ever knew before.

    Start with a good search engine like google.com  The search term "used
books" is a good start. You could also try beekeeping books.   (You can also
check out amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and ebay.com, which have used
books.)

    Remember the broad search engines don't catalog more than a tiny fraction
of what is available.  The search engine should reveal a number of search
services. Many of the used book stores now have cataloged their wares and
submitted them to a search service. When you find these, you'll find a
treasure trove of things that it could have taken years of searching to find.
A little book nook on the opposite coast is now available to you to find what
you want.  It has given the little stores a chance to compete with the big
guys.

    The same principle can be used in many other fields as well. Use the
general search engines like Google to discover more specific search engines,
like the one at your state extension site or university. It's easy to get an
e-mail address for anyone at any university, because they have searchable
directories. There are thousands of search engines out there. When you want a
piece of info, the first search is to find the search engines that catalog
the field in which you hope to find your data.

   The pollination page has gotten so huge that I can't even keep up with
what's there myself.  There's close to 50 megs on it. Many of the things that
are there should be cross referenced in several ways, which I haven't time to
do. So I put a search engine right on it, nicely (and freely) provided by
google. Now you can look within the page for anything that interests you.

    I've also found a newer, better translation engine that pretty well
covers western European languages, which most of the world speaks at least
one of.  Now I'm looking for one that translates Russian, Chinese, Japanese
and Swahili.

    Ain't it wonderful?


Dave Green
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com