An excellent starting point is Planet
Baha'i, the new home of what was originally the about.com Baha'i directory.
This site includes a wide range of links listed by topic, as well as weekly featured
articles, a Baha'i chat room, a forum, and a newsletter.
The Internet's first main directory, www.yahoo.com.
is also a manually-compiled index to websites. Though Yahoo only indexes about
1% of the Internet (since created manually, unlike a search engine), this tends
to be the most useful 1%. The Baha'i section, which unfortunately is quite out-of-date
and lists a number of Covenant-Breaker sites, is at
dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Religion_and_Spirituality/Faiths_and_Practices/Baha_i_Faith
The most complete way to search the Internet is by using a search engine.
Unlike a directory, which just lists websites, an engine indexes the actual content
of websites, such that when you search for a keyword it tells you every place
that word can be found on the Intenet. The drawback with this process is that,
as the results returned can be so bewilderingly large, it's tricky finding just
what you're looking for. The best results are obtained by using Boolean logic
and at least two keywords. For instructions on this, consult the help pages at
whichever engine you're using, or the chart at www.notess.com/search/features.
The best online Library in the world is of course the Library of Congress,
www.loc.gov. They have an amazingly large online
catalogue, and a number of different kinds of search functions at lcweb.loc.gov/catalog,
from the simple to the very advanced.
The main directory/metadirectory for all things on the Internet is of course
www.yahoo.com, but they only catalogue a limited
number of academic sites. The best metadirectory for general academic research,
from the humanities to science to politics, is the WWW Virtual Library, whose
start page is at www.vlib.org. From here one
links to topic-specific directories, each hosted by a private volunteer. The Baha'i
component of the WWW Virtual Library is run by Casper Voogt and can be found at
www.bcca.org/~cvoogt/Religion
(note the capital 'R'), a subsection of his main page, http://www.bcca.org/~cvoogt
The best directory that I know of for academic resources is Academic Info,
at academicinfo.net. This site also features
a number of good reference materials, from information about online libraries
to using search engines, at academicinfo.net/ref.html.
The Baha'i section is academicinfo.net/Bahai.html
(note capital "B").
Finally, the best directory for general scholarly-oriented resources is the
Academic Resources Channel, at www.realsci.com.
Islamic materials
There are a number of good Muslim sites, starting with academicinfo.net/Islam.html
(note capital "I"). The primary Sunni site, wings.buffalo.edu/student-life/sa/muslim/isl/isl.html,
and the primary Shi'i site, www.al-islam.org,
both contain a large collection of scriptures, articles, and resources. www.quran.org.uk
is a collection of materials on the Qur'an, from articles to audio samples of
recitation, and seven translations of the Qur'an (by M.H. Shakir, Abduallah Yusuf
Ali, Maulvi Sher Ali, Dr. Muhsin Khan and Dr. Muhammad Al-Hilali, Marmaduke Pickthall,
and T.B. Irving, E.H. Palmer). Finally, the USC Muslim Students Association includes
text search engines: you can search the Qur'an at www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/searchquran.html
and hadith at www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/searchhadith.html.
Qur'ans and hadith are also at wings.buffalo.edu/sa/muslim/isl/texts.html.
One might also find useful the three-in-one translation at qurantrans.bizland.com,
which includes Pickthall, Shakir and Yusuf Ali with the latter's notes; one can
switch from one to another by clicking on a link to the other two at the end of
each verse.
See also the Islam Islamic Search Engine: IntoIslam Islamic Search Engine & Directory offering complete Islamic, topical and geographical coverage, excellent search facilities as well as a Bilingual directory in English and Arabic
