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What is the Repertorium?
The Repertorium is an annotated listing of publicly available sources via the Internet that may be used by serious researchers
for investigative work. The Repertorium is annotated, arranged by keyword, updated frequently and irregularly, and open. The
Repertorium is used worldwide by thousands of customers on a daily basis, mainly government institutes, law enforcement, military,
international relations, financial and business analysts etc.
How to use
One golden rule in the Finer Art of Searching is think in sources. The first thing you do when handling a reference question is to ask yourself "what source may likely have the answer to
this enquiry?".
The Repertorium can assist here to guide you quickly to the most authoritative sources.
The Repertorium comes in very handy if you are used to using Collection Plans. A collection plan is the management scheme
and 'search plan' that will help the searcher in systematizing a research efficiently. All the sources in a collection plan
are listed in the Repertorium. So, when searching for country information one does not jump directly to the category or block
entitled 'country information', but one first writes down a plan of sources to use to compile country information.
In a country information plan, there could be categories such as: government information, maps, newspapers, harbour data,
airport data, etc. Those categories are all listed in the repertorium and that is exactly how useful the Repertorium can be:
in executing a precompiled Collection Plan.
Origin
The Repertorium is grown out of a need to keep track of interesting sources usefull for serious research. In the early nineties
when I joined the Internet community I kept track of sources on paper. Then, I wrote my first HTML source book page to make
it more efficient, using some HTML editor. Many years later I found that simply using XML with XSLt is the most efficient
way of keeping track of developments, also staying completely independent from platforms and software.
The first Repertorium was written in HTML and called Reuser's Repertorium. One single HTML file with hundreds of links became off course unmanageable, so for the second main release, the XML format
was choosen, also to allow other editors to participate in the project. Hence the name: Reuser's new Repertorium.
The word Repertorium is derived from the Latin and is used by librarians to refer to little reference books for purpose of
looking up things.
Arrangement of sources
The Repertorium consists of three main columns. Column number one is the table of contents. Column number two is the first
array of sources. Column number three is the second array of sources.
- The table of contents
The table of contents (TOC) consist of four blocks.
- Search Engines. Since I consider general purpose search engines the most important part, the TOC starts with a block devoted to all types
of search engines, starting with directories (not really a search engine, but in a systematic search process the first step),
then single search engines, then meta search engines, then other types of search engines. Such as binary engines, deep web
search engines, FTP search engines etc.
- Premium. Premium information providers, i.e. the providers that provide more or less validated information. This category thus contains
libraries and commercial information providers (vendors).
- Reference. The sources that are mainly used for reference purposes. These sources are typically used by professionals to prepare a
search. This is were you will find sources to determine your terminology, find phrases, synonyms, alternative terms, etc.
Obviously, you can also use the handbooks and reference works for what it is called: reference.
- Subject. The body of the Repertorium. The list of 'subjects' is in alphabetical order. Mostly.
- The sources
The sources are described in terms of URL, title, and a very small annotation. Sources are systematically grouped in blocks devoted to a particular main subject (such as: newspapers, country information). Each block is devided in subheaders, typically by kind of background (top choices, international, local, meta sites, etc.).
Blocks may start with a little explanation as to the content of the block. Also, subheaders sometimes have descriptions for
clarifications.
Each block ends with a very small 'menu' to jump back to the TOC category Searchers, Premium, Reference, or, Subject.
There are two versions of the Repertorium. The Full Version includes explanations and annotations, the Short Version is just the links.
Updates
The Repertorium is updated regularly and infrequently. There is a little Help button where I try to keep track of major changes.
Contact
Feel free to comment PLEASE! If you have additions, suggestions, changes, please mail to me (a ATSIGN reuser DOT biz). If
you would like to cooperate, or take care of a certain category, please contact me. I can need assistance in this project.
Disclaimer
The copyright and intellectual property rights belong to the respective owner of the sources. I am not responsible for the
content of sources. Use at your own risc. I, nor my company Reuser's Information Services or any of its representatives accept
any responsibility for the improper use of any source listed in the Repertorium or the consequences thereof.
