Step 1: search for sites:
- use search engines at least one international (www.google.com) and one restricted to national sites
- use the links from recognised institutions, national overview pages (startpages), government, youth help, national library, information from the large Internet service providers and other directories
- use mailinglists and newsgroups to hear what people are talking about and if there are websites mentioned
- check the links on the websites you do find (snowball method)
Step 2: evaluate the website:
- use the checklist I sent you to look for the answers of the questions on author, goal, scope, content, presentation
- use the scope policy to look at are basic framework of sites that should be incorporated
- use the selection criteria paper to have some criteria in your mind while looking at the website
- be sure that you have checked out the homepage, the page about the makers (if existing), to have a good insight in the structure of the website, to visit some deeper pages, read and play with some pages
Step 3: select or deselect the website to be in the gateway:
- if a site has all "no" in the checklist it should not be selected
- there must be some real content on the website, more that just address and an overview of the services they offer if you ring their doorbell
- if this is the only website in your country, but it does not meet the criteria do not select it (we want a QUALITY gateway
- make a list of all the URLs that you have visited and evaluated. It can help later to see which sites you have deselected. For instance in Word you can easily make a table with URL, name, date of visit, and yes or no selected
Step 4: index and describe the website:
- use the inputform to register the website
- take a good look at the website and be sure that you index what is on the website (and NOT what you know they also offer but is not -yet - online
- in indexing always try to imagine yourself as a websearcher: image you are searching for the item you just indicated: would you want to find this site?
- type your free texts first in Word and do a spelling checker, that copy and paste them in the form
- use the style guide to be sure that your texts are written correctly, and in a common way (use the templates that are suggested to compose your text)
Step 5: submit the website to be part of the gateway:
- save the description of your websites
- after you have done some evaluating and you are getting more experienced look back to your first ones and - if necessary- amend and resubmit the description
- do not hesitate to ask one of your partners in this group - esp. the members of the editorial board - for advise
Step 6: maintenance:
- try to make sure that you know when major changes are made on the website (perhaps you can contact the owners, telling them they are incorporated in the gateway and asking them to inform any major changes to the website)
- check if the website still answers to the description you made earlier and - if necessary make amendments to the description form