SW Land, Culture, and Society Program

How Do I Use SIG?

The Southwest Information Gateway provides both browsing and searching options. Which entry option you choose will depend on what you are looking for. Browsing is useful when you are looking for general information on a topic. Searching is most useful when you're looking for something more specific.

1. Browsing. Browsing SIG is a good option if you are looking for resources on a general topic. SIG has organized resources into 18 general catagories. Catagories include both subjects (such as “Art and Architecture”) and resource types (such as “Databases”).

To browse, choose a catagory that interests you. If you need to return to a previous step, take a look at the top of the page. You should see something like this:

SIG → Publications → Newsletters

This is called a “breadcrumb” because it shows where you have been. Click on the title of the page that you would like to return to.

2. Searching. Searching SIG requires more knowledge of what you are looking for than browsing. At the top of all SIG pages, you will see a search box like this:

SIG catalog:

Type the word or phrase for which you would like to find relevant sites, and click “Search.” If you find too few sites, try searching just one word. SIG does not support Boolean searching.