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Monday, September 08, 2008 7:11PM IDLE (GMT +12hrs)
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Monday, September 08, 2008 7:11PM IDLE (GMT +12hrs)
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I lost contact with an old colleague. How do I find him?By Anneli Meeder - April 4, 2005 It is easy to lose track of people over time, especially in this industry. It is sometimes possible to find them again using the Internet. Here are some ideas: The very first step is also the easiest: type your colleague's name into a search engine such as Google or MSN and you may find an email address or some other information. (Tip: Type quotation marks around the name, such as "George Washington" and "Washington, George", this will only find web sites that contain the exact order of the words). This will work in many cases, but very often, there is no information, outdated information, or information about other people, but not the person you seek. If the search engines fail, you might try a search in Google's Newsgroups search, in case the person has posted in Internet newsgroups. If your colleague is a consultant, he or she might also be listed in InfoMine's Mining Specialist database. If you have any additional information about your colleague, you can search specialized directories, as outlined below. If you know the country/city the person lives in: If you know the country, or better still the city your colleague lives in, you can search online White Pages directories - there are some for every country, and they have the same information as phone books: the name, the phonenumber, and sometimes the address. People who have an unlisted phone number can not be found this way. The International White and Yellow Pages directory has links to online White Pages for all countries. If you know the company the person works for: Company websites often have a staff directory, or at the very least a general inquiry email address. Often, companies have a standard for email addresses, such as george.washington@company.com or georgew@company.com - once you know the standard, you can try to send an email and hope that it reaches the right person. If you think that your colleague has moved on from this company, you might ask the office via their general inquiry email if they have your colleague's new contact information. If you know an association the person is a member of: Most associations have membership directories. Unfortunately you can generally only search the directories if you are a member yourself. There is a list of associations' websites in the Associations category in InfoMine's LinksMine. If you know the university the person went to: Some universities have alumni directories which may be accessible online. Depending on the university, the directories may not be available to non-alumni and the information they have on a person is likely to be out of date. Find a university's homepage on LinksMine. Other Internet people directories There are some online people directories such as Bigfoot or the Yahoo! People Search, but their usefulness is very limited. Much of the information is either out-of-date, or it only finds people in the US, or you have to pay for it. I would only use these as a last resort. If you are looking for an expert rather than a specific person, we will address this issue in one of our following Librarian's Help Desk articles. Useful Links:
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