It?s deadline, you have to reach someone for a story, but you don?t know the person?s phone number or even where the person lives.

You can try plowing through that pile of phone books at the city desk, but the one that has the number undoubtedly will have vanished (for some reason newsrooms seem to be the chief supplier of the phone book black market).

Or you can tax the patience of a succession of directory assistance operators in nearby cities, hoping you?ll finally hit the right one. And with new area codes popping up all the time, an additional cluster of long-distance operators will soon be added to your search.

The Internet offers a quick and easy way around this problem -- a digital bookshelf of online telephone directories that let you do a single search to see if someone is listed anywhere in the country.

Some of the sites provide reverse directories as well, so you can find whom a particular number belongs to. You can even get the names of people who live at or near a specific address -- indispensable when trying to find someone who witnessed a crime or natural disaster.

And many sites also let you search for business or overseas phone listings.

So which of the many online directories should you try?

One of the most comprehensive is Switchboard. It has a national residential telephone directory -- the equivalent of a master database of all the directories put together by local phone companies throughout the country (the numbers only come from public sources, so you won?t find unlisted phone numbers here).

To use the Switchboard service, at the main page click on the highlighted words 'Find A Person' to get to the white pages section. Then simply type someone?s name into the boxes to search for a phone listing anywhere in the United States. You don?t even have to specify a first name (although it?s highly advisable for people with common last names).

If you?re unsure of the spelling of a name, just type the first portion of it, and Switchboard will retrieve all variations on the end of the name. Thus if you weren?t sure how to spell my last name, you could search for 'Grabowi' and get any listings for 'Grabowicz,' 'Grabowitz,' etc.

Besides phone numbers, Switchboard also will display each person?s address. If you then click on the person?s name, you?ll get a page with any e-mail address for the person and a link to a street map of the area where the person lives. And if you want to set up a meeting with the person, there?s even a link that displays coffee shops in the area.

Other phone directory services that also allow nationwide searches using only a last name include: Bigfoot at www.Bigfoot.com. Type in a person?s name and then click on the small 'White Page' box. Bigfoot also notes how current the phone and address listings are (the online directory services generally update their listings quarterly or semiannually). InfoSpace at www.infospace.com. Click on the highlighted words, 'White Pages' and type a name in the box (you also can use the 'Country' drop-down menu to search phone books in Canada and Europe). At the results page you?ll get a list of names and addresses. Click on any of the names to call up the person?s phone number. AnyWho at www.anywho.com. Run by AT&T, AnyWho groups your search results by state rather than just alphabetically by name. Yahoo! People Search at www.people.yahoo.com (previously known as the Four11 directory, now part of the Yahoo subject guide). Type a person?s name in the 'Telephone Search' box. WhoWhere at www.whowhere.lycos.com (now part of the Lycos search engine). Type a name in the box and just below that, select 'Phone & Address.' Many of the telephone directory services get their listings from infoUSA, which has its own online phone book (although infoUSA does require that you specify a state to do a search).

For residential listings, at the main infoUSA page click on the words 'U.S. Directory Assistance' and then select 'Find People.' Like Switchboard, many of these services allow you to search for partial last names in cases where you?re unsure of the spelling. You either type in just a partial name or a partial name followed by an asterisk.

And many of the sites also automatically retrieve variations on first names. Thus a search for 'William' will get listings for 'Bill' as well. Most of the sites have a little 'help' menu item to explain their search techniques.

Some of these services will require that you register to use them, but the registration is free.

Where To Start

So which Web phone directory is the best?

I tried searching for a half dozen different names, and Switchboard and Bigfoot retrieved the most listings overall, with InfoSpace and AnyWho trailing slightly behind (although these numbers could be skewed due to old listings that haven?t been purged from some of the databases). Switchboard also was ranked as the most popular online phone directory in a recent survey by Media Metrix, followed by InfoSpace, WhoWhere, Yahoo/Four11, AnyWho and Bigfoot.

My advice is start with Switchboard. Then if that doesn?t yield the listing you?re seeking, try a couple of the other directory services. For a catalog of all the different phone directories that are available, go to Telephone Directories on the Web. The same site is a good place to find lists of international phone directories available online.

Or you can try the Infobel Web site in Europe, which has a simple drop-down menu to locate phone books in 180 countries around the world.

Go Backwards

What if you want to know whom a phone number belongs to?

While many of the online phone book sites discontinued such reverse directory services in the past two years because of privacy concerns, several are still around.

One is the InfoSpace Web page. To get to the reverse directory, under the section for 'White Pages,' click on the entry for 'reverse lookup.' Then in the 'Reverse Phone and Fax Number' section, type in a residential or business number (or a fax or toll-free number) to see who has the number.

You also can search for who lives at a street address at the same screen. Just scroll down to the 'Reverse Address' section and type in a street number and name.

When you get a listing for the street address, you then can find who lives nearby by clicking on the 'Find Neighbors of' menu item.

AnyWho offers a similar service. Just select the 'Reverse Lookup' tab on the main page and type in a phone number. Once you?ve done the search, click on the highlighted street address to get the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who live in the vicinity.

One other reverse phone directory is at the infoUSA site. At the main page click on the words 'U.S. Directory Assistance' and then select 'Find People.' Scroll down at the new page and you?ll see a section for a 'Reverse Phone Number Search.'

Business Types

Finally, there are a number of Web sites where you can search for business phone numbers. Among those are: Switchboard, which allows you to do a nationwide search for a business phone listing. At the main page click on 'Find a Business' and at the next page, type in the busines name and click on the 'search in' button (You don?t have to specify a city or state). AnyWho, which also allows a nationwide search for business listings. Just click on the 'Business' tab at the main page. ComFind, which does a search of its international database of companies. Type in the name of a business and select 'Company Name.' You?ll get the phone number and address, type of business and a link to the firm?s Web page if it has one. However, ComFind?s database of U.S. companies is not as comprehensive as directories like Switchboard and AnyWho. There are other sites with even larger business databases, but they require that you specify a state. Among them are: BigBook. You can type in any portion of a business name, and the search engine will retrieve all listings that contain the word or words you used. Thus if you were looking for 'Paul?s CyberCafe,' you only have to type 'CyberCafe' to find it. Once you?ve done the search, select one of the categories of businesses to see the individual phone and address listings. InfoSpace. Under the heading 'Yellow Pages,' click on 'Find by Name.' And for a list of other business directories on the Web, try the Global Yellow Pages site.

Final note: If you?re trying to convince your media organization to add another Internet computer workstation to the newsroom, mention that these free Web phone directories could be a real money saver. Each time a reporter or editor calls the traditional directory assistance service for a number, the charge can be anywhere from 25 cents to $1. A new Internet computer workstation could reduce those calls and pay for itself pretty quickly.