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Reference
Last Updated: 17 April 2008
- Acronym Finder
- http://www.acronymfinder.com
- Easy to search acronym dictionary; human-edited, based in America
- Acronyma
- http://www.acronyma.com
- Acronym finder; available languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese
- Advanced Placement Digital Library
- http://apdl.rice.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx
- Exhaustively annotated list of links collected to help AP and college students with research; links organized by subject area
- American Masters
- http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters
- Over 100 American cultural leaders; photographs, biographies, and links
- Babel Fish Translation by AltaVista
- http://world.altavista.com/
- Provides direct translation of text blocks and web pages; watch out for idioms and slang (ie. "kid" can mean child or baby goat)
- Bartleby
- http://www.bartleby.com/
- Full-text of many texts -- reference, verse, fiction, nonfiction -- some older classics, some copyrighted
- Best Information on the Net
- http://library.sau.edu/bestinfo/
- Menu-driven site geared towards aiding students in researching popular paper topics
- Chambers's Book of Days
- http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/BookofDays
- Digital reprint of classic reference text; browsable by day
- Center for Digital Initiatives
- http://dl.lib.brown.edu/
- Digitized items (many primary sources) from Brown's collection, includes: Prohibition, African American Music, Napoleonic Satire, Radical America, World War I Sheet Music
- Chambers Reference Online
- http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/chref.py/main
- Scroll down for access to a low-ad dictionary/thesaurus; biography material is out of date; several interesting word games
- College Board
- http://www.collegeboard.com
- SAT preparation site
- Digital Library of the Commons
- http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/
- Full-text library on common resources (agriculture, fishing, forestry, grazing land use, water resources), requires PDF, very inclusive
- Digital Book Index
- http://www.digitalbookindex.com
- After a brief, free registration, users can browse or search by author, title or subject; linked results are returned in a table that tells user the text, format, and if there is a charge
- DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
- http://www.doaj.org
- "Free, full-text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals;" browsable by subject; more than 2000 titles represented
- Electronic Text Center
- http://etext.lib.virginia.edu
- "Search Public Collections" allows user to search items freely available on the Internet -- items are scanned and transcribed
- Encyclopedia.com
- http://www.encylcopedia.com
- Online version of the Columbia Encyclopedia; there are discrete ads on the site
- Eserver.org: Accessible Writing
- http://eserver.org
- Online full-text items; searchable and browsable by topic
Ethnographic Resources Related to Folklore, Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, and the Humanities
- http://www.loc.gov/folklife/
- Library of Congress site focused on American folklife and craft; many primary sources and photos of folkwork
- Exalead
- http://beta.exalead.com/
- Search engine that allows the user to narrow searches by topic
- Factbites
- http://www.factbites.com
- Search engine / encyclopedia hybrid; gives relevant information from web site so that the user can see the search terms in context
- Federal Citizen Information Center
- http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/
- All Pueblo consumer information leaflets are available free online; also can be ordered in print for a small fee
- Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project
- http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks
- Thousands of American cookbooks digitized and searchable by key word
- FirstGov by US General Services Administration
- http://www.firstgov.gov
- Federal government information listed by topic; many items from the Government Printing Office; links lightly annotated
- Food Marketing Institute
- http://www.fmi.org/
- "For Consumers" includes information on food safety, quality, storage, nutrition, and bioengineering
- FoodSafety.gov
- http://www.foodsafety.gov
- "Gateway to Government Food Safety Information;" includes information on food-borne pathogens and kitchen safety
- Free Dictionary
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com
- Includes a thesaurus; offers suggestion if word is misspelled or not found
- Free Library
- http://www.thefreelibrary.com
- Online catalog of texts that are available via the web (most are out of copyright and free/full-text)
- GeoHive: Global Statistics by Johan van der Heyden
- http://www.xist.org/default1.aspx
- Well-organized site that focuses on population; while there is not as much data here as on some other sites, it is easier to use
- Government Printing Office
- http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html
- Access to all GPO online materials, searchable by topic and location
- GovSpot.com
- http://www.govspot.com
- Links to the most popular government resources; links are not annotated, but are broken-down by topic; searching is menu-driven
- Gutenberg Project
- http://www.gutenberg.net/
- Oldest and largest site for electronic books, easy to search, does require download
- How Products are Made
- http://www.madehow.com
- Best if alphabetic list for each volume is browsed; though the search function leaves much to be desired, articles on the topics are excellent
- How Stuff Works
- http://www.howstuffworks.com
- Site covers scientific and technical topics as well as obscure unanswerables like "What is the worst way to die?"
- Hypertexts: “We DO American Studies"
- http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hypertex.html
- Collection of valuable texts from University of Virginia; some fiction, some science, some history, some primary source
- Imagebase
- http://imagebase.lib.vt.edu
- Browsable database of thousands of images from Virginia Tech.; includes many Civil War images, most fine art images cannot be seen off (VT) campus
- Infoplease
- http://www.infoplease.com
- Start page is daily almanac; links to various reference works
- Internet Archive
- http://www.archive.org/
- Attempt to preserve ephemeral web materials; includes links to images, audio and text that may be of use to those searching for primary sources
- Internet Detective
- http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/
- Fun interactive site that helps users learn how to select credible web resources; students can complete the entire tutorial in about an hour
- Internet Public Library
- http://www.ipl.org/
- Searchable electronic text resources, heavily focused on reliable reference
- Intute
- http://www.intute.ac.uk
- Allows user to search thousands vetted web resources; searchable and browsable by subject; each link heavily annotated; covers science and technolgy, health sciences, social sciences and arts and humanities
- Library of Congress Memory Program
- http://memory.loc.gov
- Click on "List all Collections" to see a complete list of topics; primary sources included
- Library of Congress Photographs and Prints Online Catalog
- http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html
- Catalog of LOC prints, searchable by date, subject or person
- Martindale's "The Reference Desk"
- http://www.martindalecenter.com
- Gateway to reference materials; from K12 Math to grant writing; not annotated
- National Geographic Index
- http://library2.nationalgeographic.com/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
- Index to all National Geographic publications; helpful if you are looking for a specific article and cannot find the date; no full-text
- New York Public Library Digital Gallery
- http://digitalgallery.nypl.org
- Photos, maps, sheet music covers, floor plans, Russian Civil War posters, and may other primary source documents
- Norbert's Bookmarks for a Better World
- http://www.betterworldlinks.org
- 30,000 links on various English-language topics (religion, economy, military, human rights)
- OAIster
- http://oaister.org
- Searchable gateway to academic items available on the web; most items are full-text, may require a PDF reader
- OneLook Dictionary Search
- http://www.onelook.com
- Searches several online resources for word definitions, translations and synonyms
- Online Books Page by Mark Ockerbloom
- http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
- Searchable gateway to free online texts
- OpenCRS
- http://www.opencrs.com
- Collection of 9157 Congress Research Service reports browsable by issue/collection and searchable by key term
- Other Women's Voices
- http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse
- Links to many primary sources written by women; covers a wide range of topics pre-1700
- Repositories of Primary Sources
- http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.html
- List of links to primary sources on the web; grouped by geographic area and subject, not annotated
- Research 101
- http://www.lib.washington.edu/uwill/research101/
- Interactive tutorial about conducting research
- Research Channel
- http://www.researchchannel.org/
- Educational videos on all academic topics; free for classroom use
- Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
- http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/
- Access to public opinion data from over 100 countries and spanning the last 60 years
- Smart Growth Online
- http://www.smartgrowth.org/
- Overview of smart growth movement and urban development; excellent full-text library
- SparkNotes
- http://www.sparknotes.com
- Study guides on various text works (literature, history, even math and physics) written by Harvard students
- Statistical Resources on the Web
- http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html
- Gateway to government statistical files; browsable by subject and searchable
- Urban Dictionary
- http://www.urbandictionary.com/
- Online dictionary of modern slang
- US Census Bureau
- http://www.census.gov/
- Links to US census data raw or in various formats (including user-created maps)
- US Government Websites (LifeHacker)
- http://lifehacker.com/software/technophilia/us-government-web-sites-you-didnt-know-you-could-use-277405.php
- Collection of US Government links from LifeHacker
- United States Military Academy Digital Library
- http://digital-library.usma.edu/collections/
- Links to public digital collection at West Point; includes excellent West Point map publications
- UTOPIA: University of Texas at Austin
- http://utopia.utexas.edu
- Excellent general topic site that covers everything from science to history; links are annotated; focus on projects currently at University of Texas at Austin
- Virtual Reference Shelf
- http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html
- List of Internet resources on basic reference topics compiled by the Library of Congress
- Vocational Information Center
- http://www.khake.com/
- List of links on vocational education; categorized by topic
- Public Records Online (LifeHacker)
- http://lifehacker.com/software/technophilia/where-to-find-public-records-online-280785.php
- LifeHacker's list of sources for public records.
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