the Internet Public Library
Reference Resources
Standard General Reference Aids.
Subcategories of Reference are:
- Almanacs
- Annual publications offering lists, charts, and tables of information on various topics.
- Associations & Organizations
- Directories of associations and non-profit organizations.
- Biographies
- Accounts of persons' lives written by another.
- Calculation & Conversion Tools
- Websites that assist with mathematical calculations, including online calculators and conversion dictionaries and tables.
- Calendars
- The organization and record of the passing of days or time. Also include are topical and audience-specific calendars, such as religious and cultural calenders.
- Census Data & Demographics
- Information from official and non-official periodic enumeration of the U.S. and other populations, including related demographic data and reports.
- Dictionaries
- General works containing alphabetical lists, with information given for each term.
- Encyclopedias
- Comprehensive, authoritative works containing articles on a wide range of subjects.
- Experts & How-To
-
- Genealogy
- Information helpful in finding and/or interpreting records of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors.
- Geography
- Information on the earth, its features, the distribution of life, and political boundaries.
- News & Current Events
- Information about recent events and happenings.
- Periodical Directories
- Directories to periodicals, serials, journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, etc.
- Quotations
- Resources to help identify quotations or find interesting quotations.
- Style & Writing Guides
- Resources for proper grammatical usage, citation formats, or paper writing.
- Telephone & Address
- Directories on the Web listing telephone, fax numbers, street addresses and e-mail addresses for people and businesses.
- Time & Weather
- The current time, conversion to different timezones, and weather forecasts.
- Trivia
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Resources in this category are:
- Academic Info
- http://www.academicinfo.net/
- "Academic Info is an annotated subject directory that aims to be the premier educational gateway to online college and research level Internet resources. Even though the target audience is the college and university community, the subject guides will prove useful to high school and general users as well." A comprehensive resource that includes arts, humanities, sciences, reference, area studies, business, education, law & government, health & medicine, social sciences, digital libraries, library and information science, and job placement resources.
- Author: Mike Madin (canhis@academicinfo.net)
- Subjects:
- Education--Higher Education
- Reference
- Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre
- http://www.bloomsburymagazine.com/ARC/Arc_home.asp
- The Bloomsbury Research Centre is a free online database of reference books (that Bloomsbury publishes) with over 17,000 entries. Resources include the Dictionary of English Literature,Biographical Quotations, Bloomsbury ThematicQuotations, Myth, the Good Word Guide, the Guide to Art, a thesaurus, and the Guide To Human Thought
Searching is through a simple keyword box. Results arelisted in pages of twenty with an excerpt of the entryfound, source, and a link to the complete entry. Searchterms in the complete entry are highlighted in red.
- Author: Bloomsbury Magazine
- Subjects:
- Arts & Humanities
- Reference
- Social Sciences--Customs, Etiquette, Folklore--Mythology & Folklore
- Keywords: Literature
- Extrapolated Barcode Specs
- http://www.spatula.net/proc/barcode/index.src
- Description and specification for popular barcode types, including UPC, postal, and code 3 of 9, with illustrations and example CGI generators. Includes links to further Internet resources.
- Author: Nick Johnson
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Keywords: Barcodes; Universal Product Code; Code 3 of 9; EAN; UPC; POSTNet
- FindArticles.com
- http://www.findarticles.com/
- "FindArticles.com is a vast archive of published articles that you can search for free. Constantly updated, it contains articles dating back to 1998 from more than 300 magazines and journals. You will find articles on a range of topics, including business, health, society, entertainment, sports and more. Unlike other online collections, each of the hundreds of thousands of articles in FindArticles can be read in its entirety and printed at no cost."
- Author: LookSmart, Gale Group
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Reference--Periodical Directories
- Keywords: Magazine articles
- FindSame
- http://www.findsame.com/
- FindSame is a search engine that allows users to use an entire document or part of a document as its search term. FindSame searches for Web pages that contain part of the document.
- Author:
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Keywords: Search Engine; Document
- Getting Grants - Help for Grant Writers
- http://granthelp.clarityconnect.com/
- A site providing tips, techniques, and books related to grant writing. Resources include a list of Internet resources, quick tips, a glossary, a list of acronyms, and news.
- Author: Frank Evangelisti (granthelp@clarityconnect.com)
- Subjects:
- Business & Economics--Non-Profit Organizations
- Law, Government & Political Science--Government--US Federal Government
- Reference
- Keywords: grant writing; fundraising; grants; funding
- INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections
- http://infomine.ucr.edu/
- INFOMINE is a virtual library holding a collection of thousands of annotated and indexed links to important university-level research and educational tools on the Internet. Links are divided in a variety of subjects, which can be browsed or searched by keyword. Subjects include social sciences and humanities, instructional resources, visual and performing arts, sciences, the Internet, and government information.
- Author: Library of the University of California, Riverside
- Subjects:
- Education--Higher Education
- Reference
- The Internet Lost and Found
- http://www.internetlostandfound.com/
- "Free directory listings for lost and found animals and items in the US, Canada and worldwide."
- Author:
- Subjects:
- Entertainment & Leisure--Travel & Tourism
- Reference
- Keywords: lost and found; property;
- iTools
- http://www.iTools.com/
- Quick way to access a number of different types of Internet resources. Its "Search Tools" section offers different types of web searches, while the "Language Tools" let you look-up words or translate them, and the "Research Tools" offer quick fact lookup options.
- Author: iTools (Webmaster@iTools.com)
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Language Identifier
- http://www.rxrc.xerox.com/research/mltt/tools/guesser
- Enter a sentence of 5 or more words, and this tool will guess what language it is.
- Author: The Xerox Research Centre Europe (info@xrce.xerox.com)
- Subjects:
- Arts & Humanities--Language & Linguistics
- Reference
- Librarians' Index to the Internet
- http://lii.org/
- "A searchable, annotated, subject directory of close to 3,000 Internet resources chosen for their usefulness to the public library user's information needs." The items in the directory are selected and maintained by a team of librarians. The spiritual sister of the IPL's own Ready Reference Collection.
- Author: Carole Leita (cleita@sunsite.berkeley.edu)
- Subjects:
- Arts & Humanities--Libraries
- Reference
- Morse Code and the Phonetic Alphabets
- http://www.soton.ac.uk/~scp93ch/refer/alphabet.html
- Table showing the morse code and various phonetics for the alphabet.
- Author: Stephen Phillips (scp93ch@soton.ac.uk)
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Keywords: Morse Code; Alphabet
- Mundo Latino
- http://www.mundolatino.org/
- One of the first Web sites created that is entirely in Spanish. Maintained by writers, journalists, artists, and investigators in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, United States, Holland, Mexico and Venezuela. Selection of the best Web sites in Spanish. Links to hundreds of Spanish language news sources, chat rooms, and educational sites.
- Author: Red Mundo Latino S.L. (vangogh@mundolatino.org)
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Social Sciences--Ethnicity, Culture, and Race--Latin American/Hispanic
- Keywords: Latin America; news; current events; chats; entertainment; culture; education
- myLITsearch
- http://www.mylitsearch.org/
- "myLITsearch is a search engine for those who are looking for information from or about the world's academic community." It allows users to search for research publications of all kinds (e.g.,articles, book chapters, books, theses, conference papers) as well as researchers' CVs, universities, and academic departments. myLITsearch does not provide direct access to the full text of these publications, and is only intended to assist in finding about a particular publication. Contents of myLITsearch are the result of information entered by researchers at getCITED.org.
- Author:
- Subjects:
- Education--Higher Education
- Education--Higher Education--Faculty & Administration
- Reference
- Keywords: Citations; Academic literature; Research; Scholarly
- Price's List of Lists
- http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm
- "The Internet contains numerous lists of information. Many of these lists present information in the form of rankings of different people, organizations, companies, etc. This collection is designed to be a clearinghouse for these types of resources." Lists relate to business, government, geography and regions of the world, education, entertainment, sports, science, and living.
- Author: Gary Price (gprice@gwu.edu)
- Subjects:
- Business & Economics
- Law, Government & Political Science
- Reference
- Refdesk.com
- http://www.refdesk.com/
- "Refdesk is only about indexing quality Internet sites and assisting visitors in navigating these sites." By providing reference resources, such as virtual encyclopedias, as well as search opitions and indexes for many subject areas, Refdesk is a comprehensive source for information.
- Author: Bob Drudge (rbdrudge@refdesk.com)
- Subjects:
- Reference
- Keywords: Resources; Facts; Subject
- WebExhibits
- http://webexhibits.org/
- "WebExhibits helps you find high quality exhibits on the internet" and focuses on illustrated educational exhibits, not just references."Exhibit sites range in subject from the ancient world to science and technology, and from the creative arts to health and medicine. All exhibits are easily indexed.
- Author: Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement (IDEA) (suggestions@webexhibits.com)
- Subjects:
- Arts & Humanities
- Reference
- Science & Technology
- Keywords: Culture; Health; Environment
- xrefer
- http://www.xrefer.com/
- "We're working with some of the world's best known publishers to bring together and interlink their reference works online. xrefer contains encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, books of quotations and reference works covering a wide range of subjects. And the best thing is that all this content is intelligently linked to allow you to follow a trail of relevant information throughout our extensive library." Includes the content of the following reference works: A Dictionary of Business; Bloomsbury Biographical Dictionary of Quotations; Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations; Bloomsbury Thesaurus; Concise Medical Dictionary, Oxford University Press; Grove Concise Dictionary of Music; Oxford Dictionary of Art; Oxford Paperback Encyclopedia; Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women; Penguin Business Dictionary; Penguin Encyclopedia of Places; Penguin Dictionary of Psychology; Penguin Dictionary of Sociology; Who's Who in the Twentieth Century; Oxford Companion to English Literature; Oxford Dictionary of Music; Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
- Author: xrefer.com (help@xrefer.com)
- Subjects:
- Reference
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Last Updated Apr 25, 2002