Reference Sites

2005 World Factbook

Here you'll find a very dry but extremely thorough summary of what appears, at first glance, to be every country in the world (face it, we're not going to check).

4800Numbers

4anything.com is a network of web guides that help users easily find high quality, relevant information online for thousands of topics of interest and cities. Each guide helps users focus their searching via a well-organized, highly manageable list of records.

50states.com - States and Capitals

Lot's of facts and useful information specific to your home state - State homepage, capitol tours, cams, constitution, driving rules, genealogical resources, K-12 schools, newspapers, political representatives, topography, tourism, veteran affairs, and weather.

Acronym Finder

The next time somebody spouts alphabet soup, you'd do well to stop into the Acronym Finder to decipher what it is he or she is saying.

Select names based on what they mean; type in a name that just doesn't quite do it and see all the variations thereof; pick from lists of the most popular current names, names of famous people.

Site provides useful facts and information about your community, your economy, and your society. You can create a variety of tables, reports, or maps with information on your community, the economy, or American society.

Archive of Misheard Lyrics

A reference for finding words of songs which are often misheard.

Look up the area code for any city in the US or Canada.

ARTFL Project: ROGET'S Thesaurus Search Form

Look up words online for various other meanings.

ArtLex

Has a comprehensive list of terms used to describe visual art and the techniques used to create it.

Ask Jeeves for Kids!

This site lets you ask a question in plain English and promises to point you only to a few, relevant, kid-friendly sites. The Ask Jeeves for Kids site uses a knowledge base consisting of thousands of question templates and millions of researched answers.

Ask the DreamDoctor - Home Page

This site is dedicated to helping you understand your unconscious mind by examining your dreams. The dreams are sorted by subjects, such as romance, men's, and women's.

Atlapedia Online

Atlapedia Online contains full color physical and political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world.

Bartlett's Quotations

Can find quotations by subject or by author.

BigBook

Search a database of 16 million businesses for contact information, maps and even driving directions to the establishment of your choosing.

Botanical Terms

Enter in confusing terms and get clear definitions of botanical and gardening terms.

Britannica.com

Britannica now offers all of its considerable content free. Users can search the entire site or browse by topic. With tons of high quality, reliable information, all Net research should start here.

Car Connection

Up-to-date information, analyses and columns from auto-industry experts.

Census Bureau's database of Frequently Occurring Names

The Census Bureau receives numerous requests to supply information on name frequency. In an effort to comply with those requests, the Census Bureau has embarked on a names list project involving a tabulation of names from the 1990Census.

Citysearch.com

Community event calendars, arts and entertainment, restaurant guides, and other helpful information.

Clearinghouse

The Argus Clearinghouse provides a central access point for value-added topical guides which identify, describe, and evaluate Internet-based information resources.

Country Studies: Area Handbook Series

Library of Congress feature dealing with 100 foreign countries, describing and analyzing political, economic, social, and national security systems and institutions, and examining the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by culture.

CyberAtlas Index

The reference desk for web marketing.

Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com hubs all the top dictionaries, thesauri, style books, and more, and it also offers some basic English language tutorials.

Dictionary of PC and Communication Terms

This comprehensive dictionary provides complete descriptions of complex terms in two of the most volatile and interesting areas of computer development: personal computers and networks.

Distance Service

How far is it? Welcome to the new home of the distance service. This service uses the University of Michigan Geographic Name Server and a supplementary database of world cities to find the latitude and longitude of two places, and then calculates the distance.

Earth Calendar

Check out your birthday - or any day - on the Earth Calendar, a giant diary of every event celebrated worldwide.

Encyclopedia.com

More than 17,000 articles from the Columbia Concise Encyclopedia with search feature.

Encyperpedia

Dozens of special purpose online and printed encyclopedias.

Ex Libris--an E-Zine for Librarians and Information Junkies

Marylaine Block runs the Ex Libris site mostly to help librarians use the Web more effectively, both for research and for giving their libraries a better online presence. As such, it provides the perfect resource for students looking for paper topics.

FacsNet

FACS educates journalists about news content through Journalism EducationPrograms. Additionally, FACS News Source Programs help to improve thevalue of news sources by educating those who act as sources for journalists.

FXConverter - 164 Currency Converter

FXConverter (Foreign Exchange Currency Converter) is a multi-lingual Currency Converter with up to date exchange rates provided from leading market data contributors and is filtered for validity.

Enter the name of the desired geographic location (city and/or state). For example, enter Cambridge, MA, and the server will locate Cambridge, MA. If you enter just Cambridge, you will get information on all towns called Cambridge.

Government INFOMINE Search Screen

INFOMINE is a unique Web resource featuring well organized access to important university level research and educational tools on the Internet. A virtual library, INFOMINE is notable for its collection of annotated and indexed links.

Guru.com | Welcome

A page that matches freelancers with jobs and has great resources for writers.

Harper's Index: 3 Month Listing

A list of amazing facts about how many and how much.

How to Obtain Birth, Death, Marriage, and Divorce Certificates

If you're searching for birth, death, marriage, or divorce records, you probably wouldn't think of the Center for Disease Control as a good source of information. However, a recent visit to its site unearthed a helpful How To Obtain Vital Records page.

Inflation Conversion Factors

If a Model-T cost $395 in 1919 what would it cost today? Use this handy guide, taken primarily from the two-volume Historical Statistics of the United States, enables you to convert historical prices to current dollars.

Information Please

The print edition has been put online along with tie-ins to current doings, dictionaries, quizzes and more.

InnoVision Technologies: Roman Numeral Converter

Converts Arabic numbers to Roman numbers.

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Check out the crashworthiness of particular models of cars here and learn about state laws regarding speed limits, etc.

International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

International Center for Research on Women - "promoting social and economic development with women's full participation."

International Data Base (IDB)

Here's an extensive resource for demographics and socioeconomic statistics on 227 countries and dependencies.

Internet Movie Database

Searchable database of movies.

Internet Public Library, The

Extensive selection of links to libraries and library-related sites accessible via the Web.

iTools!

Tools for finding information on the Internet.

Kelley Blue Book

The Kelley Blue Book site can give you a good idea what your trade-in is worth.

Library of Congress

The Library preserves a collection of nearly 121 million items, more than two-thirds of which are in media other than books. These include the largest map, film and television collections in the world.

Organized along the lines of a regular library, the site offers quick access to encyclopedias, maps, phone books, business information, statistics, and a range of specialized information.

Libweb

Libweb currently lists over 2000 pages from libraries in over 70 countries.

Lives, the Biography Resource

This site points to, and in some cases briefly reviews, online biographies. It should be bookmarked in every library. You can easily search the list by last name or browse categories such as Canadians, US Civil War, Eras, and Regions.

MapQuest

Type the address into MapQuest and it returns a complete graphical full-color map that marks your requested location. Use the buttons to zoom in or out through levels of magnification from national to a local street map.

Develop personalized maps.

Martindale's Reference Desk: Calculators On-Line

Provides calculators for about anything.

Merriam-Webster OnLine - Dictionary - Thesaurus...

Bookmark this site for quick and easy lookup of English language words. M-W.com features a dictionary and thesaurus, as well as a 'Word of the Day' feature and fun word games.

Metric and English Conversions

Here you can enter the metric measurement in question, give the units you want to convert to, and presto--a simple little window appears with your answer.

My Virtual Reference Desk

Economically organized, Ref Desk houses hundreds of top-shelf links and makes a strong case for becoming your start page.

Old Farmer's Almanac, The

Provides much the same information as the printed version such as weather, gardening tips, special events, etc.

Pay Phone Directory

If you ever have urgent need for the number of the pay phone outside the ticket booth at Disney World's Pleasure Island, the Pay Phone Directory can come to your aid. With concentration on American and Canadian phones, the listings are arranged by state.

PC Webopaedia home page

Search for any term directly, or choose one of the categories and go exploring. This is without a doubt the first place to go after you leave a meeting with a hailstorm of terms and initials bouncing off the inside of your skull.

Photo Archives, Active List; University of Utah

J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. Over 650 Collections are now accessible online! Searchable by person, place, subject.

Quotations Page, The

Provides quotes of the day, random quotes, and can search for quotes.

Quotez - Over 5000 Quotations

Unlike most quote sites on the Web--including the others we've covered in this series of tips--Quotez conveniently includes a link to 112 humorous quotes, so you don't have to comb through each quote to find the funny ones.

research annex

The Research Annex brings this outlook, which intertwines academic, public and applied interests, to the realm of electronic communication. Resources, skills, current projects, and completed research endeavors can be accessed through this site.

Research-It! - Your one-stop reference desk

You have to see this page to believe it! Imagine if someone took every major language, library, geographical, financial, shipping, and Internet search tool and put them all on one page.

Robert's Rules of Order Revised

Brush up on how to introduce motions and resolutions, debate and then vote on them.

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition....

This is the searchable online version of the third edition, 1995, of the print reference work of the same name.

Semantic Rhyming Dictionary

Find all the words that rhyme with word your select.

Simpson, James B. 1988. Simpson's Contemporary Quotes

The Most Notable Quotes: 1950-1988.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Entitled the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, this encyclopedia is published on the Internet and receives contributions from many of the world's top philosophy scholars.

State and County Demographic and Economic Profiles

Click to this map site where you can access census information for each of the 50 states. Learn about population, economics, and income and poverty. Statistical information can be selected for states and counties.

Statistical Resources on the Web

From The University of Michigan this site offers statistical resources on the Web. The Documents Center's web pages are clustered by broad subject area to make your research easier.

The American Heritage Book of English Usage. ...

A powerful, practical and authoritative guide to contemporary English usage that will help you make intelligent decisions when communicating in speech or writing. Site presents sound guidelines and specific controversies in grammar, style, and word choice.

The World Time Server - correct, current, local

No matter what time zone a country or city is located in, this site is an excellent resource for determining any time, anywhere.

Topic Index - Quotation Guide

Choose from over 60 categories of quotations, or search by a key word to access this extensive database of both popular and obscure quotes. Quotation Web sites also help if you have a quote, but need to figure out who originally uttered it.

Translator's Home Companion

An excellent place to start with links to a wide range of glossaries--from foreign language dictionaries to film terms and well beyond.

Trivia at U S E L E S S K N O W L E D G E.com

Useless Knowledge, a site dedicated to trivia, quotes, quizzes, and useless facts.

U.S. West Yellow Pages

Search by category, business or location.

U.S. Zip Codes

Enter full or partial name and it will give Zip Code.

Units of Measurement

Site offers a dictionary of units of measurement describing the relationship between various English and metric units. Also provides historic perspective on differences between English customary measurement systems and the metric measurement system.

WashingtonPost.com: Business Glossary

Search for business terms in Washington Post.

whatis?com

Whatis?com is an online encyclopedia that helps you keep abreast of all those obscure techno-terms. The site offers a number of options from a standard search, to lists of topics, to alphabetical listings.

WWWebster Thesaurus - Search screen

Search this online version of the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus. Search results include term definitions, synonyms, and related and contrasted terms.

yourDictionary.com - Home Page

Links to over 1500 dictionaries in 230 languages as well as guides on thesauri, grammar and much more. http://www.refdesk.com The single best source for facts on the Net.

Zip2

An easy way to search for business, people, and events in U.S. cities with accompanying maps and detailed door-to-door directions as well as local restaurant menus, movie times, and much more.