Virtual Reference Desk: Index
Gateways and Subject Directories
- Academic Info: The Reference Desk
- Academic Info: Subject Index
- Access to Internet and Subject Resources(U of Delaware)
- Best Information on the NET (BIOTN)
- BUBL LINK: Libraries of Networked Knowledge from the UK
- Direct Search: to search the invisible web
- EServer
- Federal Web Locator: to search for federal government info on the WWW
- INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections (U of California)
- Internet Public Library(U of Michigan)
- Librarians’ Index to the Internet(U of CA at Berkeley)
- Martindale’s “The Reference Desk”
- Refdesk.com
- Quick Reference–U of Texas
- Scout Report Archives: searchable database of 12,000 selected and reviewed sites
- WWW Virtual Library
- Quick Reference from Purdue U.
- Voice of the Shuttle: Website for Humanities Research. An essential tool for the researcher in the humanities.
Awards
- Children’s Books Awards (Newbery, Caldecott, etc.)
- Nobel Prizes
- Pulitzer Prizes
Searchable database of the 80-year history of the Pulitzer Prizes, given for journalism, letters, drama, and music.
Bed and Breakfasts
-
Pamela Lanier’s Bed and Breakfast Guide Online
Searchable directory of inns worldwide.
Biography
- Biographical Dictionary
This site has brief information about 24,000 people. You can search the database in a variety of ways, including by name, date, discoveries, literary works, pseudonyms, etc. - Biography.com
Information about 20,000 people. Search by name only. Entries range up to 200 words.
Books: Reviews and Information
- Booknotes: a Cyber Companion
Complements the C-Span series. Also has Book Industry Facts page which has links to Pulitzer Prize winners and books awards. - BookWire
- Internet Book Information
- New York Times Book Reviews
- Nobel Prizes
- Pulitzer Prizes
Books Full-text Online
- The On-line Books Page
- Bartleby Library : Great Books Online
- Project Gutenberg
- Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts: collection of documents in American & British Literature and philosophy
Bookstores and Catalogs Online
- Vanguard University Bookstore
- AddALL.com Searches 41 online bookstores to compare prices and services.
- AllBookstores.com (book price comparison search engine)
- Amazon.com
- BookWeb.org: American Booksellers Association Online Directory
- Association of American University Presses
- Barnes and Noble
- Bibliofind
Searchable database of 4 million out-of-print books. You can’t order from Bibliofind, but you can find out which seller has the book you want and Bibliofind will forward your request to the seller. - Direct Textbook
- FetchBook.Info
Scan 81 books stores, 40,000 booksellers to find the lowest price - Films for the Humanities and Sciences
- Gail’s Books
Business
- BRINT: Business Technology Portal
Calendars
- Calendar Converter
- Daily Almanac
- Local Times around the World
- Calendar Creator
- Librarian’s Index to the Internet: Calendars
- This day in History
- Today’s Calendar and Clock Page
Just about all the information you would want to know about today, all types of calendars, etc.
California
- Affirmative Action and Diversity Project
Maintained at UCSB, this site emphasizes CA politics. Includes a history of affirmative action, plus links to other sites. - California Hiking Guide
- Official California Legislature Information
- California Local Government Finance Almanac
Statistics for California cities and counties (fees, property taxes, etc.) - California State Assembly
- California State Senate
- California State Home Page
- California Courts
- California’s Natural Resources
Links to CA local, state, and national parks and recreation areas. - Counties Close-Up
Links to county data, with brief profiles for each county. - The High Sierra
Travel, weather, recreation and resources available for the Eastern Sierra mountains. - Lassen Volcanic National Park One of the great parks in CA!
- Calendar Live – LA Times
List of events in the LA area, with features, celebrity profiles, descriptions of venues. Searchable by keyword, phrase, neighborhoods. - Neighborhood Knowledge California
Demographics and other information on California counties, from UCLA Schol of Public Policy and Social Research. - Pacific Sports
Info for marathons, runs and triathalons. - Rough & Tumble: A Daily Drive-by on CA Politics maintained by TV journalist, Jack Kavanaugh. Daily round-up of links to news stories and commentaries.
- HIstoric Route 66
- Which Phone Book?
Handy site that tell you which telephone books cover which CA cities. - Seismic Hazard Zone Maps
Maps for selected quadrangles in Southern and Northern CA, including portions of Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Career/Job Information
- 2004-2005 Occupational Outlook Handbook
- America’s Job Bank
- Beaucoup
- Best Jobs in the USA Today
- Career Magazine
- CareerBuilder
- Career Resource Center
- Find-How Career Resources
- CareerSite
- College Grad Job Hunter
- CTI Career Search An excellent site with info on occupations, growth, salaries. Find out about the career you’re interested in. Also look at Being an Elementary School Teacher, an ebook with opinions and advice about elementary teaching.
- EmploymentGuide.com
- Escape Artist Home Page
Overseas job directory–click on “Overseas Jobs” to give you links organized by country. Info on moving and living abroad. - Federal Jobs Digest
- JobBank USA
- JobHunt
- Orange County Jobs at OCJobsite.com
- JobStar Central
- JobWeb : Career & job searching advice for new college graduates.
- Monster Board
- Peterson’s Career Center
- Riley Guide
- Salary Calculator
Compare the cost of living in U.S. cities. - MonsterTrak StudentCenter.com
- TrueCareers
- U.S. Government Job Announcements
Cars
- Kelley Blue Book
- Automotive.com
Buying a new or used car? This site can help locate it for you. - NADA Used Vehicle Values & Appraisal Guides
- Crash Test
Safety ratings on trucks, cars, and sport utility vehicles. For cars back to the 1970s. - Under the Hood
Basic car care instruction, with a slide show on changing oil, tires, etc.
City Information
- Official City Sites
Links to cities in the US, Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada, France, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.
Companies
Consumer Information
- BestPlaces.net
Helps you choose the best place to work or retire. Compares cities for climate, crime rates, cost of living, education, housing costs, etc. - Epinions
Provides opinions and reviews from user members about products, services, and travel destinations. - Home Improvement/Repair Encyclopedia
- Charity Watch
From the American Institute of Philanthropy, this site lists its top-rated American charities to give you info about the effectiveness of your donations. - How to Obtain Birth, Death, Marriage, and Divorce Certificates
- Identity Theft Resource Center
Provides resources for victims of the ever-increasing crime, prevention tips and statistics.
Country Information
- CIA World Factbook
- Country Studies (Library of Congress)
Extensive political, economic, social, cultural and national security information about 91 countries. An excellent resource. - Department of State Background Notes
- Embassy World: Search for embassies and consulates in the US and US embassies worldwide
- Governments on the Web
Comprehensive database of governmental institutions: parliaments, ministries, offices, embassies, banks, etc. - InfoNation
Geographical, economic, demographic, and social indicators data for all UN members. - International Data Base: statistical tables of demographic and socio-economic data for 227 countries.
Dictionaries and Word Tools
- Acronym Finder
Searchable database providing 85,000 acronyms. - American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
- Baby Namer
- Basic Dictionary of American Sign Language Terms
- Cliche Finder
- Hitchcock’s Bible Names Dictionary Meanings of more than 2500 Bible names
- LOGOS Pronouncing Dictionary
- Miriam-Webster Online
- One-Look Dictionaries, the Faster Finder
Look up a word in over 460 dictionaries. - Oxford English Dictionary
- Roget’s Internet Thesaurus of English Words & Phrases
- Rhyming Dictionary
- Your Dictionary.com
- WorldWideWeb Acronym and Abbreviation Server
Directories
Discussion Groups and Usenet Newsgroups
- CataList
- Google Groups Archive of Usenet discussion groups since 1995
- Topica, the Mailing List Directory
- Tile.net
Dissertations
Education
- Academic Info: the Student Center
- American Universities
- Christian Colleges, Universities and Seminaries
- Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac(Statistics for Higher Education)
- Chronicle of Higher Education This Week
- Chronicle of Higher Education’s Internet Resources Links
- Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU)
- College Net
Encyclopedias
- Catholic Encyclopedia
- Free Internet Encyclopedia
- Encyberpedia
- 1UpInfo Encyclopedia
Covers a wide range of subjects including science, history, philosophy, sports, etc.
Food, Recipes, and Restaurants
- Top Secret Recipes
Recipes that are clones of some of America’s favorite restaurant foods. - Zagat.com
Over 20,000 restaurant reviews from 25 cities, including Paris and London. Registration is free.
Foreign Languages
Fund Raising
Genealogy
- Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites
- FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service
LDS site with a search engine that sifts through millions of names in its files. Extensive! Also has a SourceGuide to help you conduct searches.
Government (US)
- American States
Links to official home pages of each of the 50 US states. - Code of Federal Regulations(regulations issued by the executive branch)
- Congress.Org: Info on issues, legislation, etc.
- County and City Data Book
- Federal Government WWW Servers
List of US government servers - Federal Register (Proposed regulations and regulations recently adopted but not yet in the Code of Federal Regulations–1994-present)
- Federal Web Locator
Award-winning list of links to US government WWW resources. - FedWorld Information Network: a gateway to government info.
- Government Printing Office
- GovSpot
Selective links to local, state, federal, and world government information. - Keeping America Informed: GPO
Provides access to documents printed by the Government Printing Office. Searchable and downloadable. - My Government
Provides contact information for federal and state elected officials based on the zip code entered. - State Statutes Online(a list of states that have laws on the WWW)
- Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
- Treaties in Force
- U.S. Code(text of current public laws enacted by Congress)
- U.S. Depository Ready Reference Sources
Good place to find frequently used government documents. - U.S. Senate
- U.S. House of Representatives
- University of Michigan Document Center
A good place to begin to locate government documents–US and foreign. - White House
- Vote Smart
Graduate School Information
- Grad Schools Online
- BusinessDegreeOnline A searchable directory of over 2800 schools that offer business degrees, both on campus and online.
Legal Resources
- Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court
- FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources
- Guide to Law Online (Library of Congress)
- LawCrawler
- Legal Information Institute(Cornell U)
- Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator
- WashLaw WEB(Washburn U)
- California Tenants and Landlords
Informative site with rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords: discrimination, security deposits, eviction processes, etc. Maintained by the CA Department of Consumer Affairs.
Libraries
- UCI’s Antpac
- Library of Congress
- National Library Catalogues Worldwide
- lib-web-cats
Links to more than 4000 online catalogs and library web pages world-wide.
Maps
- Cartographic Materials
- Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection
- MapQuest
Want to know how to get from here to there? MapQuest will tell you. - Gazetteer of the U.S.
- Mapping the National Parks
Part of the Library of Congress American Memory Collection, this site describes the history, cultural aspects, and geological formations of four areas that became national parks: Acadia, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and Yellowstone. - Geology.com
Includes U.S. state maps, and over 100 country map.
Medical Information
- America’s Best Hospitals US News Online’s rankings.
- AMA Physician Select
- Diseases, Disorders, and Related Topics
A Swedish site with a collection of pages related to diseases - Dr. Koop .com
Consumer health information on a wide variety of topics, “based on the vision of Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former U.S. Surgeon General.” - HealthFinder
From the federal government -
Medi-Cal Policy Institute
Information on California’s Medicaid program, providing health care for low income families, the elderly, and disabled. - Medicare: The Official US Government Site for Medicare
Compare plans and options of Medicare providers. You can also comparison shop nursing nomes for every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the US, with recent violations. - MedllnePlus
- Merck Manuals
Three manuals are available online: the 17th edition of the Merck Manual of Diagnosis & Therapy, the Geriatrics manual and Medical Information: Home Edition. - RxList Gives side effects, interactions, and warnings for prescription drugs.
Miscellaneous
- How Stuff Works
- eHow
Instructions on how to do things and complete tasks. - This to That
How do you glue plastic to wood? This site has a drop down menu to choose two items you want joined and then tells you which glue to use for the task. - Puzzlemaker
Use this site to create mazes, crossword puzzles, and cryptograms. - Do it Yourself
Tips, tricks, tutorials to help you repair appliances, take care of pets, etc.
Movie Reviews
Music
- World Anthem Database
Lyrics of the anthems of 85 countries. However, some aren’t translated into English, so the usefulness is limited.
Newspapers and Online News
- NewsLink
- BBC News
Information from the British Broadcasting Company on British politics, culture, society. Another site offering British news isThe Times Internet Edition. - Daily Howler
“Wherever the press corps falls into error, the Daily Howler pledges to be there.” - Newspaper Archives on the Web
Provides links to Web versions of 62 U.S. newspapers and their full-text, online back files. Searching newspapers is usually free, but many charge to bring up full-text articles. - Newspapers Online
- The Paperboy
You can access over 2500 online newspapers from ths site. - PubList.com
Excellent directory of information about more than 150,000 periodicals, including 8000 newspapers.
Orange County
Periodicals
- PubList.com
Excellent directory of 150,000 periodicals. Data comes from sources likeUlrich’s International PeriodicalsDirectory.
Photography and Images
- AltaVista Photo Finder
A comprehensive database of millions of images with excellent searching capability. - Google
Search the web for images using this amazing search engine. Just click on Images on the Google search page.
Quotations
- Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
- Quoteland
- Creative Quotations
Searchable database of 10,000+ quotations, with themes such as holidays, seasons, etc.
Scholarly Societies
- Scholarly Societies Project
Excellent site that provides access to about 1300 academic and scholarly society sites.
Scholarship Information
- fastwebcom: a free database of scholarships, though you must input your name, address, etc. before you can search it.
- Mach25: a searchable database of 600,000 scholarships.
Sign Language
- American Sign Language Browser
From Michigan State University, this site demonstrates signs for various words. QuickTime is needed.
Space
Speeches
- Douglass: Archives of American Public Address
State Information
Statistics
- American Factfinder (US Census Bureau)
“New data access and dissemination system that provides useful facts and information about your community, your economy, and your society. The system will find and retrieve the information you need from some of the Census Bureau’s largest data sets.” - Fedstats: One Stop Shopping for Federal Statistics
- Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
- Statistical Resources on the Web
- U.S. Bureau of the Census
Study Guides and Strategies
Symbols
- Symbols.com
Searchable database of 2,500 Western signs and symbols, with 1,600 brief articles that discuss their history and meaning. Includes astrological symbols, scientific ideograms, crosses, hobo signs, etc.. - Symbolism in Christian Art and Architecture
- 1040.com
- Government Performance Project: The Way We Tax: A 50 State Report
Essays on each of the 50 states, giving a summary of sources for revenues, including property and sales taxes. From Congressional Quarterly’s Governing magazine. - Internal Revenue Service Tax Forms
Replicas of official IRS forms. Most can be printed and filed with the IRS. - Tax Code On-Line
Complete text of Title 26 of the U.S. Code. Keyword searching is possible. - Tax Resources on the Web
An extensive list of links for tax information. - Tax World
Maintained by a faculty member at the U of Illinois. Links have short annotations.
- Mapping the National Parks
Part of the Library of Congress American Memory Collection, this site describes the history, cultural aspects, and geological formations of four areas that became national parks: Acadia, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, and Yellowstone. - National Scenic Byways Online
Want to find out a good scenic road for your next trip? This site grades routes according to cultural, historic, natural, and recreational qualities. - Directory of State Highway and Transportation Departments
Provides access to Web sites of highway departments , with up-to-date reports on road and weather conditions. - Road Trip USA
“Follow route numbers or names to access driving tours along more than 30,000 miles of classic blacktop. Lively mile-by-mile descriptions celebrate kitsch oddities, local history, and apple-pie diners distributed over 10 yards of clickable image maps.” Neat! - Mexico Online
“The complete and independent resource center dedicated to Mexico, including Baja California, business, culture, history, NAFTA, real estate, and travel.” - Traffic Data: The World’s Busiest Airports
Rankings of over 700 of the world’s airports by passengers, cargo, takeoffs and landings. - Travelocity
- World Mountain Encyclopedia
Index of ranges and peaks, plus climbing logs and photos.
Weather
- Weather Channel
- UM Weather
World weather conditions and forecasts, plus daily historic weather records (but only as far back as 6 years). Also links to about 400 weather sites in North Amerca and weather cams that give live pictures of current weather in about 800 locations.
