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REFERENCE SOURCES ON THE WEB
Abbreviations & Acronyms | Almanacs | Calculators | Dictionaries, Thesauri & Translators | Encyclopedias | Maps | Quotations | Statistics | Miscellaneous | More
Acronym
Finder
http://www.AcronymFinder.com/
Over 160,000 acronyms and abbreviations are included. Search either by the
acronym, or do a reverse lookup if you know the words but aren't sure of the
abbreviation.
Abbreviations
and Acronyms of the U.S. Government
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html
The federal government is famous for its use of acronyms. This site lists
many government agencies by their acronym, with links to the agency web page.
The
WorldWideWeb Acronym and Abbreviation Server
http://www.ucc.ie/acronyms/acro.html
Search by acronym to see what it means or by word and learn which acronyms it's
used in. Over 17,000 acronyms and abbreviations are included.
Information
Please Almanacs
http://www.infoplease.com/almanacs.html
From the Information Please almanacs, information on the World, United
States, History & Government, Biography, Sports, Entertainment, Business
& Finance, Society & Culture, Science & Technology, and Weather.
The
World Factbook
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
From the Central Intelligence Agency, this guide to the countries of the
world has been an indispensable tool in libraries for years. The online
version is updated regularly, generally weekly, throughout the year.
calculator.com
http://www.calculator.com/
This site has "calculators for finance, business, and science. There are
ones for cooking, hobbies, and health. Some solve problems, some satisfy
curiosity, and some just for fun." The Unit Converter will convert
length, mass and volume; the Currency converters use current exchange rates to
figure out how much money to bring on your overseas trip.
Dictionaries, Thesauri & Translators
Information
Please Dictionary
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopdict.html
125,000 entries. Definitions in which the search term is used will also
appear.
American
Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition, 2000
http://www.bartleby.com/61/
350,000 words defined. Also includes the etymology of words.
OneLook
Dictionaries
http://www.onelook.com/
Search for a word, and this site returns a list of many online dictionaries that
define it. Click on the link to see the actual definition.
Dictionaries are broken down into categories: Arts and Humanities,
Business, Computer/Internet, Medical, Miscellaneous, Religion, Science, Sports,
Technological, General, and Slang.
Merriam-Webster
Online Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm
Once you find the definition of a word, you can click on the Thesaurus button to
find other words with similar meanings.
Roget's
II: The New Thesaurus, 1995 edition
http://www.bartleby.com/62/
"Containing 35,000 synonyms in an easy-to-use format, this thesaurus
features succinct word definitions and an innovative hyperlinked category
index."
Alta
Vista Translations (Babelfish)
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
Machine translation between English and major European languages. You can
type in text directly, or give it a web page address.
InterTran
http://www.tranexp.com:2000/
Type in the text and choose your source and destination languages. The
translation will appear at the bottom of the page, along with other word choices
that you might want to consider. InterTran translates many languages--over
767 combinations.
Foreignword.com
http://www.foreignword.com/Tools/transnow.htm
This translation site works a little differently than most. Choose your
source language and the destination language, and then choose a translator.
Foreignword will list several machine translators for the languages you've
chosen; you may want to try them all to find one that translates your text best.
Type in the words you'd like translated, and click on "Go." The
translation will appear in the right frame. Click "Next" to try
the next translator.
Columbia
Encyclopedia, 6th edition, 2001-04
http://www.bartleby.com/65/
This current encyclopedia contains over 50,000 articles. The results of
your search include the article title, a brief passage from the article with
your search terms highlighted, and a guess as to how relevant this article is to
what you're really looking for.
Maps on Us
http://www.MapsOnUs.com/
Both maps and driving directions are available. Maps are interactive; you
can zoom in, zoom out and move in different directions. If you want a
paper copy, click on "Printable Map." Driving directions can be
set up to find the shortest or fastest route, or to find routes that use or
avoid major highways. You can also e-mail maps and directions to yourself
or someone else. Registration is not required to use this site, but if you
do register, it will remember addresses you've used before.
TopoZone
http://www.topozone.com/
Click on "View Maps," and enter either a place name or the latitude
and longitude you're looking for. (Be sure to spell out all words; don't
use abbreviations.) You can change the scale and size of a map once it is
displayed. 1:25,000 is the most detailed, while 1:200,000 puts the place
in a larger context so you can see where you are. Hiking trails, streams,
fire roads and more are shown on these topographic maps.
Yahoo! Maps
http://maps.yahoo.com/
Type an address and Yahoo! will provide a map. You can zoom in, zoom out
and move North, South, East or West. On the left side of the screen are
options to print or e-mail the map, or get driving directions to or from the
address.
Bartlett's
Familiar Quotations, 1919 edition
http://www.bartleby.com/100/
Contains over 11,000 quotations. Type in your search terms, and you'll see
a list of all quotations that include those words, with the author's name as the
heading. A brief portion of the quote will be included, so you can see if
it's the one you were thinking of.
Simpson's
Contemporary Quotations, 1988 edition
http://www.bartleby.com/63/
"Comprising over 10,000 quotations from 4,000 sources, Simpson includes 25
categories and 60 sections ranging from “love” to “criminology.” This
comprehensive reference contains words of wit and wisdom from such modern
notables as Ezra Pound, Henry Kissinger, George Orwell, Dorothy Parker, and
Desmond Tutu."
Statistical
Resources on the Web
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html
Comprehensive list of statistical resources, covering areas such as Business and
Industry, Cost of Living, Federal/State Finances, Finance, Foreign/International
Economics, Foreign Trade, and Labor.
FedStats
http://www.fedstats.gov
"More than 100 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce
statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on
Statistical Policy maintains this site to provide easy access to the full range
of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use."
Zip+4
Code Lookup
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.htm
From the US Postal Service. Type in a street address, city and state to
get the 9-digit zip code.
Time
Zone Converter
http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc
If it's 9:00 in Williamsburg, it must be Tuesday in Sydney. Choose a time
and two time zones to convert from one to the other. Daylight Savings Time
is factored into the answer.
Calendar
Zone
http://www.calendarzone.com/
Links to every possible kind of calendar you could be looking for:
religious, cultural, holidays, "this day in history," . . . and many
more.
Still not finding what you need? Try these...
WRL
Commonly Asked Questions
Local information and other questions frequently asked at the reference desk.
Librarians'
Index to the Internet Ready Reference
Internet Public Library
Reference
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