On-Line Reference Resources

Almanacs, Handbooks, & Factbooks



50 States - Key Facts: http://www.50states.com/



About.com (700+ guides in top-level categories): http://www.about.com/



Citation Styles for Electronic Media: www.utas.edu.au/docs/humsoc/political_science/polsci/citat.html



Columbia Guide to Online Style (using both humanities and scientific styles): www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html



Dictionary of Science and Technology www.harcourt.com/dictionary



FactFinder (U.S. Census Bureau): factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet



Information Please Almanac: http://www.infoplease.com/



Internet Public Library Reference Center: www.ipl.org/ref



Kelley Blue Book: car blue book values http://www.kbb.com/



Martindale's Reference Desk (highly rated site): www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/Ref.html



National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/



Occupational Outlook Handbook 2000-2001 www.bls.gov/ocohome.htm



Old Farmer’s Almanac: http://www.almanac.com/



Reference Materials on the Web: www.law.ukans.edu/research/elecrefs.htm



Research-It! (great site!!): www.itools.com/research-it



U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/http://www.howstuffworks.com/



Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders http://www.psychologynet.org/dsm.html



Biography



A&E Network’s Biography: http://www.biography.com/



Florida Biography Index: dlis.dos.state.fl.us/stlib/flbioindex.html



Nobel Foundation (biographies for many of the Nobel laureates): http://www.nobel.se/



Notable citizens of Planet Earth (biographical dictionary): www.s9.com/biography



Presidents of the United States (POTUS): www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS





Books & Book Reviews



Books Out of Print® (free online version): www.isbn.org/bop



Boston Book Review: www.bookwire.com/bbr/bbr-home.html





Calculators & Converters



Amortization Schedule Calculator (calculates & prints entire schedule): www.wnytoday.com/BE/BE_calculator3.htm



Calculator's Online Center: www-sci.lib.uci.edu/HSG/RefCalculators.html



Conversion Calculator (one of the best): www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertIt



Currency Converter (search any day back to 1/1/90): www.oanda.com/convert/classic



FinanCenter (interactive calculators - homes, cars, credit cards, investments): http://www.financenter.com/



How Far Is It? www.indo.com/distance Kiplinger Online Financial Calculator: www.kiplinger.com/tools/index.html



Life Expectancy Calculator (future life expectancy based on a mortality table): www.retireweb.com/death.html



Measurements Converter: www.convert-me.com/en



MegaConverter2 (huge collection of conversion data): www.megaconverter.com/Mega2



Metlife Online -- Life Center -- Toolkits (distance, moving, wallpaper and other calculators & checklists): www.metlife.com/index.html



Savings Bonds Calculator (calculate value of old savings bonds): http://app.ny.frb.org/sbr



The Salary Calculator™: www.homefair.com/homefair/cmr/salcalc.html





Consumer Information



Automobile Buyer's Guides (Edmund's highly rated site): http://www.edmunds.com/



Automobile Lemon Laws (summaries, by state, including Florida): www.autopedia.com/html/HotLinks_Lemon.html Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/



Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - The Official Federal Land Records Site: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/



Business & Professional Licensing Database (search Florida professional licenses info): www.state.fl.us/dbpr



Car & Driver Magazine (current issues, Buyer's Guide, classifieds): www.caranddriver.com/xp/Caranddriver/home.xml



Car Center (info on the best leases, ownership costs, mileage stats): http://www.intellichoice.com/



Center for Science in the Public Interest: http://www.cspinet.org/



Compare Net: http://www.compare.net/



Consumer Recycling Guide: www.obviously.com/recycle



Consumer Reports Online: www.consumerreports.org/main/home.jsp



Consumer World: http://www.consumerworld.org/



Country Studies: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs



DebtBusters.org, Free-Credit Repair-Credit Report-Credit Card Resource Center: http://www.debtbusters.org/



Department of State Country Background Notes: www.state.gov/r/pa/bgn



EPA Zip Code Search (find out if your new neighborhood is near a toxic waste dump!): www.epa.gov/epahome/commsearch.htm



Experian (consumer credit, including changes in the Fair Credit Reporting Act): http://www.experian.com/



FDA [Food & Drug Administration] Information for Consumers: www.fda.gov/opacom/morecons.html



Federal Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO: http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/



Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Consumer Protection (includes filing an online complaint): www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm



FindLaw for the Public (law-related articles and resources designed for lay consumers): http://pub.findlaw.com/



FirstGov for Consumers (was: U.S. Consumer Gateway; indexed links to federal consumer info): http://www.consumer.gov/



Florida Consumer Information www.dos.state.fl.us/fgils/consumer1.html



Kelley Blue Book: car blue book values http://www.kbb.com/



Property Appraisers (Florida - directory information and web links): www.state.fl.us/dor/property/appraisers.html





Dictionaries, Thesauri & Grammar


Abbreviations and Acronyms (used by U.S. Gov): www.ucc.ie/cgi-bin/acronym



Acronym and Abbreviation Server: www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/index.html



Acronym Finder: http://www.acronymfinder.com/



Dictionary of Science and Technology: www.harcourt.com/dictionary



Merriam-Webster Dictionary: www.m-w.com/netdict.htm



On-line Dictionaries: http://www.yourdictionary.com/





Ecology



Tall Timbers Research Conservation http://www.ttrs.org/ Information on fire ecology, forestry, and more.



The Nature Conservancy http://nature.org/tncscience/resources


Nature Conservancy’s online library http://www.conserveonline.org/





Encyclopedias


“Webopedia”: An online dictionary for computer and Internet technology http://www.pcwebopaedia.com/

Tech encyclopedia (IT) www.techweb.com/encyclopedia





Patents, Trademarks & Copyrights



Community of Science U.S. Patent Database (searchable): http://patents.cos.com/



Copyright & Fair Use (Stanford Univ. Libraries): http://fairuse.stanford.edu/



Copyright Public Domain Calculation Chart (Laura Gasaway, J.D., M.L.S.): www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm



Copyright: Selected Resources (UCF Library): http://library.ucf.edu/Internet/Copyright



Delphion Intellectual Property Network (was IBM's initially): http://www.delphion.com/



Florida Trademark Forms: www.dos.state.fl.us/doc/cor_t.html



Index to Manual of Classification of Patents (U.S. Patent & Trademark Office): www.ibiblio.org/patents



Internet Patent News (was: STO Internet Patent Search System): http://www.bustpatents.com/



UCF Patent and Trademark Depository Library (official and unofficial links): http://library.ucf.edu/GovDocs/pat_trad.htm



UCF Patent Tutorial: Research U.S. Patents on the Web



U.S. Copyright Office: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright



U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO): http://www.uspto.gov/





Flags



Flags of all countries: www.immigration-usa.com/flags



Flags of the World: www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags



National Anthems, Flags & Facts – Royalty Free Images: www.imagesoft.net/flags/flags.html



World Flag Database: http://www.flags.net/




Genealogy



Pac-Info: “Free searchable Public Record databases” http://www.pac-info.com/



U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/



Vital Records Information (births, deaths, marriages, divorces) http://www.vitalrec.com/





Maps, Atlases and Geographic Resources



World Atlas: www.graphicmaps.com/aatlas/world.htm



Global Gazeteer: http://www.knowledge.co.uk/



U.S. Gazetteer: www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer





Postal (shipping) Information



Airborne Express: http://www.airborne.com/



DHL Worldwide Express: www.dhl-usa.com/index



Federal Express Airbill Tracking: www.fedex.com/us/tracking



Postage Calculator: http://postcalc.usps.gov/Postal Rates



State Postal Abbreviations: www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/abbrev.html



United Parcel Service (UPS): http://www.ups.com/



United States Postal Service (USPS): http://www.usps.gov/



Zip Code Lookup: www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/lookup_zip+4.html





Quotations



Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1901 edition): www.bartleby.com/100



Dictionary of Scientific Quotations: naturalscience.com/dsqhome.html



Library Spot Quotations Page: www.libraryspot.com/quotations.htm



Omniseek: Entertainment Quotations (multiple sources): http://www.omniseek.com/srch/%7B1001}



Presidential Quotations: www.snurgle.org/~adavenpo/quotes Quotations Home Page: www.geocities.com/~spanoudi/quote-21.html



Quotations Page: http://www.quotationspage.com/



Quotations Search Page (from About.com; multiple search boxes on one page): quotations.about.com/library/blsearch.htm



QuoteGallery: http://www.quotegallery.com/





Statistics & Economic Data



Bureau of Labor Statistics http://stats.bls.gov/



Occupational Outlook Handbook 2000-2001 www.bls.gov/ocohome.htm



U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/



Tax Information & Forms



Federal Tax Forms (official U.S. Treasury/IRS site): www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms_pubs/index.html



Florida Dept. of Revenue (tax forms and consumer information): sun6.dms.state.fl.us/dor



IRS Tax Interactive: www.irs.gov/taxi



TaxWeb: http://www.taxweb.com/



U.S. Tax Code On-Line: www.fourmilab.ch/ustax/ustax.html



U.S. Tax Court (court rules and current year opinions): http://www.ustaxcourt.gov/





Time, Dates & Calendars



American Secular Holidays Calendar: www.smart.net/~mmontes/ushols.html



Calendar Zone: http://www.calendarzone.com/



Calendar: www.earth.com/calendar



Date and Time Gateway: www.bsdi.com/date?US/Eastern Gregorian Calendar



Local Times Around the World: www.hilink.com.au/times



Sunrise/Sunset/Moon Phases Computations: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data



Time Zones of the World: http://www.timezonesforpcs.com/



Today in History (birthdays, holidays, religious observances, historical events on a given day): www.scopesys.com/anyday



Today's Date and Time (highly rated; hundreds of links): www.ecben.net/calendar.shtml



U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/timer.pl



Virtual Perpetual Calendars: http://www.vpcalendar.net/



Worldwide Holiday & Festival Site: http://www.holidayfestival.com/



Weather



Get national and regional weather forecasts and warnings. Includes links to regional offices and to general meteorological information. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/ AccuWeather (highly rated)



Daily Planet (Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): http://www.atmos.uiuc.edu/



Intellicast : http://www.intellicast.com/



National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/



Weather Channel: http://www.weather.com/



Weather Gateway (links to popular weather sites): www.mit.edu/doc/weather-back.html



Weather Hubs (links to 1,500+ U.S. cities): http://www.wxusa.com/



WeatherNet: http://cirrus.sprl.umich.edu/wxnet



Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com/