Marjorie Ruschau
ILS504
Spring 2010
Exercise 1
University of Illinois Library
Acronyms, Symbols & Abbreviations
Symbols.com
Symbols.com contains more than 1,600 articles about 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54
groups according to their graphic characteristics.
Addresses & Phone Numbers
Switchboard.com
An Internet equivalent of "Yellow Pages," for resident and business contact information.
Almanacs
Old Farmer's Almanac
Electronic version of North America's oldest continuously published almanac. Includes weather
forecasts, sunrise and ocean tide tables, gardening advice, historical facts, household advice, and
classified ads.
Archives
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit that archives Internet sites, multimedia, and texts in digital
form. Much like a physical library, it provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars,
and the general public. The University of Illinois has contributed about 15,000 digital books
from our print collection to the Internet Archive.
Article Indexes and Abstracts
Chicago Tribune
Alternate title for Historical Chicago Tribune
Biography
Biography.com
Online directory of biographical information for over 25,000 people. Information is stronger for
current icons, but some historical figures and international people is available.
Book Reviews
All Readers.com
This website publishes excerpts from book reviews from many different publications. It allows
readers to search for novels by specific elements of plot, character, setting, style and theme.
Books in Print/Serials/Publishers
Journal Info
Publically accessible journal information from the University of Lund (Sweden). Gives basic
information such as date range, publisher, indexing databases, and impact information for over
18,000 journals.
Calculators & Converters
Metric Conversions
Focuses on metric conversions (e.g. pounds to kilograms, miles to kilometers) but also offers a
host of other conversion functions.
Citation Management Tools
Zotero
Zotero is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research
sources. Most convenient for saving screenshots and citing webpages. For support issues with
Zotero, contact the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library.
Citing Print & Electronic Resources
OttoBib
Uses ISBN numbers to find book citations in a variety of formats.
Colleges & Universities
College & University Rankings
Collection of annotated links to rankings for undergraduate and graduate programs in various
disciplines. From the Education and Social Science Library.
Conferences & Proceeding
MInd: the Meetings Index (for future conferences)
Use this service to identify and locate the organizers and sponsors of future conferences,
congresses, meetings and symposia, as well as conference proceedings.
Copyright & Fair Use
Copyright Expiration Flowchart
Allows you to determine, step-by-step, if an item is in the public domain. From the law firm
Bromberg & Sunstein.
Countries, States, & Cities
Portals to the World
This free website provides background information and internet links for countries of the world.
Organized by broad topical areas (e.g., education, history), entries are selected and annotated by
the reference librarians and area specialists at the Library of Congress.
Dictionaries
Wordnik
An online project that gives as much information as possible for words, such as images,
statistics, pronounciation, and multple definitions.
Dissertations & Theses
Library of Congress Theses and Dissertations Resources
The Library of Congress has compiled an annotated list of theses and dissertations databases
from around the world. Coverage includes the Theses Canada Portal, where you can search for
theses and dissertations in the National Library of Canada.
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia Mythica
Authoritative online encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion.
Genealogy
USGenWeb Project
Portal to free web-based United States genealogical sources, organized by state.
Grants
Grants.gov
Grants.gov is the single access point for over 900 grant programs offered by various federal
grant-making agencies.
Health Information
RxList
Source for prescription drug information. Includes an A-Z list of drugs, as well as a visual pill
identifier
Impact Factors & Journal Rankings
Journal Ranking
From a consulting firm, this site provides "the only online interactive journal ranking service"
using data including citations, influence, and impact factors.
Literary Criticism
Internet Public Library Online Literary Criticism Collection
Browse the Internet Public Library's collection of links to websites on western and non-western
literary criticism. Organized by author, title of work studied and by literary period within a
particular national tradition.
Polls & Surveys
World Public Opinion.org
Website devoted to public opinion polls outside of the United States. Site managed by the
Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.
Quotations
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
A collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern
literature. This is the 10th edition of the print volume first issued in 1919.
Societies & Associations
Scholarly Societies
Online directory of scholarly societies and associations. Maintained by the University of
Waterloo (Canada) Library.
Statistics
Statistics and Numerical Data
List of statistical resources from the Government Documents librarians. Most resources are
freely accessible government documents, but others are in subscription databases. Groupings
include demographic information, social science data, economics, and business.
University of Illinois Information
Bronze Tablet Award
The names of students who have achieved this high university honor.
Writing & Plagiarism Help
The Writer's Workshop
The Writer's Workshop provides free writing assistance for University of Illinois students,
faculty, and staff from all disciplines and at all stages of the writing process. Check out the
handy guide, Writer's Workshop: Writer's Resources.
Wethersfield Public Library
Acronyms, Symbols & Abbreviations
Jablonski, Stanley. Dictionary of medical acronyms & abbreviations. Elsevier/Saunders. 2005.
REF 610.148
Addresses & Phone Numbers
Hill-Donnelly cross reference directory for Hartford, Connecticut. Hill-Donnelly, 2008.
REF 920
Almanacs
Time almanac 2010. Encyclopedia Britannica: Time Home Entertainment, 2009.
REF 031
Archives
Solo, Dan X. Outline alphabets: 100 complete fonts. Dover Publications, 1988.
REF J 745.4
Article Indexes and Abstracts
Biography
Wyatt, Neal. The readers' advisory guide to nonfiction. American Library Association, 2007.
REF 025.54
Book Reviews
Baxter, Kathleen A. Gotcha again! : more nonfiction booktalks to get kids excited about reading.
Libraries Unlimited/Teacher Ideas Press, 2002.
REF J 028.162
Books in Print/Serials/Publishers
2010 writer's market. Writers Digest Books, 2009.
REF 070.51
Calculators & Converters
Not available in library
Citation Management Tools
Walker, Janice R. The Columbia guide to online style. Columbia University Press, 1998.
REF 808.027
Citing Print & Electronic Resources
Walker, Janice R. The Columbia guide to online style. Columbia University Press, 1998.
REF 808.027
Colleges & Universities
Fiske, Edward B. Fiske guide to colleges 2010. Sourcebooks, 2010.
REF 378.73
Conferences & Proceeding
The complete learning disabilities directory, 2006/07: associations, products, resources,
magazines, books, services, conferences, web sites. Grey House Pub., 2006.
REF 371.9
Copyright & Fair Use
Butler, Rebecca P. Copyright for teachers and librarians. Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2007.
REF 346.73
Countries, States, & Cities
Almanac of the 50 States. Information Publications, 2008.
Ref 317.3
Dictionaries
Dickson, Paul. The Dickson baseball dictionary. W.W. Norton, 2009.
REF 796.357
Dissertations & Theses
Turabian, Kate L. A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations. University of
Chicago Press, 1996.
REF 808.02
Encyclopedias
Knauth, Percy. The Illustrated encyclopedia of the animal kingdom. Danbury Press, 19-.
REF J 591
Genealogy
Szucs, Loretto Dennis. The source : a guidebook to American genealogy. Ancestry, 2006.
REF 929.1
Grants
Bauer, David G. The "how to" grants manual : successful grantseeking techniques for obtaining
public and private grants. Oryx Press, 1999.
REF 658.1522
Health Information
Kahn, Ada P. The encyclopedia of mental health. Facts On File, 2008.
REF 616.89
Impact Factors & Journal Rankings
Not available
Literary Criticism
Not available
Polls & Surveys
Confidential community opinion survey. The Center, April, 1982.
REF W.S. 974.62
Quotations
Knowles, Elizabeth. Oxford dictionary of modern quotations. Oxford University Press, 2007.
REF 808.88
Societies & Associations
Swartout, Kristy A. Encyclopedia of associations: [an associations unlimited reference]: a guide
to more than 22,000 national and international organizations. Gale Group, 2006.
REF 061.3
Statistics
Connecticut Historical Records Survey. Guide to vital statistics in the church records of
Connecticut. Connecticut Historical Records Survey, 1942.
REF W.S. 974.6
University of Illinois Information
Writing & Plagiarism Help
The Chicago Manual of Style. University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Ref 808.027
Any additional areas?
Children’s
Daly, Kathleen. Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z. Facts on File, 1992.
Ref J 292.13
Etiquette
Post, Peggy. Emily Post’s Etiquette. Harper Colllins, 1997
Ref 395
Finances
Beaulieu, Joseph. Morningstar Stocks 500. Wiley, 2008.
REF 332.6322
Government, state and national
Guide to Congress. Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1982.
Ref 328
Literature bibliography
Mort, John. Christian Fiction: a guide to the genre. Libraries Unlimited, 2002.
REF 016.813
Music
All music guide to the blues. Backbeat Books, 2003.
REF 781.643
Religion
Beitzel, Barry J. Biblica: the Bible atlas: a social and historical journey through the lands of the
Bible. Barron's Educational Series, 2007.
REF 220.91
Town of Wethersfield
Town council minutes. (not published or cataloged)
The Wethersfield Public Library does not classify those who use the library into groups.
Pamela Kelly, head of adult services, says, “We serve anyone who walks up to the reference
desk, be they 8 or 88 years old.” (Pamela Kelly, personal communication, February 9, 2010)
The most frequent types of questions fall into the ready-reference category – finding books and
DVDs, placing holds, ordering books by Interlibrary Loans and lots of computer-related
questions.
The library provides a variety of reference services including answering quick questions,
helping those doing research and teaching about bibliographic information. The library also
offers computer instruction classes that “cover several subjects from online job searching to MS
Word to database searching, file management, digital photography, etc.” (Kelly) Special
workshops are schedule on topics such as taxes, resumes and finances.
Patrons requesting reference assistance from the library can inquire in person, by phone,
by computer or by fax. In one 30-minute period Feb. 8 the library had about six in-person
requests and two phone calls. Most of the requests were for things that could be answered
quickly, usually by referring to a page of web addresses that the library has on its website.
Wethersfield is a member of the Connect consortium of about 30 libraries, which
provides numerous databases and 24/7 information responses. However, Kelly emphasizes that
this is dependent upon state funding because the library would not be able to afford this on its
own.