Ask?Away Best Practices 6/21/07
Free Web Sites to Help Library Staff Provide
Excellent Reference Service
Presented by:
Loretta Broomfield
Information Services Consultant
Shawnee Library System
Carterville, IL
618-985-3711 ext. 2014
lbroom@shawls.lib.il.us
Almanacs
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The Old Farmer’s Almanac
http://almanac.com Find information
about phases of the moon, tides, when to
plant a garden and much more!
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Information Please Almanac
http://www.infoplease.com/almanacs.html
A wonderful free online resource for
general reference information.
Arts and Entertainment
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Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music
http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu A collection
consisting of 29,000+ pieces of popular American sheet
music from 1780-1960.
Internet Broadway Database http://www.ibdb.com
A “comprehensive database of shows produced on
Broadway.” Searchable by show, people, theatre, and
character name.
Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com A
wealth of information about movies, actors, characters,
and plots.
Consumer Information
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Consumer Reports
http://consumerreports.org Consumer
information about a variety of products. Must
subscribe for actual ratings.
Kelley Blue Book http://www.kbb.com A
standard resource for determining the value of
vehicles.
National Automobile Dealers’ Association
http://www.nada.com “Vehicle pricing and
information for buyers, sellers and shoppers.”
Includes RVs, motorcycles, boats and
manufactured homes.
Finance and Business
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Currency Converter
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Library Centers for Effective Nonprofits (CEN)
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http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic Allows users to
convert world currency. Updated daily with the latest
exchange rates.
http://nonprofitcenters.lcls.org Free web resources of
particular interest to nonprofit organizations (how to
form a nonprofit, prospecting, grant writing, etc.).
Thomas Register http://www.thomasnet.com A
“Comprehensive resource for industrial information,
products, services, CAD drawings, and more.”
How Much is That? http://eh.net/hmit Access
economic history calculators from way back!
Geography
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National Atlas http://nationalatlas.gov Tons
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CIA World Fact Book
of U.S. maps. Transportation, topographical,
county, climate, population and many other
types of maps--all free!
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/theworld-factbook/index.html Contains “nationallevel” information about the geography, people,
government, economy, etc. of countries,
territories and dependencies.
Government
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U.S. Government Printing Office
http://www.gpoaccess.gov Find links to various
government information and publications (Code
of Federal Regulations, Federal Register,
Congressional Record, Supreme Court website).
Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov “In the spirit of
Thomas Jefferson, legislative information from
the Library of Congress.”
United States Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov A variety of statistics
from the U.S. Census Bureau.
History
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The History Channel http://history.com Find
not only programming information for the
History Channel, but also articles and videos and
lots of other historical information.
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Digital History
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/ An extensive
collection of multimedia materials of historic
importance.
Literature/Style Manuals
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Bartleby http://www.bartleby.com Free full
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text books, quotations, encyclopedias, thesauri,
and more.
Sparknotes http://sparknotes.com Free online
study guides for a large variety of topics
(literature, poetry, math, biology, test prep, and
much more)!

Citation Builder
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/lobo2/citationbuilder/cit
ationbuilder.php Online citation help.
Literature/Style Manuals cont.

Citation Machine http://citationmachine.net/
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Microsoft Office Online
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A Research Guide for Students
Online citation help.
http://office.microsoft.com Lots of free clipart,
citation help, and templates for cards, resumes,
invitations, newsletters, etc. Also information
from “Crabby Office Lady.”
http://www.aresearchguide.com Everything a
person needs to write an first class research
paper.
Medical
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DoctorFinder http://webapps.ama-
assn.org/doctorfinder/home.html?03138022
“Provides…basic professional information on virtually
every licensed physician in the United States. This
includes more than 690,000 doctors.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov “Your online source for credible
health information.”
Household Products Database
http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov From the National
Library of Medicine. Over 4,000 products are
represented including Material Safety Data Sheets
(MSDS) and a listing of ingredients in each product.
Medical cont.
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MEDLINE plus http://medlineplus.gov A
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National Library of Medicine
government site featuring a medical
encyclopedia, a medical dictionary, links to
related news items, a directory of doctors and
hospitals and a section containing over 165
interactive tutorials relating to medical tests and
procedures.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov Information on
diseases and disorders as well as information
about current medical research.
Google
We all know that Google is a powerful search engine, but
have you used…
 Google Web Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts
 Google Books http://books.google.com/bkshp?tab=wp
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Google Docs and Spreadsheets
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Google Glossary
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http://docs.google.com/?tab=wo
http://www.google.com/search?q=define+clew
Google Maps http://maps.google.com/maps?tab=wl
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Google Scholar
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Google Suggest
http://scholar.google.com/schhp?tab=ws
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
Other Lists
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MARS/RUSA Best Free Websites
http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/
rusasections/mars/marspubs/marsbestref2
006.htm
Online Education Database: The Best
Online Research Apps/Sites You've Never
Heard Of
http://oedb.org/library/features/bestonline-research-sites
Wrap Up
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Questions?
Comments?
Discussion?