Researcher's+Toolkit

=Major Directories on the World Wide Web=

[]
 * Academic Info: Subject Guides**

[|http://www.digital-librarian.com]
 * Digital Librarian: A Librarian's Choice of the Best of the Web**

[|http://www.ipl2.org]
 * ipl2: Information You Can Trust**

[|http://infomine.ucr.edu]
 * Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections**

[]
 * Internet Scout Project**

[|http://www.intute.ac.uk]
 * Intute**

[|http://libraryspot.com]
 * LibrarySpot**

[|http://dmoz.org]
 * Open Directory Project**

[|http://vlib.org]
 * The WWW Virtual Library**

[|http://dir.yahoo.com]
 * Yahoo! Directory**

=Practical Information Web Sites=

Dictionaries, Handbooks, and Almanacs
[|http://www.bartleby.com]
 * Bartleby.com**

//Bartleby.com// is a mega-site consisting of full-text classic fiction and non-fiction, reference works such as //The Columbia Encylcopedia, The American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Strunk's Elements of Style, Gray's Anatomy//, and more. A one-stop-shop for students and researchers, //Bartleby.com// is a fundamental resource to add to your favorites list.

[|http://www.infoplease.com]
 * Infoplease**

Look here for most of the content found in the print //Information Please// almanac: U.S. and international statistics, biographical information, and sports, entertainment, and weather data.

[]
 * How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement**

This dictionary describes the realtionship between various English and metric units. Look here for measurement information covering almost everything from solar flare intensity to paper sheet sizes to wind-chill charts.

[|http://whatis.techtarget.com]
 * Whatis.com**

//Whatis.com// serves as both a dictionary and an encyclopedia of thousands of computing and information technology terms. This well-designed and useful site is a benefit to users at all levels. It is updated and expanded regularly.

[]
 * Zip Code Lookup and Address Information**

This specialized database will assist you in finding a zip code by address or company name. It will also find all the zip codes of a city or town, and all the cities and towns that use a particular zip code.

Maps
[|http://maps.google.com]
 * Google Maps**

Use Google Maps to find locations in the United States and several other countries, including driving directions. You can also find companies or types of companies that are near a particular address. For example, you might search for **"Chinese restaurants" near Ann Arbor, MI**. You can also use Google Maps on your mobile phone. You can also view satellite images of chosen locations.

[|http://mapquest.com]
 * Mapquest**

//MapQuest// provides maps and driving directions for individual addresses, airports, and businesses (both by name and by type) in the United States. It also provides similar services for European countries and the United Kingdom.

[]
 * Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection**

This collection is a must-see for everyone who is interested in locating a map. The Perry-Castaneda Library of the University of Texas has scanned over 4,000 non-copyrighted maps from its own collection, making them available to the public on the Web. While most of the maps in the colleciton are provided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, there are also maps from obscure agencies and institutions.

Money & Stocks
[|http://www.oanda.com]
 * Oanda**

This site contains a currency converter for 164 currencies. Updated daily.

[|http://www.pcquote.com]
 * PCQuote**

Look here for securities quotations, stock market information, financial news, and other investment tools.

Telephone Directories
[|http://www.anywho.com]
 * Anywho**

This site contains publicly accessible local telephone records for individuals and businesses. It also provides addresses, maps, and driving directions. The user can also find an address by typing in the telephone number if they know it (reverse lookup).

[|http://www.yellowpages.com]
 * Yellow Pages.com**

Has most of the same features as Anywho.com. You can also find telephone numbers for individuals and businesses, maps, driving directions, and more. You can also find businesses by name or category with the distance calculated from the location you choose.

News
[|http://www.abyznewslinks.com]
 * ABYZ News Links**

ABYZ News Links provides access to online news sources from around the world. Newspapers are of primary importance, but the site also includes many broadcast stations, Internet services, magazines, and press agencies. You can browse by region or country. The site is also searchable.

[|http://news.google.com]
 * Google News**

Google News covers 4,500 news sources and arranges headlines by relevance, with articles from several newspapers and other sources grouped under each story. The database is updated every 10 to 15 minutes. International in scope, //Google News// uses mathematical algorithms to determine which stories will be listed on it main page.

[]
 * Kidon Media Link**

provides links to close to 20,000 news sources from around the world; sources include newspapers, magazines, radio and other broadcast services, and more

[|http://newslink.org]
 * NewsLink**

provides links to U.S. and foreign newspapers, college newspapers, radio stations, and magazines; can also search for radio stations and newspapers by city and state

Weather
[|http://www.nws.noaa.gov]
 * National Weather Service**

this NOAA site provides up-to-date weather forecasts for all 50 states; you can search the area of interest by zip codes or by clicking on a map; also included are research articles that may be searched by subject

[]
 * The Weather Channel**

provides weather forecasts, traveler's tips, vacation ideas, gardening information, and more

=Academic Research Web Sites=

Reference Sites
[|http://www.biography.com]
 * Biography.com**

provides biographical information for over 25,000 people, this A&E network site also includes video clips and educational materials to support classroom discussions

[]
 * Guide to Grammar and Writing**

virtually everything you'll ever want to know about grammar and writing, including writer's block and how to overcome it, paragraph development, parts of speech, tense consistency, and much, much more

[]
 * Research and Documentation Online**

covers details on how to cite electronic sources in the major styles, including APA, Chicago Manual of Style, MLA, and CBE (Council of Biology Editors). Based on a book by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister.

[|http://owl.english.purdue.edu]
 * Online Writing Lab**

provides information for students and teachers on writing, including grammar, punctuation, and research skills. English-as-a-second-language resources are included as well.

[|http://www.plagiarism.org]
 * Plagiarism.org**

provides tips and guidelines for educators and students on the topic of identifying and avoiding plagiarism; also has information about citing resources properly, with links to Web sites that explain how to use the major citation styles

[|http://www.refdesk.com]
 * Refdesk.com**

hundreds of links to current news, electronic reference works, statistical information, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and more; can also be searched by keyword

[]
 * Virtual Reference Shelf**

selected Web resources selected by staff members at the U.S. Library of Congress

[|http://babelfish.yahoo.com]
 * Yahoo!'s Babelfish**

allows you to translate a section of text or a Web page from English to several languages, and from some other languages to English; translations aren't always perfect

Reference Sites
[]
 * Libweb at Berkeley**

Use Libweb to find all types of libraries. Be aware that the library catalogs for some of the libraries listed here are unavailable for remote use, especially those of foreign libraries. In some cases, the library's home page is all that is included.

[|http://www.librarysites.info]
 * LIBCAT**

gives lots of information on searching library catalogs; look here to find a list of special collections and the names of libraries in which they are located

[]
 * UNESCO Libraries Portal**

lists over 11,000 libraries in the academic, government, national, public and institutional sectors

Country Information
[]
 * CIA World Factbook**

contains information on all the countries in the world, including a map of the country, brief historical information, geography overview, population data, description of current government, economic statistics, communications and transportation infrastructure, military conflicts, and more

[]
 * United Nations Cyberschoolbus**

allows you to compare statistical data from different countries; look here to find economic data such as GDP and unemployment rates, infant mortality rates, health statistics, and more

[|http://www.nationmaster.com]
 * Nation Master**

takes information from several public domain data sources, including the CIA //World Factbook// and several United Nations publications; allows you to compare and contrast statistics between countries; relevant articles from //Wikipedia// are embedded into the appropriate categories; all entries are cited so that you know from where the data was originally published

[]
 * Portal to the World**

collection of links about every country in the world; in addition to geographical information, it also provides links to libraries, regional search engines, science and technology, and more

Business & Economics
[]
 * BizLink: Your Online Business Resource**

a great place to start researching economic conditions, marketing and demographics, international business, starting a business, and more

[|http://stats.bls.gov]
 * Bureau of Labor Statistics**

a mega-site filled with some of the most useful economic, career, and other workplace-related information available on the Web; for example, you can find the last six months of various economic data, including the unemployment rate, consumer price index, average hourly earnings, and so forth, with links to historical information on all of these segments; the Employment Projections section develops information about trends in the labor market for ten years into the future; several publications that are used in career guidance are provided here, including the //Occupational Outlook Handbook// and the //Monthly Labor Review//

[]
 * EDGAR-SEC Filings & Forms**

provides SEC financial statements that are required from all public U.S. companies with less than $10 million in assets and 500 shareholders; available free from the Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR is a well-designed and reliable resource, with over 1 million documents in its collection

[|http://globaledge.msu.edu]
 * GlobalEdge**

created by Michigan State University, is a useful source for statistical data, economic and political conditions, and historical information for almost 2000 countries; it is also a good source for information on industries; also supports a blog that allows you to discuss topics related to international business and global trade

[|http://www.hoovers.com]
 * Hoover's Online**

company information; brief overview including street address, telephone and fax numbers, location map, hyperlink to the company's home page, top competitors, company type (whether private or public), key people in the company, links to news, and links to industry information; if the company you have looked up is private, you may get very brief financial information with links to business reports that you will have to pay for prepared by Dun & Bradstreet and other firms.

[]
 * Industry Research Desk**

This is an excellent starting point for the person researching an industry. The author brings together hyperlinks for industry data, industry home pages, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), and office tools such as package costs and tracking devices, and more.

[|http://www.buyusainfo.net]
 * Market Research Library**

Prepared by the U.S. Commercial Service, this database is for U.S. business people who may want to invest in a country. Also includes links to Country Commercial Guides for each country. Political science and international business students can also benefit from the information found here.

[|http://www.rfe.org]
 * Resources for Economics on the Internet:RFE**

Sponsored by the American Economic Association, this guide lists more than 2,000 carefully selected resources of interest to academic economics researchers and practicing economists.

[]
 * Researching Companies Online**

Undoubtedly one of the most-cited business tutorials on the Web, Debbie Flanagan's //Researching Companies Online// is the best place to start a business-related research project. All of the links provided in the tutorial are free and open to the public without subscription.

Education
[|http://eric.ed.gov]
 * ERIC-The Educational Resources Information Center**

This is the world's largest source of education information, containing more than one million abstracts of education journal articles, documents, and other resources.

[]
 * Lesson Plans Library**

Use this site to find lesson plans written by teachers for teachers. You can browse by subject and grade level.

[]
 * MIT Open Courseware**

MIT has posted most of its undergraduate and graduate course content on this site. It is a free service and includes most subjects. Using the materials on this site does not give you an MIT education, nor does it grant degrees or certificates, but for teacher and students, the information can be very useful.

[]
 * //New York Times// Learning Network**

//The New York Times Learning Network// is a free service for teachers, parents, and students in elementary and secondary schools. Updated each weekday, it contains summaries of new stories from the current' day's //New York Times//.

[]
 * PBS Teacher Source**

One of the best features of the Public Broadcasting System's //TeacherSource// is the collection of over 2,500 lesson plans and activities for classroom teachers.

[]
 * World Lecture Hall**

World Lecture Hall publishes links to pages created by college and university faculty around the world who deliver course materials on the Web in any language. The materials can be used by anyone interested in courseware-faculty, developers, and students.

Humanities
[]
 * American Memory from the Library of Congress**

The American Memory Historical Collections consist of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library of Congress' Americana collections. Examples of content found here are music from the Civil War, slave narratives, and World War II interviews.

[]
 * A Biography of America**

Created to be a companion Web site to the video series and telecourse of the same name, //A Biography of America// provides a text transcript of ead of the 26 videos, maps, timelines, and Webliographies that enhance the content of the series. In-depth articles that complement the series' content are also included.

[|http://www.ehistory.com]
 * EHistory**

Maintained by Ohio State University's Department of History, eHistory is a portal to history divided by following broad topics: Ancient, Middle Ages, Civil War, World War II, Vietnam War, Middle East, and World. For each section, there are articles and primary source documents, biographies, maps, timelines, and more.

[|http://plato.stanford.edu]
 * Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy**

Each entry in this encyclopedia is written, maintained, and updated by a qualified expert or group of experts in that particular field. Arranged in a simple alphabetical layout, each entry consists of a typical encyclopedia overview of the topic, plus a bibliography of print and Internet resources at the end of the article. The Encyclopedia may also be searched.

[]
 * Internet Sacred Text Archive**

This site seeks to promote religious tolerance and scholarship by providing electronic texts about religion, mythology, legend, and folklore. Most documents have been translated into English.

Law
[]
 * Country Reports on Human Rights Practices**

These reports review a country's record from the previous year on internationally recognized individual, civil, political and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Press freedom, religious freedom, democratic trends, treatment of women and children, prison conditions, and arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile, are just some of the subjects covered in these reports.

[]
 * Foreign Governments: Constitutions, Laws, and Treaties**

Part of the incomparable University of Michigan Documents Center at **[]**, this directory focuses on the laws, treaties, and constitutions of foreign countries. It's also one of the best places to start if you've got an international law question.

[]
 * Copyright Crash Course**

This site focuses on a wide range of copyright issues written in language that the layperson can understand. While the primary audience of the site is college and university faculty, the content may be applied to anyone who is considering reproducing or distributing someone else's work and want to know the legal limits of doing so.

[]
 * FindLaw**

A major portal to legal resources, //FindLaw// serves several audiences, including legal professionals, students, businesses, and the public. Essentially a directory to a myriad of legal subject areas, its main value lies in it collection of full-text legal opinions.

[]
 * LLRX.com**

LLRX.com is a Web journal dedicated to providing professionals with state-of-the-art information on legal research and tecnology-related issues. It is written bt Sabrina Pacifici, and has been in publication since 1996.

Medicine & Health
[]
 * AEGIS: AIDS Education Global Information System**

A comprehensive site that covers AIDS treatment, prevention, news services, legal information, and more. It also provides a bulletin board for people to communicate to others about HIV/AIDS. Founded by the Sisters of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, it is now a non-profit organization in the state of California.

[]
 * Drugs.com**

This site contains free information on prescription and over-the-counter drugs, provided by independent medical information companies. It is not affiliated with pharmaceutical companies. You can search drugs by name and by medical condition. Also found here are drug interactions.

[]
 * Medline Plus**

This site, provided by the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine, contains carefully selected Web resources on 650 health topics. It also provides a medical dictionary, drug information, interactive health tutorials, and links to preformulated searches of the MEDLINE/Pubmed database.

[]
 * PLoS: Public Library of Science**

An open-access collection of peer-reviewed journals in science and medicine.

[]
 * PubMed**

This service provides a search interface to the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database, which includes ov 14 million article citations from more than 4800 biomedical journals, which coverage back to the 1950s.

[]
 * PubMed Central**

Also provided by the National Institutes of Health, PubMed Central is a free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.

Political Science
[]
 * Council on Foreign Relations**

This site, provided by the publisher of //Foreign Affairs//, contains up-to-date information about U.S. foreign policy.

[]
 * Foreign Relations of the United States**

This site provides the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions. Information comes from the Department of State, Presidential Libraries, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and other sources. Coverage of the Web site goes back to the Truman administration.

[]
 * Political Science Resources on the Web**

Provided by the University of Michigan Library, this is a directory to political science resources, arranged by broad subject areas such as reference tools, international relations, think tanks, dissertaions, political theory, and more.

Science & Technology
[]
 * American Chemical Society**

This portal site from the American Chemical Society contains recent articles, grants information, and career development resources. Educational information is provided for teachers and students from the K-12 level all the way to graduate school.

[]
 * American Physical Society**

This is the place to go if you need anything related to physics. It contains homework help, links to journals, Web sites in all areas of physics, exhibitions and special events, and much more.

[]
 * National Science Digital Library**

The NDSL provides access to high-quality resources that support advances in teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It contains science literacy maps, refresher courses for teachers, and includes lists of evaluated science Web sites.

[]
 * Programmer's Heaven**

//A Programmer's Heaven// is a portal to tutorials, articles, source code, shareware, news, and other information about a variety of popular programming languages, operating systems, and applications.

Social Sciences
[]
 * American Psychological Association**

Geared toward psychology students, faculty, and professionals, this site provides information on psychology careers, conferences, ethics, related articles from APA journals, links to information on AIDS, parenting, depression, aging, and more.

[]
 * Social Psychology Network**

Supported in part by the National Science Foundation, Social Psychology Network is one of the largest collections of sites devoted to psychological research and teaching. There are more than 16 thousand selected links here. This site is maintained by Scout Plous of Wesleyan University.

htt[://www.sociosite.net/databases.php
 * Social Science Date Archives**

This guide contains links to high-quality resources and texts from all sociological fields relevant to social scientists and students. It is maintained by Dr. Albert Benschop of the University of Amsterdam.

[]
 * Sociocultural Theory in Anthropology**

Maintained by student's at Indiana University's Anthropology Department, this site provides resources in sociocultural anthropology. It looks at how the discipline is structured, how it's changed over time, and provides different ways for scholars to think about the discipline.

Statistics
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab]]
 * Statistical Abstract of the United States**

This is the official source of social and economic data for the United States. Some examples of data included are national health expenditures, crime rates, households that have televisions, computers, Internet access, and much more. Statistics dealing with industry and trade, business, natural resources, transportation, agriculture, and some international statistics are also provided.

[]
 * Statistical Resources on the Web**

Perhaps the most useful site for statistics from a wide variety of sources. Resources are arranged in broad categories such as business and industry, foreign governments, housing, labor, politics, and so forth.


 * Source:**

Hartman, Karen and Ernest Ackerman (2010) Searching and researching on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Sherwood, OR: Franklin, Beedle & Associates