General Reference Resources

Almanacs

• 50States.com. Provides fast facts and figures about each U.S. state and territory.
• Information Please. Covers history and government, biography, sports, entertainment, business, culture, health, weather, and more for the U.S. and for other countries.
• World Almanac (FirstSearch) . Search the World Almanac database through FirstSearch.
• World Almanac of the USA (USA) . Available through Lexis. Contains statistics and facts about the U.S. as a whole, about individual states, and comparisons among states.

Books

• Global Books in Print

Biographical

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present. Comprehensive database of biographical sketches on past and present members of the U.S. Congress.
• Biographies. From Internet Public Library. Has links to numerous general Web-based biographical resources; in addition, some resources are grouped by category, such as artists and architects, authors, entertainers, musicians and composers, politicians and rulers, and scientists and inventors.
• Dictionary of Political Biography . From Oxford University Press; includes over 1,000 entries for all major figures in world politics from the 20th Century.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica Guide to Black History. Contains over 400 short biographies of famous contemporary and historical Blacks in the "Articles A-Z" portion.
• The First Ladies. A part of the official White House web site, this site contains short biographies of all the first ladies from 1789 to the present.
• Gale Biographies (GALBIO) . Available through Lexis. Contains "more than 100,000 profiles on people from all facets of life and from all regions of the globe."
• Lives, the Biography Resource. Contains links to thousands of sources of biographical information available on the Web. Links to resources that are less authoritative than some of the other biographical sources listed here, but we include it because of its comprehensiveness.
• Oxford Guide to the United States Government . From Oxford University Press; includes biographies of all Presidents, Vice Presidents, Supreme Court justices, notable members of Congress (including the current leadership), and more.
• POTUS: Presidents of the United States. From the Internet Public Library, this site contains "background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents."
• Who's Who in the Twentieth Century . From Oxford University Press; includes over 2,000 short biographies of men and women from different countries and cultures.
• World Statesmen. Includes "rulers of nations, colonies, international and religious organizations, and other polities from about 1700, [i]ncluding maps, flags, constitutions, and national anthems."

Calculators and Calendars

• Kiplinger.com: Tools. Provides a number of personal finance calculators related to investing, home and car ownership, insurance, taxes, and more.
• Local Times Around the World. Use this site to determine the current local time in any country on any continent.
• Martindale's Reference Desk: Calculators On-Line Center. Provides links to calculators and converters in areas from agriculture to weather.
• Ten Thousand Year Calendar. This site may be used to produce a monthly or year-at-a-glance calendar for any month or year between the years 1 and 10,000.
• World Time Server. Another site for seeing what the current time is in any country in the world, as well as in major cities worldwide.
• Xe.com: Universal Currency Converter. Use this site to determine the current exchange rate between the currencies of any 2 of more than 300 jurisdictions.

Citation and Style Guides

Note: for guides on legal citation, please see the legal citation resources portion of our Legal Reference Resources page.

• APA Format. From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Writers' Workshop.
• APA Style Essentials. From Professors Douglas Degelman and Martin Lorenzo Harris of Vanguard University of Southern California. Covers the new 5th edition (2001) of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
• MLA Format. From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Writers' Workshop.
• Strunk's Elements of Style. William Strunk's The Elements of Style migrated to the Web.
• Writer's Handbook: Documentation: Chicago Style. Provides information and examples based on the 'Chicago Manual of Style' and Turabian's 'Manual for Writers.'

Dictionaries and Thesauri

Note: for dictionaries of the law and legal topics, please see the dictionaries portion of our Legal Reference Resources page.

• English Language Dictionaries
  • American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. The fourth edition of the work, containing over 90,000 entries.
  • Cambridge Dictionaries Online. Includes five different products: Cambridge International Dictionary of English, Cambridge Learner's Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary of American English, Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms, and Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
  • Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. "[B]ased on the print version of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition."
  • Oxford Dictionary of Idioms . From Oxford University Press; provides the meanings for over 5,000 entries covering metaphorical phrases, familiar sayings and proverbs, and similes.
  • Oxford English Dictionary
• English Language Thesauri
  • Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus. Thesaurus from the producers of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
  • Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English . From Oxford University Press; includes over 15,000 headwords and 350,000 synonyms.
  • Roget's Thesauri. Includes both "Roget's II: The New Thesaurus," 3rd ed., 1995, and "Roget's International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases."
• Dictionaries for Translation
  • AltaVista Translations (Babel Fish). Translate words, phrases, or entire web pages between English and nine other languages, or between one of those languages and English.
  • Concise Oxford-Duden German Dictionary (German-English, English-German) . From Oxford University Press; includes over 140,000 words and phrases, and over 240,000 translations, including terms from such specific subject areas as the environment, society, business and industry, media, the arts, and communication.
  • Concise Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary (French-English, English-French) . From Oxford University Press; includes over 175,000 words and phrases, and over 270,000 translations.
  • Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (Spanish-English, English-Spanish) . From Oxford University Press; includes over 170,000 words and phrases, and over 240,000 translations.
  • Eurodicautom. European terminology database.
  • yourDictionary.com: Language Dictionaries. Choose from over 260 languages which have online dictionaries available.
• Specialized Dictionaries
  • Acronym Finder. Provides the user with simple explanations of "more than 206,000 abbreviations and acronyms about computers, technology, telecommunications, and military acronyms and abbreviations."
  • Dictionary of Accounting . From Oxford University Press; includes over 3,500 entries covering fifnancial accounting, financial reporting, management accounting, direct and indirect taxation, corporate fiance, and auditing.
  • Dictionary of Business . From Oxford University Press; includes over 6,500 entries covering marketing, taxation and accounting, investments, banking, international finance, and management.
  • Dictionary of Economics . From Oxford University Press; includes over 4,000 entries covering all aspects of economic theory, mathematical and statistical terms, and terms from related areas such as business and finance.
  • Dictionary of Finance and Banking . From Oxford University Press; includes over 4,000 entries covering insurance, stocks and shares, commodities, takeovers and mergers, international trade, government finance, and personal finance.
  • Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Available through Lexis (DICTOT) and Westlaw (DICOT) .
  • Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names. By Professor Garth Kemerling of Newberry College, this site contains over 2,000 distinct entries.
  • Dictionary of the Internet . From Oxford University Press; includes over 4,000 entries related to the Web, software technology, jargon, e-commerce, security, and technical and orgnizations infrastructure of the Internet.
  • Dictionary of the Social Sciences . From Oxford University Press; includes over 1,800 entries covering anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, human geography, cultural studies, and Marxism.
  • Dictionary of World History . From Oxford University Press; includes detailed entries covering 4,00 years of world history, including biographical entries on key figures, subject entries on religious and political movements, international organizations, and key battles and places.
  • Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing. Contains entries for approximately 13,000 computing terms and acronyms.
  • How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement. By Professor Russ Rowlett at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  • InvestorWords. Contains over 5,000 definitions of words used in the finance industry.
  • On-Line Medical Dictionary. By Dr. Graham Dark of the Gray Cancer Institute. Contains over 65,000 definitions of terms from biochemistry, cell biology, chemistry, medicine, molecular biology, physics, plant biology, radiobiology, science and technology.
  • Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations . From Oxford University Press; includes over 20,000 entries for abbreviations and acronyms, primarily from English-speaking countries.
  • Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy . From Oxford University Press; includes over 2,500 entries covering Western, Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy.
  • Stedman's Medical Dictionary (STEDMANS) . Available through Westlaw.

Directories

Note: for directories of bar associations, courts, judges, lawyers, law schools, etc., please see the directories portion of our Legal Reference Resources page.

• Telephone
  • AnyWho (AT&T). Use this site to look for telephone numbers of people or businesses in the United States. Also includes a section for looking up toll-free telephone numbers.
  • Infobel.com. This site includes over 400 links to yellow pages, white pages, business directories, e-mail addresses and fax listings from over 170 countries all around the world.
  • SuperPages.com. Search for the telephone number of a person or business located anywhere in the United States.
  • WorldPages.com. Search for telephone numbers of businesses and people in both the United States and Canada.
• Other
  • Associations on the Net. From the Internet Public Library, this site provides links to the official web sites of mostly non-profit organizations. Entries are grouped by broad subject categories but can also be browsed alphabetically or searched.
  • Encyclopedia of Associations is available for searching through both Lexis (ENASSC) and through Westlaw (EOA) . Gives "detailed information concerning more than 100,000 nonprofit membership associations worldwide."
  • Leadership Library on the Internet Electronic access to all 14 of the current Yellow Book directories.
  • Look up Ph Directory Inforation. Use this site to find Northwestern University e-mail addresses.
  • United States Postal Service Abbreviations. Use this site to look up a state's U.S. Postal Service two-letter code.
  • ZIP + 4 Code Lookup and Address Information (U.S. Postal Service). Use this site to find ZIP Codes when all you know is the street address.

Encyclopedias

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Online . The Web version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, containing more than 72,000 articles.
• Encyclopedia of Chicago. From the Chicago Historical Society, the Newberry Library, and Northwestern University, this encyclopedia provides "thousands of historical resources - including articles, photos, maps, broadsides and newspapers - related to Chicago's colorful and complex history."
• Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft's web-based encyclopedia, containing over 17,000 articles. Note: Some articles require a paid subscription to view.
• Encyclopedia.com. The web-based version of the Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. A peer-reviewed, web-based resource covering topics in philosophy.

Maps, Atlases, and Geographic Information

• Country Studies. "In-depth description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions" of 101 different countries, by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress.
• Europa World Year Book Online - A resource "covering political and economic information in over 250 countries and territories."
• 50states.com. Provides fast facts and figures about each U.S. state and territory.
• Handbook of the World . From Oxford University Press; provides information on over 230 countries, including geographical details as well as social, economic, and political facts, such as GNP, life expectancy, population growth and density.
• MapQuest. Street and road maps, driving directions, trip planner, and traffic information for locations in the United States. Also includes world maps.
• National Geographic's Map Machine. View physical, political, and meteorological maps of any region of the world.
• U.S. Gazeteer. Use this site to find maps or census-based demographic information for any location in the United States.
• World Factbook (CIA). Provides extensive geographical, political, economic, and demographic information on all countries in the world.

Periodicals

• Ulrich's Periodicals Directory . Use this site to search for currently-published periodicals using a variety of criteria.

Quotations

• Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. The web-based version of the tenth edition, containing over 11,000 quotations.
• Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs . From Oxford University Press; provides sources for over 1,000 of the best-known proverbs in the English language from around the world.
• Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth Century Quotations . From Oxford University Press; provides over 5000 quotations covering arts, popular culture, scientific, social, and historical fields, advertising, political slogans, catchphrases, film lines and common misquotations.
• Oxford Essential Quotations Dictionary . From Oxford University Press; includes over 7,000 quotations on a variety of subjects from both ancient and modern sources.
• Simpson's Contemporary Quotations. Over 10,000 quotations from the period 1950-1988. Also available through Lexis (SMPSON) .

Statistics

• American FactFinder (U.S. Census Bureau). Facts and figures from the 2000 census and the 1997 Economic Census.
• FedStats. A federal government web site allowing the user to search for statistical information from over 100 federal agencies, without having to know which agency produced the data.
• Illinois Statistical Abstract: From the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois, this resource provides a wide variety of socio-economic data for the state of Illinois.
• Infonation. Geographic, economic, population, and social indicators statistics for countries around the world from the United Nations Statistics Division.
• LexisNexis Statistical . Use this service to search "summaries of statistical publications, then link to the full-text of selected publications on LexisNexis Statistical and government Web sites."
• NationMaster.com. Pulls together comparative statistics from over 250 countries and political units from the CIA World Factbook and other authoritative information sources.
• OFFStats: Official Statistics on the Web. From the University of Auckland Library, this site "lists web sites offering free and easily accessible social, economic and general data from official or similar 'quotable' sources, especially those that provide both current data and time series."
• Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics. This site presents "data from more than 100 sources about all aspects of criminal justice in the United States."
• Statistical Abstract of the U.S. "[A] collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States. Selected international data are also included."
• United States Historical Census Data Browser. Access U.S. census data from 1790 to 1960.

Additional Reference Sites

If the above do not meet your needs, try the following reference web sites:

• Internet Public Library: Reference Resources. Provides links to a variety of librarian-reviewed, Internet-based ready-reference resources, including almanacs, associations and organizations, biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, quotations, and much more.
• Librarians' Index to the Internet: Reference Topics. Links to a Web-based almanacs, calculators, calendars, conversion tables, dictionaries, encyclopedias, phone books, and much more.
• Oxford Reference Online . Includes over 100 reference resources in the following subject areas: art and architecture, biological sciences, classics, computing, earth and environmental sciences, economics and business, English language, food and nutrition, history, law, literature, medicine, military history, modern languages, mythology and folklore, performing arts, physical sciences and mathematics, politics and social sciences, quotations, religion and philosophy, and science.
• Refdesk.com. Another site providing links to a variety of Internet-based reference resources; a good place to turn when Internet Public Library or Librarians' Index to the Internet do not answer your question.
• Xreferplus . An "online reference library that provides you with access to a selection of reference books," including, "encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, not to mention a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy and literature to law."