General Reference  Tags: reference encyclopedia libraries government  

Here are some helpful books you will find at the Reference Desk.

General Reference Online sources. These sources include various Reference help.

• Virtual Reference Shelf from Library of Congress: This is selected web resources collected by the Library of Congress.
• The Internet Public Library: "The Internet Public Library is a public service organization and a learning/teaching environment founded at the University of Michigan School of Information and hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology."
• Librarian's Internet Index: "Librarians' Internet Index (LII) is a publicly-funded website and weekly newsletter serving California, the nation, and the world."
• Refdesk.com: "The single best source for facts."
• WWW Virtual Library: "The WWW Virtual Library (VL) is the oldest catalogue of the Web, started by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of HTML and of the Web itself, in 1991 at CERN in Geneva."
• Credo Reference: "Credo Reference is a leading provider of reference services for libraries and information centers." This site was formerly known as Xrefer.
• The Learning Page: "The Internet resources in this directory represent selected Web sites which are rich in content that supports humanities education, broadly accessible to the educational community, and sustainable over the long term. They are grouped by topic." This page is another of the Library of Congress's sponsored pages.
• Census Atlas:  "We are pleased to present the complete content, in PDF format, of the recently published Census Atlas of the United States, the first comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s."

   

These are informational sites or Almanacs.

• Information Please: Infoplease is a comprehensive reference source that combines the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas, and several almanacs loaded with statistics, facts, and historical records. A single search engine allows you to search all these sources at once.
• Utah Almanac: Information on some places in Utah.
• American Memory: "American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning."
• Find Law: "FindLaw is the highest-trafficked legal Web site, providing the most comprehensive set of legal resources on the Internet." This site finds lawyers as well as case numbers.
• Universal Currency Converter: "This is the XE.com Universal Currency Converter ®, the world's most popular currency tool. You can perform interactive foreign exchange (FX, or forex) rate calculations, using live, up-to-the-minute currency rates. To make on-line foreign exchange transactions with guaranteed best rates."

Here are some sites for Book Reviews, Biographies, and Quotations.

• Booknotes: the permanent online archive for C-SPAN’s award-winning author interview program, Booknotes.
• Wired For Books: poems, stories, plays, essays, lectures, and interviews for children and adults.
• Biography.com: Biographies, Videos, and interviews.
• Biographical Dictionary: "S9.com was established in 1997. The dictionary covers more than 33,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day."
• Biographies Plus: (Database at Dixie.edu) : "Wilson’s largest biography database has combined the in-depth, original profiles of Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated, plus the thorough periodicals coverage of Biography Index, full-text articles, page images, and abstracts from the complete range of Wilson databases (including biographical profiles, feature articles, interviews, essays, book reviews, performance reviews, speeches, or obituaries)."
• Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: "This tenth edition of 1919 contains over 11,000 searchable quotations and was the first new edition of John Bartlett’s corpus to be published after his death in 1905—the new editor, however, choosing more to supplement than revise the work of the first name in quotations."
• The Columbia World of Quotes: "The 65,000 essential quotations that constitute this authoritative collection represent the research of 154 experts. Entries from more than 5,000 authors and speakers are multiply classified into 6,500 subjects."
• Simpson's Contemporary Quotations: "With over 9,000 quotations from 4,000 sources organized into 25 categories and 60 sections, this comprehensive reference work contains words of wit and wisdom from such modern notables as Ezra Pound, Henry Kissinger, George Orwell, Dorothy Parker, and Desmond Tutu." (1950-1988)
• Quotation Page: "You've reached the oldest quotation site on the Web, established 1994. We have over 26,000 quotations online from over 3,100 authors, and more are added daily. Don't forget to stop by our Forums for answers to your questions about quotations."
• Quoteland: In place since 1999, this website gives you quotes, who said it, quotes by topic.