REFERENCE SOURCES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

 

GENERAL
 

Virtual Reference Collection

http://www.lib.uci.edu/home/virtual/virtual.html

Superior to most pages of its kind due to its navigation features, the page is maintained by the University of California at Irvine. As noted by Bryan Pfaffenberger, in the World Wide Web Bible (2nd ed.),

In addition to clicking headings in the table of contents to follow internal hyperlinks,

you can also easily return to other levels in the site by clicking links on the page, so

you can jump from location to location at the Virtual Reference Collection without

having to use your history list.

 

LookUP!

http://www.lookup.com/

The site enables the user to perform simple or advanced searches for people's e-mail addresses, based on information entered.

 

DICTIONARIES
 

Hypertext Webster Interface

http://c.gp.cs.cmu.edu:5103/prog/webster

The Carnegie-Mellon University site enables the user to enter a word and obtain its definition in Webster's Dictionary. Each entry includes links to most words in the definition; by clicking on a particular word, you can go to its entry.

 

Echo-Eurodicautom

http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/~felix/eurodictautom.html

Based at the University of Frankfurt (Germany), the site enables the user to enter a word in any major European language and obtain a translation into any other supported language. At present, it specializes only in the translation of technical words as opposed to everyday words.

 

The Alternative Dictionaries

http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang

The user-contributed site offers a continuously-updated dictionary of "slang, swear words and other 'bad' language." A particular strength is its broad-based multicultural representation. Weaknesses include sketchy coverage and the absence of search capabilities (i.e., one simply browses through alphabetical lists).

 

ENCYCLOPEDIAS
 

Britannica Online

Available by subscription, the source is--unlike the print and CD-ROM versions--continuously updated. Supplemented by a number of free tools; e.g., Britannica's Lives.

 

Random House Kids Encyclopedia

http://ww.advanture.com/WWW/reference_files/rhke/index.html

Geared more to browsing than research, the entries all contain several hyperlinks to information in other sections.

 

CIA World Factbook

A compendium of information about countries worldwide, including maps and statistics. Keyword searches employing the Harvest search engines are possible via: http://www.odci.gov/Harvest/brokers/odciweb/query:html

 

QUOTATIONS

 

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett

Entering a topic brings quotations related to the topic. One can also scroll through the list of famous writers and speakers to find links to all their available online quotations. Does not include contemporary quotes.

 

The Quote Archive

http://apsc7.rescomp.arizona.edu/~ollisg/quote

Based at the University of Arizona, the site makes available extensive search capabilities, a random quote service, and the ability for users to contribute new quotes to the database.

 

WordNet

http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/w3wn.html

Designed in accordance with current theories in how people remember words, the user can type in a root word--choose whether you want synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms, meronyms, holonyms, etc.--and receive a report listing the various senses of the word.

 

TELEPHONE AND POSTAL INFORMATION

 

AT&T 800 DIRECTORY

http://www.tollfree.att.net/dir800/

Enter name of business or search by type of company.

 

Central Source Yellow Pages

http://www.telephonebook.com

Although not complete, the source includes more than ten million businesses in the U.S.

 

AmeriCom Long Distance Area Decoder

http://www.xmission.com/~americam/aclookup.html

Enter the city, state, and country, and user receives correct dialing information to reach that area from the U.S. Special two-character codes must be used to specify a country; the codes are listed at http://www.ics.uci.edu/WebSoft/wwwstat/country-codes.text

 

U.S. Postal Service ZIP+4 Lookup

http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/lookup_zip+4.html

Enter as much of an address as is known, and the service attempts to find the correct ZIP code.