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Virtual Reference Shelf
Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Abbreviations.com Browse acronyms and abbreviations by subject or search for definitions.
- Acronym Finder Search for definitions of acronyms such as WYSIWYG and RADAR.
- All that JAS Journal Abbreviation Source allows users to find full journal titles along with abbreviations for those titles.
- Genamics JournalSeek Provides a description of the journal, journal abbreviation, a link to the journal homepage, when one is available, subject category of the journal and the ISSN.
Almanacs and Factbooks
- Atlapedia World maps and atlases.
- AlternaTime A variety of timelines on the Internet.
- Sperling's Best Places Compare climate, crime rates, cost of living, schools, and more for various US cities.
- CensusScope Charts, graphs, and maps from the US census.
- CIA Directory Lists chiefs of state and cabinet members of foreign governments.
- Public Agenda Find information on Hot Topics like education and abortion. Public Agenda offers an overview, discussion guides, fact file, public opinion polls and more on many Hot Topics.
- Bartleby.com Contains: dictionaries, encyclopedias, quotations, complete fiction and nonfiction books, inaugural speeches, language and style guides, and many other helpful links. Bartleby can be searched or browsed.
Associations, Organizations, Societies
- Scholarly Societies Project Find scholarly societies worldwide by subject, country, language, or founding date.
- Idealist Search for organizations worldwide.
Biography
- 4000 Years of Women in Science Biographies of women in the sciences.
- Biography.com Contains over 25,000 biographies.
- Who's Alive and Who's Dead Find out which personalities are alive and which are dead. Search or browse by name or category.
- Black Inventor Online Museum Learn about African American inventors and their inventions.
Books
- Project Gutenberg Free electronic books.
- Bibliomania Free electronic books and study guides. Free registration is required to access the study guides.
- Humanities Text Initiative Full text resources.
Calculation and Conversion
- Calculator.com A variety of online calculators. Student loans, mortgage, scientific, graphs, and many more.
- OnlineConversion.com Convert length, speed, mass, density and much more.
- Currency Converter
- FXConverter Multi-lingual currency converter. You can convert any currency for current or past dates.
Calendars
- Earth Calendar Find worldwide holidays and celebrations by date, country and religion. This site also includes dates of the full moon and lunar eclipses.
- Bank Holidays of the World
- United States Federal Holidays
- World Calendar Find out the holidays for over 75 countries.
Citation Style Guides
- Guides to English style, usage, and writing
- APA Style Guide help page
- Capital Community College's guide to MLA
- MLA FAQ page
- Landmark’s Citation Machine
- BibMe
- Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
College and Career Planning
- Assessment Testing And Preparation
- Associations of Education and Library Professionals
- Career Resources
- College Guides and Planning
- Occupational Outlook Handbook
- State Departments of Education Links to state departments of education. Job postings can be found by clicking on the state of interest.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia Mythica An encyclopedia of mythology and folklore.
- tiscali.reference A dictionary of difficult words.
- Merriam Webster Dictionary & Thesaurus
- OneLook Dictionary Searches many online dictionaries at once.
- OneLook Reverse Dictionary Enter a definition in the search box to find the word.
- Bartlett's Quotations
Financial Aid
- FAFSA ASU code is 001005
- The Student Guide Published by the U.S. Department of Education. Information is focused on loans, grants and work-study.
- Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Find information about grants and how to apply for them.
- FinAid Search for loans, scholarships, grants, and other types of funding for college.
- Financial Aid Resources
Internet Search Engines
Web Search Engines
Individual search companies that access web-pages for results.
- AltaVista - Pioneer in multimedia, language, audio and video search capabilties.
- Ask.com - Understands questions as well as search terms.
- Excite - Similar search options and layout to HORNetCat.
- Google - Popular search engine with relevant results.
- Scirus - Science-specific search engine.
- Yahoo! - Pioneer and popular search engine.
Multi-Search Engines/Metacrawlers
Searches several search engines at once.
- Yippy - Yippy search groups similar results together into “clouds” to help you see your search results by topic.
- Dogpile - Best results from variety of search engines.
- Ixquick - Ranks relevant findings with options to expand or delete individual results.
- WebCrawler - Easy to use crawler brings and lists best results from variety of search engines.
Web Directories
Lists of websites per specific subject.
- About.com - Access to over 500 guides leading to practical content related to any search query.
- Academic Info - Subject directory related to education resources and programs.
- D M O Z - Also called the Open Directory Project; claims to be definitive catalog of the Web.
- Librarians’ Internet Index - Websites organized into 14 main topics by librarians.
News
- ABZY News Links News sources from around the world.
- Associated Press
- Christian Science Monitor
- CNN
- Montgomery Advertiser
- NPR - National Public Radio
- PBS
- Reuters
- World Newspapers
Prizes and Awards
- Nobel Prize
- Pulitzer Prize
- American Library Association Book Awards - Provides a complete list of ALA book awards, grants & fellowships and other useful information relevant to print and media
Science
Please report any broken links to cdavis@alasu.edu