Mobile Public Library Reference Desk Resources

Look It Up FAST | Directories | Dictionaries, Almanacs, etc. | General Reference
Geography and Maps | Grants | Holidays and Festivals | Language Learning
Literature | Mega Sites | Research | Science

More Great Sources - Electronic Library | Reference Services
What Does the Library Have? | Hot Links | Free Online Books

Biography & Memoir

Sign up for NextReads
and get email newsletters
about your favorite
kinds of books

Look It Up FAST!

The Blue Letter Bible - search bible verses and keywords with access to 14 versions, biblical dictionaries, maps, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, links to appropriate hymns, devotionals and more
EasyBib - an easy way to create a bibliography
NoodleTools - an easy way to create a bibliography, subscription required for full version
The Encyclopedia of Alabama
The Alabama State Data Center - quick links to all kinds of stats based on the US Census - population, income, race, commuting patterns, education, disability and much, much more!
The Calculator Edge - hundreds of calculators, from general use to scientific and technical, useful for everyone from students to engineers!
The Currency Converter Site
Facster - Facts at your fingertips. They have statistical facts relevant to government, politics, economics, and demographics. You can search within the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
The Florida Lottery - Check your numbers!
Helpline Information and Referral - From emergency situations to the beginning of a long-term program, the HelpLine connects and directs you to the right channels to get you back on your feet. The HelpLine is an anonymous, confidential community resource serving Mobile, Baldwin, Clarke and Washington counties. Volunteers provide information and referrals to community agencies and groups as well a a listening ear, a helping hand and crisis prevention/intervention.
Look-up Longitude and Latitude - easy look-up from NOAA
Mapblast
Maps from the University of Alabama - Historical and contemporary maps plus Aerial photography from all over the world. Great for Alabama History school projects and genealogists, too!
Megaconverter - the best place to figure what equals what.
Official US Time - get the right time every time for any US time zone and visit the "Time Exhibits" on the the history and workings of time keeping
Sunrise/Sunset Calculator - fill-in city, date, etc. and calculate the sunrise and set
Timezones - one of the best timezone converters ever, try the Advanced Converter!
Universal Currency Converter - allows you to perform interactive foreign exchange rate conversion
Virtual Perpetual Calendar - perpetual calendars for years back to 1 BC, day of the year, zodiac, holidays and more.
Worldtime - this not only converts timezones but has clock you can refresh to see the current time
Zipcodes and more

Directories

Anywho - Directory of phone, fax, e-mail, URL and website info
Big Yellow - Yellow pages on the web including listings for 16,000 businesses
Reference USA is now available for home use via our database page.
Skip Tracing Tools - Links to the most comprehensive people searching tools.
The Switchboard - Allows searching directories online for residences, businesses, etc.
U.S. Government Toll-Free Numbers

Dictionaries, Almanacs, etc.

American Sign Language Dictionary
The Glossarist - Look up glossaries by subject, a great tool for anyone who needs an overall sense of vocabulary in a specific field
Glossary of Internet Terms
Information Please - a great source with almanacs, biographies, encyclopedia and dictionaries
Meanings and Origins of Phrases, Sayings, Cliches, and Quotes
Merriam Webster Dictionary Online - dictionary, thesaurus, word of the day, and word games
One Look Dictionaries - access to over 460 dictionaries including medical, foreign language etc.
The World Factbook - Detailed Country Maps and Info

General Reference

Alabama Sex Offenders Database
AllApartments - moving info including 5 million apartments, trucks, movers and more!
American FactFinder
ChemicalElements.com - "an online interactive periodic table of the elements"
The Chemical Scorecard - Information on Pollution from the Environmental Defense Fund
Debatabase - a searchable reference utility for debaters around the world. Enter keywords in the search engine above to search debating topics, each with arguments for and against, background information, and much more.
GlobalEdge - a must for international business info. Get country background, stats, key facts, history, economy. Stats even has info on language and the environment. The corporations section lists the top companies in the country.
Google Patent Search - use advanced search to find patents by keywords, inventor, title, number, owner, etc. and get illustrated results. Click on Help to learn more.
Immigration Statistics from the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS), Department of Homeland Security. At this site you can compile statistics on immigration by state.
Learn.com - Learn how to do most anything from washing your car to taxes
The Library Spot - Reference tools, books and more
Living Will Form from the Alabama Department of Public Health. (5 page PDF docuent)
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - Info and stats on safety issues like airbags, seatbelts, and crash testing
New York Times On This Day - get not just facts and birthdays from history but everyday features a new front page story from history complete with a thumbnail of the paper and the article
The Nobel Prizes - a searchable database of prizes and winners with bios on recent winners
The Occupational Information Network - O*NET database takes the place of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) as the nation's primary source of occupational information. The O*NET database and related products will help millions of employers, workers, educators, and students make informed decisions about education, training, career choices, and work. The O*NET Project is administered and sponsored by the US Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.
Rural Population and Migration - From USDA, Links to info on the changing face of rural America including black and hispanic migration, population loss, with links to research, maps, and even pix of County Courthouses!
SoYouWanna - Answers to life's tough questions (the ones you weren't taught in school) like how to buy a suit, make a movie, choose a diamond, or whatever
US Census Bureau
U. S. Copyright Office - Info and copyright searching
U. S. Patent and Trademark Office
WebExhibits - see the best exhibits on the web from the Harlem Renaissance to Body Art to Time.
Where to Write for Vital Records

Geography and Maps

Alabama Maps - great maps by county, demographics, education, forestry, health, etc.
CIA World Fact Book
Economist Country Briefings - provides quick up-to-date profile on 60 major world countries from the Economist Intelligence Unit
National Atlas - A unique and valuable resource for American maps. You can create maps or download ready-maps such as full color maps of the country, individual states, waterways, federal and tribal lands, and much more.
Portals to the World - Links selected by Library of Congress for countries all over the world.
USGS Mapping Information - view aerial, satellite and elevation maps, and more!
Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection - provides links to more than 5,000 maps including population density maps, reference maps, vegetation maps, etc.

Grants

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (US General Services Administration) - Provides information and contacts for all federal grant programs.
Chronicle of Philanthropy
Federal Register - Browse or search listings of federal grant opportunities.
The Foundation Center Online - Info and Links to Foundations and Foundation Center Libraries
Fundsnet: Alabama Funders - Provides an A to Z directory of Alabama Funders and links to grantwriting resources.
Grantsmanship Center - Daily listings of grant opportunities from the Federal Register, contact information for community foundations, etc.
GrantStation.com - Provides information on grant seeking and advice on putting your grant proposal together for submission.
GrantsWeb - Resources on Public and Private Funding from the Society of Research Administrators
NonProfit Gateway from FirstGov

Holidays and Festivals

Art and Craft Shows Net - a searchable database of events all over the country.
Calendars through the Ages - this site is helpful to anyone interested in calendars, history, and learning about holidays in other cultures
Earth Calendar - Search holidays by date, country, religion, and a lunar phase calendar with names and dates of the moons!
Festivals.com - search for festivals by state
The Holiday Zone - Facts, crafts, activities and more for many of the major holidays
Holidays and Observances - look up holidays by country, religion, name, etc.

Learn English as a Second Language

Mango Languages - Mango is an online language learning system that teaches real conversation skills for practical communication including English as a Second Language (ESL). Through fun and engaging interactive lessons, Mango makes learning a new language fast, easy and incredibly effective. Languages included: ESL Spanish, ESL Vietnamese, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, and Hebrew. Use your library card number to log in.

BYKI - Before You Know It - FREE downloadable language audio flashcards and lessons in many laguages and on many topics, fun, too!
Englishlearner.com - practice tests, grammar, games and more
English Pronunciation Practice
The English Zone - a fun site for those learning English as a second language
ESL Resources - English as a second language organized into teacher and student categories, includes magazines, games, etc.
ESL Self-Study Quizzes - 900 quizzes on all aspects of English Vocabulary and Grammar. Many are tied to topics like holidays, places or culture
iLove Languages - Thousands of links to FREE online language lessons
MyLanguageExchange.com - a social networking site that matches up learners and native speakers online in small groups with lessons planned specifically for online learning

Literature

Arts and News Daily - from the Chronicle of Higher Education. A reader's dream come true, this site is updated six days per week and features links to newspapers, magazines and journals, book reviews, articles, essays, editorials, news services, columnists, literary criticism, and 'amusements' in every area of the humanities.

Criticism and Analysis
- Visit our electronic journals and magazines for more criticisms.
- Online Literary Criticism Collection at the Internet Public Library - Links to over 4,000 critical and biographical resources dealing with American and British literature from pre-1500 to the twentieth century. Each link is annotated and can be accessed by author, work or literary period. The links are selected "for their overall usefulness" for high school and college students. A literary criticism guide and a pathfinder have been provided for further exploration of Web and print resources.
- Sparknotes is like Cliff Notes. It contains plot summaries; discussion and analysis of major characters; themes, motifs and symbols; important quotations explained; and study questions and essay topics.
- Literary History and Criticism
Greek Mythology Link
Irish Literature, Mythology, folklore, and Drama - Excellent site for all aspects of Ireland, including a large section on culture.
Lit Links at Bedford St. Martins links to myriad literary resources, arranged by author's name. Major categories include fiction, drama, poetry, essays, and critical theory.
Voice of the Shuttle - VoS English Literature: English Literature Page

Mega Sites

Academic Info - heavy advertising bogs down this otherwise excellent resource. It covers a very wide range of academic subjects.
Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections. Major categories include Biological, Business, Electronic Journals (fee and free), Government, Instructional, Maps, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Visual Arts.
Internet Public Library - one of the oldest and best research collections.
Librarian's Index to the Internet - librarian-selected sites with clickable Library of Congress subject headings

Research

Best Information on the Net
Biography.com from the Arts and Entertainment television network - this site includes an online version, in database form, of the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia (1994).
Guide to Library Research (from the Duke Univ. Libraries) - Learn how to conduct research using this 7 step research process; also use the link to 'Citing Sources' to find examples of how to site bibliographic footnotes using APA, MLA, etc.
Note: This is a web guide was created at the Duke University Libraries, links to article databases will not work.
Please refer to MPL's Online Research Tools for articles, etc.
How to write a term paper - covers all the steps in the research process: choose a topic, craft a thesis, evaluate thesis and sources, identify a variety of information sources, take efficient notes, begin and organize a research paper, use parenthetical documentation, prepare a Works Cited page, draft and revise a research paper
Philosophy Resources on the Internet
Research and Documentation - a very interesting collection of research tools including full sample papers for the following styles: MLA, APA, Chicago, and CBE (Scientific Style and Format)
Research-It! - Your One Stop Reference Desk
SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
Works Cited 4 U - Creates a formatted bibliography for you, just fill out the form. Uses the MLA style sheet.

Science

Albert Einstein Archives - contains digitized images of some 900 Einstein papers as well as a searchable list of 43,000 documents in the archive.
Albert Einstein Archives - contains digitized images of some 900 Einstein papers as well as a searchable list of 43,000 documents in the archive.
Eric Weisstein's Treasure Troves - An amazingly in-depth web encyclopedia on science topics
How Stuff Works - clear explanations with illustrations of everything from vcr's to bread
Public Library of Science - a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.