General reference resources

“General reference” is a “fuzzy” term, suggesting resources that are too diverse to be confined to a specific subject. If you do not find here a category you are looking for, try these other pages:

The World Wide Web Virtual Library in General Reference is an excellent gateway to all online reference sources. For locating resources not listed below, some of the Internet subject guides may be useful.

Comprehensive “reference desks”

• Refdesk.com
  • Home page
  • Quick reference/research
• The Reference Desk of Michigan eLibrary
• Quick Reference List at Purdue
• Reference Shelf at University of California-San Diego
• Electronic Reference Sources at Rutgers
• Reference Resources of the Internet Public Library
• Ready Reference portion of the Internet Library for Librarians
• Digital Librarian: A librarian's choice of the best of the Web [Margaret Vail Anderson]
• Internet Collegiate Reference Collection [Bloomsburg University]
• Infoplease
• iTools
• Start Spot Network
• Best Information on the Net [O'Keefe Library, St. Ambrose University]
• Library Spot
• Oxford Reference Collection (restricted to faculty, staff, and students of The University of Memphis)

Encyclopedias

• Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
• Encyclopedia Britannica (and other reference sources, too)
• Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
• Only the prototype is available at this time, but you might be interested in reading about an online recreation of the pioneering classic Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des artes et des metiérs by Diderot and d'Alembert.

Research

• Research and Documentation Online [Diane Hacker]
• Research Resources [University of Memphis Libraries]
• World Wide Web Research Tools [Robert Harris]
• Scholarly Societies Project [University of Waterloo]
• ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)

Selected reference subjects

(Please see the note above about other pages maintained at this site which may contain the reference material you are looking for.)

Nations of the world

• Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook
• Country Studies (U.S. Army Area Handbook series)
• U.S. Department of State countries and regions information
• Flags of the World
• World Flag Database
• Ethnologue: Languages of the World [Summer Institute of Linguistics]

Postal and telephone

• Links to world post office home pages [Graham Rhind]
• Links to world postal code pages [Graham Rhind]
• Postal codes of various nations [EscapeArtist]
• Zip Codes and Postal Codes of the World
• Frank's Compulsive Guide to Postal Addresses: Effective Addressing for International Mail [Frank da Cruz]
• U.S. Postal Service
  • Home page
  • U.S. ZIP+4 code lookup
  • U.S. postal rates
• Canada Post Corporation
• Canada postal code lookup
• All Nations Expatriates & Travelers Telephone Search Engine [EscapeArtist]
• Telephone Directories on the Web [teldir.com]
• Phonebook of the World [phonebookoftheworld.com]
• International dialing codes [Steve Kropla]

Time and calendars

• Current time at The University of Memphis
• Official U.S. time [National Institute of Standards and Technology]
• Current date and time check [U.S. Naval Observatory]
• World Time Server
• Local Times Around the World
• Various types of calendars
  • From Calendar Zone
  • From Timeanddate.com
  • From CalendarHome.com
• Perpetual calendars
  • Interactive version by Herb Weiner
  • Interactive version by CalendarHome.com
  • Printable versions by CalendarHome.com
• Calendars through the Ages [WebExhibits]
• Julian date converter [U.S. Naval Observatory]

Statistics

• World Wide Web Virtual Library in Statistics [University of Florida Statistics Department]
• Statistical Resources on the Web [University of Michigan Documents Center]
• Data on the Net [University of California-San Diego]
• Statistics.com
• Statistical Abstract of the United States [U.S. Census Bureau]
• Inter-University Consortium on Political and Social Research (“ICPSR”)
• Historical Census Browser [Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, University of Virginia Library]
• Statistics Every Writer Should Know [Robert Niles]

Cultural

• World Wide Web Virtual Library in Museums of the World
• MuseumLink's Museum of Museums
• World Wide Arts Resources
• Grove Music

Medical

• Health on the Net Foundation
• HealthLine
• World Health Organization
• Merck Manual Home Edition
• MEDLINEplus Health Information [National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health]
• healthfinder [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services]
• MayoClinic.com
• Complete Home Medical Guide [Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons]
• Healthopedia.com
• AllRefer Health
• InteliHealth
• MedicineNet
• HealthWeb
• WebMD-Health
• HealthScout
• drkoop.com
• National Council Against Health Fraud
• Health Care Reality Check [Georgia Council Against Health Fraud]
• Alternative medicine resources on the Internet [University of Pittsburg]

Miscellaneous

• Acronyms and abbreviations [Michigan eLibrary]
• Almanacs [Michigan eLibrary]
• Awards and prizes [Rutgers]
• Calculators and formulas [O'Keefe Library, St. Ambrose University]
• Roman numeral converter [Steven Gibbs]
• Guiness World Records
• Home maintenance and repair [Michigan eLibrary]
• How Stuff Works
• Legal [Michigan eLibrary]
• Mythology [Michigan eLibrary]
• Quotations [Internet Public Library]
• Science and technology [Rutgers]
• Weights and measures [Michigan eLibrary]

Copyright 2008 by The University of Memphis | Important Notice | Maintained by Maurice Crouse | Last modified 11 May 2008