[content]
ReadyReference

GENERAL
Encyclopedias | Almanacs
Periodical Databases
And More...

DIRECTORIES
Domestic | International
Toll-Free | Area Codes
Zip Codes

NUMBERS
Calendars | Time | Lottery
Measurement | Statistics/Polls

STILL CAN'T FIND IT?
PLACES
United States
World
ODDS & ENDS
Awards | Flags | Lists | Weather Signs/Symbols
WORDS
Acronyms/Abbreviations
Dictionaries | Thesauri | Translation Quotations | Writing

PEOPLE
Biography | Names

GENERAL REFERENCE

ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Britannica Online - For patrons using library computers only. Brought to you by the Texas State Electronic Library, this database offers you the full scope of the print Encyclopedia Britannica and MUCH, MUCH more! Over 72,000 articles on every topic, 75,000 dictionary entries, 10,000 drawings, maps, flags, etc., 23,000 biographies and the list goes on. All fully searchable. Check it out!

Encarta Concise Encyclopedia - Not just an online encyclopedia with over 16,000 entries, this site also offers a collection of lesson plans and activity sheets for teachers and highlights a different topic each day.

Encyclopedia.com - Electric Library's free encyclopedia with 14,000 articles culled from the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia Electronic Edition. The articles include cross-references, 170,000 links to external web sites, and links to BarnesandNoble.com for lists of related books. You can perform a keyword search or browse an alphabetical list of topics.

Lycos Research Center - Includes the Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, Random House Dictionary, world news from Reuters, and more. The media index allows you to browse an alphabetic list of the multimedia available from the Encylopedia, including photos, animations, audio, maps, or flags.

ALMANACS

Information Please - Here you will find the online versions of the Information Please Almanac, their Entertainment Almanac and Sports Almanac, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and the Random House College Dictionary available for searching or browsing. You can search these ready reference works together or separately. In addition there are feature stories each week, which cover topics in the news as well as a Daily Almanac.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac - The online version of North America’s oldest continuously published periodical. Get a five-day or long-range forecast for a particular region or city. Find dates and locations for solar and lunar eclipses for the year and days of the full moon for the next seven years. You can even find moon, sun and planet rises and sets for particular locations including by zip code for specific days through the year 2020. For interesting facts, check out the Today in History, Advice of the Day, and Question of the Day sections.

PERIODICAL DATABASES

For patrons using library computers only. If you're at home, school, or work, and have a San Antonio Public Library card, see the Database page for access to some of these databases.

Electric Library - Brought to you by the Texas State Electronic Library, this is the web version of Electric Library. Magazine and newspaper articles, books, pictures, maps, and radio and TV transcripts. This is a great place to start your research.

ProQuest Direct - For searching and finding articles that can help you do your schoolwork and research. ProQuest Direct searches UMI databases of articles originally published in over 5,000 magazines, newspapers, and journals. Many titles are available in full-text and full scanned image.

AND MORE . . .

Facts.com - For patrons using library computers only. Delivers the complete full-text of the authoritative Facts on File World News Digest since January 1980, updated weekly, covering the key people, issues, and events of the last 20 years. It also provides information from six other core reference databases, including Issues and Controversies On File, Today's Science on File, Editorials On File, Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, today's news from the Reuters news service, and the World Almanac and Book of Facts. Facts.com also includes more than 1,000 special overview articles, historic documents, maps, photos, country profiles, and biographies.

Absolute Trivia - This fun site has a "Yahoo-ish structure" which allows for easy browsing of categories and extends the trivial by providing facts about today, Random Trivia, a Random Quotation, and even a Trivia Test. The entire site is searchable and you can subscribe to a weekly top 10 trivia mailing list.

Allexperts.com - Ask any question! A free service that features over 3,500 volunteer experts in the areas of medicine, arts, TV, sports, music, travel, humanities, love, education, business, religion and more waiting to answer your one-on-one questions, and all for free!

Fugitive Fact File - From the Hennepin County Library in Minnesota, this site provides access to information used by librarians to answer reference questions. Do you need to know how to clean a Cabbage Patch doll? Or perhaps you need the text of the Vice President’s oath of office? These answers and more can be found here.

Learn2.com - Everything from applying eyeliner to choosing wine is spelled out here for you. Search by keyword or browse subjects like Look Sharp, Wheel Appeal, or Help Yourself for detailed instructions. Learn to change a diaper step-by step or find out how to make your own paper.

Pitsco’s Ask an Expert - Select from 12 categories providing links to over 300 sites and e-mail addresses with expert information. You can browse these categories or do a keyword search to find experts on parenting, arthritis, hypnosis and many other subjects that may interest you.

Research-It! - Here is a one-stop reference tool for you. Look up words in dictionaries and thesauri, translate words from one language to another, find biographical information, search the Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, look for maps, addresses or phone numbers, or see how the stock market is doing.

Top of Page
PEOPLE

| Biography | Names |

BIOGRAPHY

Biography.com - Choose from over 20,000 famous people including movie stars, inventors, government officials, aviators, living and dead. Biographies include birth and death years, name pronunciation and a paragraph about the person’s life and work.

Biography Resource Center - For patrons using library computers only. If you're at home, school, or work, and have a San Antonio Public Library card, see the Database page for access to this database. The Biography Resource Center is a comprehensive database of biographical information on more than 150,000 people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. It combines more than 215,000 biographies from respected Gale and St. James Press sources with full-text articles from nearly 250 periodicals. Search for people based on one or more personal facts such as birth and death years and places, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender, or combine criteria to create a highly-targeted custom search path.

Britannica's Lives - For biographies of those born today, yesterday, tomorrow or anytime! Select the birthdate for a list of famous people born then. Results include a full biography of each individual.

Famous Birthdays - A large list of birth dates of the famous and not so famous. The database can be searched by name, date or year. Click on Sports Birthdays to access a list of sites with potential to provide you with the birthday of your favorite sports star. Or choose Today’s Famous Birthdays if you need to know who was born on today’s date.

Lives, the Biography Resource - Links to sites that focus on the lives of individuals or groups of people, worthwhile collections of links to other biographical resources, primary biographical source material such as images, diaries, memoirs, correspondence, interviews, oral histories, and to some of the best biographical dictionaries. There are special pages featuring African Americans, Women, U.S. Civil War, Holocaust Survivors and Rescuers, and Canadians. In addition there are indexes by collections, professions, eras, regions, and criticism, as well as by individual. The site is also searchable.

Notable Citizens of Planet Earth - Printed dictionaries are useful only if you know a person's last name and want other information. But if you want to know who wrote The Grapes of Wrath or who discovered the greenhouse effect, or you want a list of cartoonists or past presidents of Somalia, a paper dictionary won't help, whereas this dictionary will give you those answers immediately. And it's up to date. Names can be entered as last name only, first name plus last name, or first initial plus last name. If you come up empty, try the Spelling Wizard which will try to find names in the dictionary with similar spellings. Your results produce birth and death years, occupation and major accomplishments.

World Biographical Index - More than 2 million records! Based on the 4th edition of the print title, this amazing information covers international historical figures and is searchable by name, occupation, year of birth, and year of death. Each entry includes the person's name, any variations on it, pseudonyms, birth and death dates, occupation, and the source of the information. You may want to read the Help section before doing any serious queries.

NAMES

Baby Names - Looking for a name for that little bundle of joy? Check out soap opera and Shakespearean names. Or browse through the alphabetic listing of more than 4,200 names and their meanings.

Etymology of First Names - This site looks into the etymology of common first names. It also attempts to give any other interesting facts associated with the name, such as famous bearers. Look up your name in the alphabetic list or check out the Common Elements in First Names, Sources of First Names and Names for Twins. The names are hyperlinked to related names.

Top of Page

WORDS

| Acronyms and Abbreviations | Dictionaries | Thesauri | Translation Dictionaries | Quotations | Writing |

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

Acronym Finder - For 67,000 acronyms, abbreviations, and their meanings. This is a searchable database containing common acronyms and abbreviations about all subjects, with a focus on computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military.

World Wide Web Acronym and Abbreviation Server - Simply type in letters for a list of acronyms and abbreviations with that sequence of letters. You can select any of the highlighted acronyms and click on it to submit a further meaning, or you can type your next search request into the data entry panel.

DICTIONARIES AND OTHER GOOD STUFF

Hypertext Webster Gateway - Type the word for which you want the definition in the search box, click to select either an exact match or an approximate match, and then click on the "Look up definition" button. Words in the definition are linked back into the dictionary. If you misspell the word, the dictionary server may offer a list of close matches. You may use right and left truncation.

OneLook Dictionaries - The OneLook Dictionaries page provides two approaches to finding definitions for a word. You may search the OneLook Dictionary indexes for the word you seek. You may search all or a few of the dictionaries and then quickly retrieve the definitions found. Or link directly to a specific dictionary page. The "Browse Dictionaries" list includes dictionaries that are indexed by OneLook Dictionaries in subject categories. Covers over 190 English dictionaries!

Phrase Finder - You can insert a word, and it will return a set of phrases related to the word in some way. Or, you can browse the complete list of phrases, including their meanings and derivations. Extremely useful and lots of fun!

Rhyming Dictionary - Find perfect rhymes, match last sound only, or find homophones. You can even exclude obscure words. Submit a word and get results listed alphabetically by syllable count. "One feature of this program that sets it apart from tangible rhyming dictionaries is that it can sort output based on how near in meaning a word is to a certain target meaning you provide. For example, suppose you're writing a poem and you need a word that rhymes with grape that means roughly the same thing as hominid. Enter grape into the first text field, and hominid into the second, and lo and behold, the first word on the output list is ape!"

Voycabulary - An interactive dictionary and thesaurus that lets you check the words of any online document for meaning and definition by simply entering text or a URL. Users have the option to select the Merriam-Webster Dictionary or Thesaurus as their source for definitions as well as a medical, acronym, or computer dictionary. You can also use it to translate words from more than a dozen languages.

Web Conjugue - Just enter an infinitive in all lowercase and the program returns a list of 15 different conjugations for indicative, conjunctive, conditional, and imperative tenses. The entry will also provide "equivalents in other languages" and other verbs that utilize a similar conjugation. This site conjugates thousands of verbs in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Rumanian, Galacian, Catalan, Occitan, Latin, Finnish, English, Swedish, German, Old English, and Dutch!

Web of On-line Dictionaries - This web site indexes over 400 online dictionaries, thesauri, and other word resources covering over 130 languages. Connect to online grammars, monolingual dictionaries, multilingual dictionaries, specialized dictionaries, thesauri and other vocabulary aids, and language identifiers, as well as an index to other dictionary indices. En español

Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus - With over 100,000 entries and 50,000 headwords, The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus is a full dictionary AND a complete thesaurus, integrated into one work. You only need to look up a word once to get a definition with hyperlinks to synonyms, and similar or related words available where appropriate.

World Wide Words - Not really a dictionary but an excellent site for exploring the English language. The page is devoted to "its history, quirks, curiosities and evolution." Click on Weird Words to learn some odd words. Submit a question to learn the origin of certain phrases or words or study words or phrases that aren't in dictionaries yet.

WWWebster Dictionary - Type in your word or phrase for a definition, pronunciation, grammatical function, and a brief etymology. This site is based on Webster’s 10th Collegiate edition from 1993. You may also search for a synonym using the built-in thesaurus with hyperlinked cross-references. If you misspell the word, the dictionary returns suggested spellings. This is great!

Top of Page

THESAURI

Roget’s Internet Thesaurus - Enter a word to look for synonyms and related terms.

WWWebster Thesaurus - Sister to the WWWebster Dictionary above. Use them together. Provides synonyms and related words.

WordLab - " Attention all writers, editors, webmasters, entrepreneurs, rock 'n rollers, English professors, racehorse owners, ... and future Nobel laureates: Welcome to WordLab, the Last Word for unique and inspiring words, names, phrases, coinages, puns, titles, slogans and slang... From the ridiculous to the sublime."

TRANSLATION DICTIONARIES

AltaVista Translation - Use this site to communicate across language barriers. Be aware that computerized translations "often miss subtle meanings of words and don’t accurately present many common sayings." However, despite the imperfections, this site could be very useful. With this site you can either a phrase or an entire web page for translation from English to French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish and vice versa.

Eurodicautom - Turn Swedish into German or English into Spanish. You can enter terms or abbreviations and include a subject category if you wish. The database includes all official languages of the European Union, and the Latin for scientific nomenclature when necessary. Eurodicautom contains more than 5 millions terms and includes technical terms, abbreviations, acronyms and phraseology.

LOGOS Dictionary - With over 5,200,000 entries in many languages, this multilingual dictionary will help you with your translating needs. Simply enter your query and receive results in over 30 languages. You can modify a term or add a synonym by clicking on the country's flag. If your computer is multimedia-ready, you can listen to a pronunciation of many of the terms. You can also click on any word to look it up on the Net. En español

Top of Page

QUOTATIONS

Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations - The ninth edition from 1901, "a collection of passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their sources in ancient and modern literature." Enter part of the quote you seek. If nothing is found, try search hints and tips for assistance formulating a better search. If your quotation is found, you get the author, if known, and source. You may click on the author’s name for more quotations by him or her. You may also select from an alphabetical or chronological listing of authors.

The Quotations Page - You may search or browse this collection of quotations. Your query searches eleven databases of quotations. You may link to each of the databases individually if you wish. Check out Quotes of the Day and Random Quotations, too.

WRITING

A+ Research & Writing - Designed for high school and college students, this site by the Internet Public Library is loaded with useful information. Find out how to perform research and write your paper step-by-step.

Citing Electronic Resources - For questions on citing information you have found on the Internet, here is a list of web sites and books with examples. American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), and other citation styles.

Cómo Citar Recursos Electrónicos En español

Elements of Style - by William Strunk, 1918. Does your paper need polish? Need help with apostrophes and commas? Parenthetic expressions? Split infinitives? Find assistance here. You may also want to browse the list of common misspellings and commonly misused words and expressions.

A Guide for Writing Research Papers - Based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation. Emphasis is on proper MLA citation format for various types of sources, including electronic resources. Other topics covered include information gathering, outlining, and formatting. A companion site provides A Guide to Writing Research Papers, APA Style, while the Guide to Grammar and Writing gives guidance in matters of grammar and style.

Karla's Guide to Citation Guides - An annotated collection of links to the best and most up-to-date citation guides that show how to properly cite resources from the Internet. Style guides for APA, MLA, Chicago, Turabian, and a description of how to cite references from Lexis/Nexis.

Online Writing Guide - Brought to you by the University of Illinois Writers' Workshop, this site offers a Grammar Handbook, Writing Techniques Handbook, and a Bibliography Handbook. Do you need help with clauses or punctuation, developing a thesis statement, or formatting your endnotes? This site has it all! You will even find help with resume and proposal writing.

WebCite - "An experimental MLA citation generator for electronic resources." Simply fill in the form and get back a completed citation in the MLA style.

Top of Page

DIRECTORIES

| Domestic | International | Toll-Free | Area Codes | Zip Codes |

DOMESTIC PHONE/FAX/E-MAIL DIRECTORIES

555-1212.com - 555-1212.com makes it incredibly easy to find telephone numbers, area code and country code information, e-mail addresses, and web site locations. Search by area code, e-mail address, telephone number, country code, street address or web site.

AnyWho - AT&T's trial directory service database is extremely feature-rich. You can do reverse lookups, ask for a street proximity listing for a business or residential listing, use their "sounds like" match for last name lookups, and get maps of the address from the sister site, MapsOnUs. It lets you edit or delete your entry, and requires confirmation by a telephone call from the phone number in question. There are 90 million white pages listings and 10 million yellow pages listings. E-mail, homepage, fax, and toll-free number information is included if supplied by users.

Big Book - Not only are there over 11 million business listings here, but you can also find maps and driving directions. Enter a category or business name and a city and state to find the street address, phone number, map and driving directions.

Bigfoot - Claims to have the largest and most up-to-date e-mail and residential directories on the Web. The White Page results include a date when the address was last verified.

BigYellow - Use this to find over 11 million business listings, over 100 million residential listings, and over 15 million e-mail addresses. Select Global Directories to search for people and businesses in other countries. A nice feature is the synonyms provided in the category search. If no match for your subject is found, BigYellow provides possible matches based on your keywords.

InfoSpace - "Find people, places, and things." This site includes more than 25 directories, including residential, business and government directories as well as fax and toll-free numbers and international directories. The government directories are particularly useful. Try the reverse lookup. You enter a phone number to find a resident’s or businesses’ name.

InfoUSA Directory Assistance - For looking for people. Includes a reverse lookup directory as well.

National Address and Zip+4 Browser - For automatically determining the correct mailing address and ZIP+4 code for any location in the United States. This works much like a reverse directory. Based on a CD-ROM and U.S. Postal Service data, this database includes all 33 million records, so it's best to search for a specific address. Once your input is verified, you will see a table of addresses for that neighborhood, with varying information dependent on the type of
zone it represents. For example, apartment listings will show a range of low and high numbers, businesses/organizations may show their names, and residential homes will show low and high ranges of allowable house numbers. You won't get personal names or telephone numbers. This tool can help you qualify for bulk mail discounts and pay much less postage to send your mail. ZP4 will also correct and standardize mailing list addresses. You can see if a building lists apartment or suite ranges, see what company or organization names are listed at an address, or see if an address is really a mail drop.

Switchboard - For e-mail listings, over 106 million residential and 11 million business listings, check this site out. Also includes MapsOnUs.

Who Where - Look up friends and relatives here. Searches for e-mail, phone and address. This also links to the GTE Yellow Pages directory.

World Pages - This directory provides residential, government, business and e-mail lookups.

Top of Page

INTERNATIONAL PHONE/FAX/E-MAIL DIRECTORIES

International Telephone Directory - Select a country for residential, business, government, fax and e-mail directories for many countries. The number and quality of directories varies from country to country.

Kelsey Group's Directory of Directories - Click on Directory of Directories on the left frame for a nearly comprehensive collection of directory listings available on the Web. It is divided into five categories - Yellow Pages (directories that list businesses and accept paid advertising), White Pages, Business Directories (directories that provide free business listings), Navigational Directories (directories of web sites) and City Guides (alphabetical listing of international city sites).

Telephone Directories on the Web - More than 100 residential, business, fax, and e-mail directories from over 40 countries. Just click on your country of choice for an annotated listing of directories.

TOLL-FREE DIRECTORIES

Anywho Toll-Free Internet Directory - To find 1-800 numbers, enter a category, business name, city, state and/or phone number. Or scroll through the toll-free categories.

Internet 800 Directory - This directory covers all toll-free numbers and not just the ones from AT&T. Simply type in the company or product you seek.

AREA CODES

AmeriCom Long Distance Area Decoder - Enter city, state (for U.S. and Canada only) and country for appropriate dialing code for that location. You can also type in the area code to find the geographic location. There is also a link to international area code info.

ZIP CODES

Links to Postal Code Pages - Scroll past all the advertisements to find links to sites which will help you find postal codes in the United States, Mexico, Canada, and many other countries. This is fabulous stuff.

National Address Server - Enter a U.S. postal address and this site rewrites it in the proper format including the 9-digit zip code.

Zip+4 Code Lookup - Enter a company name for a street address or look up a street address to find a full zip code.

Top of Page

PLACES

| United States | World |

UNITED STATES

The 50 States of the United States - Looking for interesting and unusual facts and figures on any state in America? The site to visit is the 50 States of the United States. Aside from the usual information on a given state such as the state flag and flower, you will also find presidential birthplaces and representatives (both federal and state). An added bonus is the state song information. You are provided not only the title, writer, and composer, but also the full text of the song.

American Fact Finder: Facts About My Community - Community Profiles are predefined profiles that provide community information for the geographic area that you specify. You choose a specific geographic area by selecting it from a list, searching for the area by name (a specific city, county, etc.), or clicking on a map. You then select the profile you want to see. Once you select a profile and a geographic area, you can create and print the profile.

Geographic Names Information System - Contains information about almost 2 million physical and cultural geographic features in the United States. The federally recognized name of each feature described in the data base is identified, and references are made to a feature's location by state, county, and geographic coordinates.

How Far Is It? - Using data from the U.S. Census and a supplementary list of cities around the world, this site will find the latitude and longitude of two places of your choice, and then calculates the distance between them. It also provides a map showing the two places.

MapQuest Interactive Atlas - Type in a business or place name, address, city, state, zip code, and/or country for a map of that area. You can zoom in or out, customize the map and get driving directions among other things. This tool is pretty handy with many useful features.

State Connect - State Connect is a terrific site for information about places in the United States. Using either the city and state or a zip code, searchers are taken to a subject directory of information specific to the city they have requested. Categories include Arts & Entertainment, Family Guide, and Travel & Lodging among others. Whether you just need an ATM or are thinking of relocating, State Connect can start you on the right path.

Stately Knowledge - From the Internet Public Library, this site offers basic facts and a picture of each state’s flag plus pointers to more information on each state. You will also find charts comparing state size and population, entrance dates into the Union, and listings of capitals, largest cities, birds and flowers.

U.S. Gazetteer - This gazetteer is used to identify places with population figures and latitude and longitude. View a map of the area and obtain census data from the 1990 Census Lookup server. You can search for places and counties by entering the name and state abbreviation or 5-digit zip code.

USA CityLink - One of the most comprehensive United States city and state listings on the Web. Click on a state to get a listing of informational sites for the state and cities in that state.

Top of Page

WORLD

Background Notes - The U.S. State Department provides these encyclopedic articles on many countries which include fairly detailed information on geography, population, economy, government, history, politics, and foreign relations. You can also find information on the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the European Community.

Country Studies - From the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, this online series of reports covers 85 countries. Search for one or more countries or browse the table of contents. Each covers the political, economic, social, and national security systems and institutions as well as the history of the country. These reports are well organized and very useful for school reports.

Infonation - View and compare the most up-to-date statistical data for the Member States of the United Nations. In the first menu, you can select up to seven countries. Then, you can proceed to the data menu where you will be able to select specific information on the geography, economy, population and social indicators for each country. Find out about threatened species, infant mortality, spending on education and much more. En español

World Factbook - The CIA publishes this work for the benefit of government agencies and covers geographical, statistical, and political information on every country (and ocean). Everything in the print version is available here, including maps and charts.

Top of Page

NUMBERS
| Calendars | Time | Lottery | Measurement | Statistics and Polls |

CALENDARS

10,000-Year Calendar - With this calendar you can view a month or year calendar for any year 1 to 10,000 A.D. All leap years and calendar changes are accounted for. To use this calendar, select a century or year using the form. If you select a year in the 1900s using the form on the right side, you will go to a page where you can then select a month. If you select a century using the form on the left side, you will go to a page where you can select the year within that century. The resulting calendar will show the name of the month, and you can click on the selection box to indicate a year in the 1900s or 2000s.

American Secular Holidays Calendar - Enter a year to find out when Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and other holidays will fall. There are links to a Federal Holidays page and current banking holidays.

Calendar Conversions - This easy to use page allows you to convert dates among various calendar systems: Gregorian, Julian, Jewish, French Republican, and Julian Day. The Calendar Overview gives a brief history of each calendar’s use and an explanation of the Leap Year problem in each system.

Calendar FAQ - An overview of the Christian, Hebrew, and Islamic calendars in common use. This site provides a historical background for the Christian calendar plus an overview of the French Revolutionary and Mayan calendars. Explains the calculation of Easter and why the next millennium won’t start until January 1, 2001.

CalendarZone - Excellent collection of calendar-related web sites. Celestial Calendars links to sites dealing with the phases of the sun and moon, including the ever-informative U.S. Naval Observatory site. The Cultural & Religious Calendars section includes links to ancient Mesoamerican, Mayan, and Aztec calendars and modern calendars of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths as well as Chinese, Ethiopian, and Pagan calendars. Calendar Indexes links you to research sites on calendars with particular emphasis on the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The two sections on the millennium cover the celebrations and folklore surrounding the millennium as well as the potential Year 2000 cyber-disaster. Did you know we needed a new calendar? Find out about new and historical proposals in Calendar Reform. Finally, there are links to "This Day in History" type calendars, perpetual calendars, and more.

Daily Globe - You may either browse through the archive by month or look up a specific date. For a specific date, you are provided birthdays, holidays and celebrations and events that occurred on that date. For each month you get a listing of celebrations for the month and weeks of the month, movable holidays and indeterminate holidays (based on calendars other than the Gregorian Calendar or are keyed to natural events such as seasons or cosmological phenomena).

On This Day - From the New York Times on the Web Learning Network. Each day you get a highlight from history, an enlargeable image of the Times front page from that day, the full-text of the article, and other headlines from that issue as well as a listing of other important occurrences on that date throughout history.

This Day in History - For top songs, birthdays, and historical events for a particular date, check this site out! Select a month and date.

Today in History - On the day that you connect to this Library of Congress site, you will discover what happened on that particular day in history. The information is greatly enhanced with daily historical facts from the Library’s American Memory collections. Users of this site can also view Library materials relating to that particular day.

Top of Page

TIME

Local Times Around the World - An attempt to provide the time for all countries and many islands. Select the country or continent for a listing of cities, states, provinces or territories and the current time there.

Time Service Department, U.S. Naval Observatory - This Department serves as "the official source of time used in the United States." This is the clock to check your watch against. This site allows users to see exactly what time it is in any time zone in the world.

LOTTERY

Texas Lottery Results - Cash 5 and Lotto Texas results as well as answers to frequently asked questions from the Texas Comptroller’s Office.

Yahoo! Texas Lottery Results - You can get lottery results for Texas and other states with lotteries. Yahoo! also keeps an archive of lottery results.

MEASUREMENT

Calculators On-line Center - Whether you would like to calculate how much fragrance to use when making soap or estimate the heating needs of a room or calculate combustion products from natural gas-powered devices, this is the site for you. Featuring over 5,300 calculators ranging from general consumer use to highly technical engineering and scientific measurements, the Calculators On-Line Center provides extremely useful information. The general consumer calculators are arranged alphabetically by subject. Subjects include such topics as automobiles, cameras, nutrition, and weather. The rest of the calculators are arranged into sub-categories within five large categories: mathematics, science, physics and astrophysics, engineering, and electrical and computer engineering.

Measure 4 Measure - "A collection of interactive sites on the Web that estimate, calculate, evaluate, translate, etc. In other words, they do the work for you." This list of calculating web sites is categorized into science/math, health, finance and everything else. Calculate body surface area based on height and weight, figure out the phases of the moon, estimate your target heart rate, or lease payments. Lots of useful information here.

MegaConverter - Use this to convert such measurements as density, heat index, kitchen measures, metric prefixes, hardware nails, typography, wine & spirits, and much more. You'll also find a virtual scientific calculator that can perform trigonometry functions, square roots, exponents, decimal conversions, and more. If your browser can handle it, this is your site for conversion of measurements.

Top of Page

STATISTICS AND POLLS

American Fact Finder - This new system from the U.S. Census Bureau offers easy access to some of the Bureau's largest data sets. Users can create a variety of tables, reports, or maps with information on their community, the economy, or American society in just a few steps. Choose from Facts About My Community, Population and Housing Facts, or Industry and Business Facts. You can also make maps. Help files, an FAQ, and an internal search engine are also provided.

Consumer Price Index - A "measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a fixed market basket of consumer goods and services from A to Z" from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Updated frequently, the index serves as an economic indicator as well as a means of adjusting dollar values. Review the previous month’s summary or choose one of several tables.

Consumer Price Index Inflation Conversion Factors - This site provides tables of Consumer Price Index inflation conversion factors to convert to 1999 (preliminary), 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and CPI (1982-84) dollars for all years since 1800. In addition, it provides graphs showing historical trends of price levels, movie prices, government spending, debt and deficits, election costs, minimum wages, congressional pay, and other items. You will also find a link to Columbia Journalism Review's Dollar Conversion Calculator which converts any figure from 1800-1998 to recent year dollars.

Fedstats - Searchable and browsable links to government statistics and information from over seventy agencies. Arranged by subject topic, you do not need to know the agency that provides the information.

Global Statistics - The information is broken down geographically, basically by continent and then country, although there is a section covering the entire world as well. Try Charts for statistics on population, geography, economics, and religion. Click on the various geographic areas for information specific to countries located there. Each table includes a citation to the source of information.

Polling Report - Publishes the results of the latest surveys by respected polling organizations like Gallup, Harris, Yankelovich, and Princeton Survey Research Associates on health care, taxation, welfare, education, environmental policy, and other major issues of the day.

Population Clocks - From the U.S. Census Bureau. Find out the current population of the United States or the world estimated to the second. Did you know there is one birth every 8 seconds, one death every 13 seconds, one international migrant (net) every 43 seconds, one Federal U.S. citizen (net) returning every 4,108 seconds, and net gain of one person every 16 seconds in the United States?

State and Metropolitan Area Data Book - The Census Bureau's fifth edition of the State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, which compares the nation's states and metropolitan areas in everything from banking and births to wages and welfare. Users can view a number of state and metro rankings tables in HTML or download the entire publication in .pdf format. Requires Acrobat Reader.
U.S. Census Bureau - The Census tracks more that just the population. Search the 1990 Census by almost any topic or obtain current federal economic statistics. Links to "Census Bureaus" of foreign countries. Also contains the 1997 Statistical Abstract, with frequently requested tables in text format or the complete Statistical Abstract in Adobe PDF format (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)as well as state rankings, and state and county profiles.

University of Michigan Documents Center - The best place to find links to statistical sites. This site is arranged in broad subject areas including: Consumers, Health, Education, Military, Sociology, Politics, and several more. Within these, look for statistics on adoption, aging, child abuse, children, crime, divorce, domestic violence, ethnicity, immigration, marriage, race, and social security among others.

World Population Estimates - These population estimates and projections provide the standard set of population figures that are used throughout the United Nations system as the basis for activities requiring population information. Did you know that world population currently stands at 5.9 billion persons and is growing at 1.33 per cent per year? It's true! Learn about that and more right here.

Top of Page

ODDS AND ENDS

| Awards | Flags | Lists | Signs and Symbols | Weather |

AWARDS

Academy Awards - The official site from Oscar.Com with a listing of the nominees for the 1999 awards; the winners will be announced on March 21st, 1999.
Book Awards - Here is a comprehensive, alphabetic list of links to major and minor book award web sites. These include the Booker Prize, the Caldecott and Newbery Awards and the National Book Award among others.

Emmy Awards - A listing of the most recent winners and nominees as well as an archive of past winners and nominees. You can read the rules and procedures, view the webcast of the Emmy Show, or get a list of frequently requested statistics.

Film Awards - The Internet Movie Database tracks the Academy, Golden Globe, Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards with complete listings for each award and great information on prize winners. You can also find information on more obscure film awards here.

Grammy Awards - This site focuses heavily on the current year but does include some information under Flashback on previous award winners.

Britannica Guide to the Nobel Prizes - This site features biographies of every Nobelist as well as many of their prize-winning discoveries and theories which can be accessed by winner's name, year of the award, and prize category. There is additional background information on the history and process of the Nobel Prizes and their founder, Alfred B. Nobel. With more than 1,000 articles and 450 images, animations, and other multimedia, this Britannica Spotlight is the largest of its kind.

Nobel Channel - Requires a newer browser and several plug-ins to work well. If you have this, you'll have an enriching multimedia experience investigating the revolutionary ideas, outstanding achievements, compelling histories, and brilliant personalities behind the distinguished winners of the Nobel Prize. The site consists of eight major modules: Nobel Achievements, Nobel Theatre, Alfred Nobel Section, The Prizes Section, Events, Interactive Learning Studio, Nobel Navigator, and Nobel's Web World.

Nobel Prizes - Look here for a listing of the most recent Nobel prize winners with information about each winner and his or her achievements.

Pulitzer Prizes - You may select from a timeline to find Pulitzer winners in all categories for a particular year or perform a search by year, category, author, publication, or description of the publication. There are helpful search tips at the bottom of the search form. For each search you will receive the winner’s names along with the year, category, publication and a description of the project. Click on Resources for guidelines, deadlines and entry forms for Pulitzer Prize submissions.

FLAGS

Betsy Ross Homepage - If you need to know how to fold or display the flag, check here under Flag Laws-Etiquette. If you need to know if it is OK to fly the flag upside down, try Flag Trivia. If you would like to find out if Betsy Ross really created the flag, check The History of the Flag section. Probably all you need to know about the official flag of the United States is here at this site sponsored by the Independence Hall Association.

Flags of All Countries - Browse the alphabetic list of countries to view flags and find out about the geography, government, economy, transportation, communications, defense, and people of a particular country.

Flags of the World - Simply select the first letter of the country you seek. From there, choose the country for a large full-color image of the flag.

World Flag Database - This site contains a simple alphabetical index of many of the world's flags. You'll also find the formal name, location, status, capitol city, population, currency, and main languages. A large flag is also available for copying.

Top of Page

LISTS

Lists on the Web - For the Top 50 Internet Companies, Top 400 Restaurant Chains, the Billboard 200 and much more.

Price's List of Lists - A librarian at George Washington University compiles this clearinghouse of lists, rankings and more. Here you will find the 300 Largest Furniture Manufacturers, the Richest Members of Congress, and Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters.

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

Manual of Traffic Signs - This is a listing of the most commonly used traffic signs in the United States. The signs are listed by type. Almost all of the common U.S. signs are included with a small picture of each sign shown. This is a great place to brush up before a driving test or a trivia contest. Do you know how much it costs to replace a stop sign? Find out here!

Symbols - Click on Word Index for an alphabetical listing of symbol subjects or Graphic Index for the opportunity to describe the type of symbol you are seeking. Once you have found the correct description, select the chapter number next to it to receive a symbol and explanation.

Top of Page

WEATHER

CNN Weather - Check local, national and world forecasts as well as weather maps and images from around the world. You can also access information and images about past and current storms and information on hurricanes.

KMOL Weather - Check here for San Antonio and surrounding area weather. Read the four-day forecast, view weather images and check out storm warnings.

Historical Weather Database - This allows you to search through approximately 1,000 world cities in more than 200 countries to find historical weather data. Some of the climatological data available for some or all of the cities includes: average temperatures, average high and low temperatures, record high and low temperatures, highest and lowest recorded temperatures, average snowfall, average wind speed, average days of precipitation, percent of days with sunshine, and much more.

National Weather Service - This page refreshes itself every five minutes to provide you the most current weather information possible. Here you will find local, national and world weather conditions.

The Weather Channel - For forecasts and current conditions around the world as well as the current U.S. doppler radar, check out the Weather Channel. You will also find information on El Niño, travel conditions, health and allergies related to weather and much, much more.

The Weather Underground (Texas) - Hosted by the Skywarn Texas Website. You have access to current conditions and forecasts for San Antonio. You can find the current temperature, dewpoint, wind, sunrise, and sunset. You can also access an extended forecast for the state of Texas.

Top of Page

IF YOU STILL CAN’T FIND IT…
Call or visit your local public library and ask a reference librarian. If you live in Bexar County, call the San Antonio Public Library at 207-2500 or look for a branch near you using our Branch Map page.

Digital Librarian - With over eighty categories ranging from activism to women's resources, this "librarian's choice of the best of the web" provides access to many links, many of which are annotated.

eBLAST - Sponsored by Britannica Encyclopedia Online, this World Wide Web Internet Guide classifies, rates, and reviews over 65,000 web sites. Britannica editors identify quality web resources and rate them according to consistent standards. Britannica's highest rating is "Best of the Web" and of the 65,000 sites only 30 or so earned this rating. You can search for topics by keyword or browse through an extensive outline. Some of the broad categories include art and literature, health and medicine, education, and sports and diversions.

Internet Public Library Ready Reference Collection - From the University of Michigan, this site is well-organized with links to many useful sites. Select from broad categories such as health and medical sciences or computers and Internet.

Librarians’ Index to the Internet - A comprehensive, subject-oriented database contributed to by close to 90 librarians from around California. Search the 5,000+ evaluated and annotated links to Internet resources ranging from architecture to seniors.

Yahoo - The most widely-used subject guide and search service with 500,000+ Internet resources. You can search the entire site, pre-selected subject sections, or browse an extensive listing of subject-oriented directories. Yahoo also features current news, stock quotes, sports scores, city maps, and an excellent search site for kids, Yahooligans.

Or check out our Internet page for more help.

Top of Page
last updated on 11/22/99

Catalog & Databases | Library Information | Programs, Exhibits, Classes
Selected Websites by Topic | youth(wired) | Kids' Page | Homepage