These sites are jointly recommended and maintained by librarians at Westminster Public Library and Front Range Community College Library.

REFERENCE AND RESEARCH

Almanacs, dictionaries, and encyclopedias
Biography
Citation Guides
Country Resources
General Reference Resources
Indexes
Library Sources
Primary Sources

Almanacs, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

• Info Please
  http://www.infoplease.com
  Selections from a long-time favorite almanac, with encyclopedia and dictionary entries as well.

• OneLook Dictionaries
  http://www.onelook.com/
  Offers access to more than 500 dictionaries, general and specialized.
   
• Wikipedia
  http://en.wikipedia.org
  A free online encyclopedia that is written by volunteers and edited by its users.

Biography

• Biography.com
  http://www.biography.com
  Search for biographies of thousands of notable people.

Colorado Biographies  

• Colorado Biographies
  http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/arcbiog.html
  A list of famous historical Coloradans with brief biographies. From the Colorado State Archives.
   
• Notable Coloradans
  http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/biopage.html
  This site is also from the Colorado State Archives. A list of contemporary prominent Coloradans in the fields of literature, entertainment, art,  music, athletics, politics, and business. Includes brief biographies.

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Citation Guides

• The Chicago Manual of Style Online
  http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/contents.html
  This citation style is now available, in full, online.
   
• Citation Machine
  http://citationmachine.net
  Creates citations for print and electronic resources in MLA and APA formats. Simply complete the web form with information about your resource and it generates the citation.
   
• Citation Style Guides
  http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html
  Citation guides for MLA, Chicago Style, APA, and AAA. Includes instructions for citing electronic resources.
   
• Easy Bib
  http://www.easybib.com/
  Citation guides for MLA, Chicago Style, and APA. Includes instructions for citing electronic resources.

Country Resources

• Background Notes
  http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/
  Provides information about countries around the world. Published by the U.S. Department of State.
   
• CIA World Factbook
  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook
  Another major source of information on countries of the world; includes maps.
   
• Economist.com Country Briefings
  http://www.economist.com/countries
  Country profiles, statistics, and news articles from the renowned Economist Magazine.
   
• Foreign Information by Country
  http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/for/foreigngovt.htm
  Some of the resources require a user ID and password but there is abundant country information that is available to everyone. This website is presented by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
   
• Portals to the World from the Library of Congress
  http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/portals.html
  Provides links to authoritative electronic resources on countries around the world. Includes detailed information about culture, history, economy and business, travel information, government, politics, and more.

General Reference Resources

• Bartleby.com
  http://www.bartleby.com/
  Free access to literature, reference, and verse.  Full text of works. Good for students and researchers.
   
• Collaborative Digitization Pr ogram
  http://www.cdpheritage.org/
  This is a collaboration of archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums devoted to digitizing cultural, historical and scientific heritage collections in Colorado and the West.

• Foreign Exchange Currency Converter
  http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic
  Convert one currency to another with this up to date Currency Converter.
  
  
• How Stuff Works
  http://www.howstuffworks.com/
  This site offers clear explanations about the operation of a wide range of things: car engines, VCRs, web pages, bread, and much more.

• Martindale's "The Reference Desk"
  http://www.martindalecenter.com/
  A huge and well organized reference directory. Popular and academic topics.
   
• The Nobel Prizes
  http://www.nobel.se/nobel/nobel-foundation/
  The official web site of the Nobel Foundation. Can be searched by prize category, or by name, nationality, keyword, or birth or death year.
   
• ProCon.org
  http://www.procon.org/
  This site explores the pros and cons of controversial issues, including the ACLU, sexual orientation, the death penalty, euthanasia, felon voting, illegal immigration, and more.
   
• Virtual Reference Desk
  http://www.refdesk.com
  Your library home-away-from-home.

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Indexes

• Denver Obituary Index
  http://history.denverlibrary.org/research/denver_obit_project/index.html
  This is an online index created by Denver Public Library. It contains a partial record of obituaries and death notices that appeared in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News from 1936 through 2005.
   
• Google Scholar
  http://scholar.google.com/
  Search for scholarly articles through Google. There is a charge for some articles.
   
• National Geographic.com
  http://www.nationalgeographic.com/publications/explore.html
  Search for articles in National Geographic from 1888 to the present. You can search by keyword, title, contributor, and subject. This index provides citations for articles but not the full text of the articles. College Hill Library has bound volumes of National Geographic from 1933 to the present in the Reference Department.
   
• Social Security Death Index
  http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
  

Library Sources

• Colorado Virtual Library
  http://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org
  This database allows you to search for materials in public, academic, school, and other types of libraries in Colorado. More than one library can be searched simultaneously.
   
• Internet Public Library
  http://www.ipl.org/
  A good reference collection and a new online literary criticism collection.
   
• Librarians'  Internet Index
  http://lii.org/
  A librarians' index to the Internet.
   
• Library of Congress Primary Source Sets
  http://www.unco.edu/primarysources/MainWebsite/IntheClassroom/pssets.html
  Library of Congress primary sources, organized by "Rural Partnership at the University of Northern Colorado".
   
• Library Spot
  http://libraryspot.com/
  Another index to Internet resources. Good for librarians, educators, students, and anyone else searching the web.
   
• Prospector
  http://prospector.coalliance.org/
  Prospector is a unified catalog of sixteen academic, public and special libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Through Prospector you have access to over 10 million books, journals, sound recordings, films, videotapes, and other materials held in these libraries.

Library Classification Systems

• Dewey Decimal System
  http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/summaries/deweysummaries.pdf
   
• Library of Congress System
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html
   
• Dewey Decimal to Library of Congress Conversion Chart
  http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/html/help/en/ask/ask_map_ddctolcc.html
   
• Library of Congress to Dewey Decimal Conversion Chart
  http://www.questionpoint.org/crs/html/help/en/ask/ask_map_lcctoddc.html

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Primary Sources

• American Memory
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
   
• Colorado Historical Newspaper Collection
  http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org
  This site provides access to newspapers throughout Colorado from 1859-1923.
   
• Encyclopedia Britannica's Guide to Black History
  http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/browse?browseId=252384
  Primary documents, including excerpts from books, newspaper and magazine articles, laws and court decisions, and speeches.
   
• Eurodocs
  http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu
   
• The Internet History Sourcebooks Project
  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
   
• Library of Congress Primary Source Sets
  http://www.unco.edu/primarysources/MainWebsite/IntheClassroom/pssets.html
  Library of Congress primary sources, organized by "Rural Partnership at the University of Northern Colorado".
   
• Primary Source Index
  http://www.thenagain.info/thenagain/Sources/SourcesIndex.htm

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Please send comments and suggestions to drhodes@cityofwestminster.us
Updated: 4/22/10