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American Society for Indexing
Reference Sources on the Internet
These are resources that professional indexers may find useful in their
daily work. Please visit Yahoo's resources if you are looking for beginner's
guides to the Internet, or visit the Internet Public Library
for more general reference sources. If you want only thesauri, narrow
your search by looking at ASI's list of online
thesauri.
And, as always, ASI does not endorse or promote products,
companies, political parties, religious groups, advertising or
information found in web sites we provide links for.
| General Reference Sources |
Specific References Sources |
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General
Reference Sources
- Dictionaries,
Thesauri, and Other Language Tools
- Acronym
directory. Search only.
- AllWords.com A
compilation of dictionaries, glossaries and other language-related and
writing tools. Also translation, etymology and puzzle-solving
assistance.
- Climbing
Terms Dictionary.
- The Free Dictionary.
English, Medical, Legal, Financial, and Computer Dictionaries,
Thesaurus, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, a Literature Reference Library, and
a Search Engine all in one!
- Geographic
Name Thesaurus
- iLoveLanguages.
Information about and dictionaries for many languages, arranged
alphabetically by language.
- German/English
Translation Service. This isn't a Web page; the LEO translation
services is a translation-by-email service. Put words you want to have
translated into the email message body and receive a translation in
reply. (Note that the service translated individual words, not
sentences.) Send your email message to translate@leo.org
with no subject and the message body of your
words-to-be-translated.
- Language
Dictionaries. Yahoo's listing of language dictionaries.
- Library of Congress
Thesauri. Includes link to the Legislative Indexing
Vocabulary (LIV).
- Library
of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Material. If you are
looking for a thesaurus of terms related to graphic materials, this is
where you want to be exploring. For browsing and searching.
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Search only.
- National
Information Standards Organization (NISO) standards page
includes access ANSI/NISO Z39.19 - 2005 Guidelines for the
Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled
Vocabularies (Related international standard:
ISO 2788). This standard presents guidelines and conventions
for the contents, display, construction, testing, maintenance, and
management of monolingual controlled vocabularies. It focuses on
controlled vocabularies that are used for the representation of content
objects in knowledge organization systems including lists, synonym
rings, taxonomies, and thesauri. Available for a fee.
- Netdictionary.
This is an alphabetical reference guide to technical, cultural, and
humorous terms related to the Internet. Browsing and searching.
- Onelook dictionary.
Search only. (For browsing, see http://www.onelook.com/browse.shtml.)
You can choose to look up your word in one dictionary or through all of
the variety of specialized and general dictionaries available. A great
source! Contains listings for over 200 searchable dictionaries.
- Online Dictionary of Language
Terminology. The ODLT is an online dictionary of language
terminology that consists of concise, simply worded explanations of
terms that English speakers use to talk about the English
language.
- Online
English Grammar.
- The Wordsmyth English
Dictionary-Thesaurus. Search only. Search for words, close
matches, synonyms, and so on. Much more than a dictionary.
- The World Bank-Thesaurus.
Search or browse by letter.
- Dictionaries
of computer terms.
- Science glossaries.
- Still can't find it? Try one of the
following:
- Encyclopedias,
Collections of Information, and Fact Books
- CIA
World Factbook.
- Encarta Encyclopedia,
Dictionary, etc.. Search through Microsoft's Encarta
Encyclopedia.
- Encyclopædia
Britannica. A classic and now completely free online.
- Encyclopedia.com.
Articles from Concise Columbia Electronic Encylopedia,
Third Edition.
- ERIC
Thesaurus. ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is
a national education database of bibliographic citations and digests,
sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. This online version of
the ERIC Thesaurus provides immediate search access to portions of the
ERIC database. The 40-member ERIC Vocabulary Review Group (VRG)
presently oversees the Thesaurus development effort. Search only.
- Flags of the World.
An extensive site devoted to vexillology.
- Geographic Names
Information System. A service of the United States Geological
Survey.
- Still
can't find it? Try one of the
following:
- Phone
Directories, Organizational Listings, and Geographical Maps
- AllPages.com. US
states' business directory and Yellow Pages broken out by categories.
- AT&T 800
Directory (directory of 800 numbers)
- BigBook. The
"Yellow Pages" of businesses, including contacts and directions to over
16 million companies.
- Hoovers Online.
Profiles of over 10,000 companies including description, location,
contacts, and stock information.
- Local Census.
A plethora of statistical information about the United States and all of its cities, zip codes, and counties. LocalCensus.com also provides business listings from a wide variety of categories throughout most cities within the United States.
- MapQuest. This
tool allows you geographically pinpoint U.S. addresses, down to the
street number, and then print a map of the areas of interest.
- National Center for
Charitable Statistics - National Toxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE).
The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities offers a definitive
classification system for nonprofit organizations recognized as tax
exempt under the Internal Revenue Code.
- The
Ultimates search multiple on-line phonebooks.
- ThomasNet.com. The
capabilities of Thomas Register Online, the world's largest industrial
buying source, have been expanded to offer local search, CAD search,
brand search, and more. You can search by company, product, product
category, and service, or you can use one of the 2300 supplier catalogs.
- U.S. Census, 2000 data now
available.
- Yellow
Pages Online. Yahoo's listing of online business directories
- Zip2 Door-to-Door.
Zip2 can give you door-to-door directions from just about every major
city address to just about any other major city address.
- ZIP Code Lookup, Address
Information, Postal Rates. From the U.S Postal Service.
- Of
Particular Interest to Indexers
- Additional
Lists of General Reference Sites
Art
and Architecture Reference Sources
- The
Art & Architecture Thesaurus. The AAT is a controlled
vocabulary for describing and retrieving information on fine art,
architecture, decorative art, and material culture. This database is
created and maintained by the Getty Information Institute, and endorsed
by library, archives, and museum professional groups.
- The
Union List of Artist Names. The ULAN is a database of
biographical and bibliographical information on artists and architects,
including a wealth of variant names, pseudonyms, and language variants.
This database is created and maintained by the Getty Information
Institute, and endorsed by library, archives, and museum professional
groups.
Biographical
Reference Sources
- The Biographical
Dictionary. This award-winning commercial site covers more
than 28,000 notable persons.
- Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress. Searchable
biographical data on members of the U.S. Congress from 1774 to the
present.
- ECHO Science &
Technology Virtual Center. This is a list of links to
biographical information for significant figures in these fields.
Included are links to sites devoted to a single person and sites
specific to a particular field, e.g. Chemistry, Mathematics, the
Manhattan Project, etc.
- Political Graveyard.
This database of historic cemeteries and political families offers
brief biographical data on 53,115 (as of December, 1999) deceased
politicians, diplomats, and judges, and is indexed in a number of ways,
including an alphabetical index (by last name). The site also features
a list of links, and some of those sites might also be helpful.
Business
Reference Sources
[General Business Information]
[Small Businesses,
Self-Employment, and Working from Home] [Working Over the Internet][Health in the Workplace] [
Finding Work] [Additional Lists of Business Reference
Sites]
- General
Business Information
- Small
Businesses, Self-Employment, and Working from Home
- American
Home Business Association. Everything you ever wanted to know
about working at home.
- Home Office Association of
America. Information on laws, money, and starting up.
- Inc. Online.
The online version of Inc. magazine.
- MidNet's
"Starting a Small Business". A good place to start if you're
starting your business. Information about naming your business, taxes,
ownership, choosing a company location, and record keeping.
- MoreBusiness.com.
A wealth of information about setting up and running a home-based
business.
- U.S. Small Business
Administration. This site has government links, public domain
business programs, bank ratings, information about financing and other
help, and more.
- Working
Over the Internet
- Health
in the Workplace
- Finding
Work
- Additional
Lists of Business Reference Sites
Computer
and Technology Reference Sources
- Dictionaries
of Computer Terminology
- Internet-
and Web-Related Information
- Other
Computer and Technology Information
- Dot What!?.
Extensive collection of the (typically) three letter codes at the end
of file names that indicate the type of the file. Search and browse for
extensions used by most popular operating systems.
- File.Extensions.
Another extensive collection of filename extensions.
Health and Medicine Reference Sources
- The Allied Health Database
(Cinahl) has a thesaurus geared toward nursing and a variety
of other allied health areas.
- AllRefer Health Encyclopedia
Health information on more than 4000 topics.
- American Medical Writers
Association (AMWA). The American Medical Writers Association
was founded in 1940 to help medical authors improve their writing
skills. Now, as then, AMWA strives to help biomedical communicators
construct more effective communications by offering continuing
education seminars, courses offered at our Annual Conference, and
through our many publications.
- The American Occupational Therapy Association produces
a
database that has its own thesaurus. The link above will take you to
this database, from which you can access the database.
- Healthopedia.com
- Medical consumer information resource on over 1,500 health topics
- Kinsey Institute
The Kinsey Institute has at its site a thesaurus that deals with all
aspects of sexuality. Although there is no direct link to their
thesaurus, you can contact the librarian of the site for more
information.
- Martindale's
Health Science Guide. Thousands of health-related resources.
- Medical Subject
Headings (MeSH): on
the WEB. These subject hierarchies are brought to you by the
National Library of Medicine. MeSH is the most used thesaurus in
publications for medical and health professionals.
- Medicine Net.
Lists of diseases and medications, in nonmedical language.
- MEDLINE Plus.
This is NLM's consumer health site, with links to MEDLINE and a host of
other medical info sources, including databases, web links,
dictionaries, physician listings, organizations, etc.
- Merck Manual. The most
widely used medical text worldwide. Click on the Publications
Page to access the manual. Searchable.
- MT Desk.
Medical transcription and terminology site offers weekly updates of new
medical and surgical terms, medical dictionary, A-Z index of new
terminology, word lists, sample operative reports, links to the best
medical information on the web by topic, public forums, free classified
ads, and live chat.
- National Rehabilitation
Information Center (U.S) produced a thesaurus of
rehabilitation terms.
- PubMed, a service of the
National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 11 million
citations from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed
includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other
related resources. A tutorial is provided on the site as an aid to
first-time searchers.
- Reference.MD, Medical
information from National Library of Medicine 2007 Medical Subject
Headings, National Institutes of Health Unified Medical Language
System, Drugs@FDA, Federal Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting
System. Medical concepts or drugs are presented as concept trees that
you can drill into to see related concepts.
- Sites dealing with health in the workplace
Legal
Reference Sources
Science
Reference Sources
- Biological
Sciences
- Botany
and Zoology Sciences
- Botanical
glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- Botanical
name roots dictionary. Search only.
- PLANTS National Database.
Maintained by the USDA's National Plant Data Center, this huge database
can be searched by common or scientific name; reports accessible from
the home page include invasive and noxious plants, threatened and
endangered plants, wetland plants, and much more.
- Zoological
Record thesaurus. Browse a systematic or subject thesaurus.
- Zoology
glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- Chemistry
and Biochemistry Sciences
- Biochemistry
glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- CAS
General Subject Vocabulary Helper Chemical Abstracts Service
scientific and medical terms. CAS is the definitive source for chemical
terms.
- Periodic
table of the elements.
- WebElements
Periodic table of the elements.
- Pesticide Common
Names. Lists of common names (e.g., DDT, malathion,
paraquat), molecular formulae (e.g., C13H17F3N4O4), Chemical Abstracts
Registry Numbers (e.g. 50-00-0, 209866-92-2), systematic names (e.g.,
2-tert-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol); also hierarchical lists of pesticides.
- Electronics
- Environmental
and Earth Sciences
- Ecological
glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- Geologic
glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
- Solar-terrestrial
physics glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search"
function.
- Physics,
Astronomy, and Aerospace
- Astronomy
thesaurus. This thesaurus, compiled by Robyn M. Shobbrook and
Robert R. Shobbrook provides access to the thesaurus in English,
French, German, Italian, and Spanish. For browsing and searching.
- NASA Thesaurus.
Although this is the NASA thesaurus, it includes much more than just
aerospace terms! See for yourself!
- Nine Planets
Glossary. Astronomical glossary. Browse only; requires
browser's "search" function.
- Physics laws
list. This glossary contains laws, principles, effects,
paradoxes, limits, constants, experiments, and thought experiments in
physics—an absolute must for physics junkies and indexers.
Browse only.
- Plasma/fusion
glossary.
- Solar-terrestial
physics glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search"
function.
- Space
flight glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search"
function.
Technical
Writers' Resources
Libraries
Miscellaneous
References
- Alcohol
Industry and Policy Database. This database, built by the
Marin Institute, contains citations and brief abstracts for over
thirteen thousand articles and news stories about the alcohol beverage
industry, alcohol policy, and prevention efforts.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Includes the ten-most-wanted list.
- Literary
Quotations. Compendium of literary quotations arranged by
author, subject, and source. Includes links to other quotation sites.
- LitQuotes. A small
listing of literary quotations.
- Marin
Institute Thesaurus. This is a comprehensive thesaurus of
terms designed for organizing a collection of alcohol, tobacco, and
other drug materials. It is arranged alphabetically, hierarchically and
in KWIC formats; it also includes instructions for use. It's a bit
awkward to browse, but it's still quite useful. Browse only.
- Martindale's
Reference Desk. Online reference tools on everything from
Aerospace medicine to Zoology: calculators, dictionaries, shareware,
and more.
- Mediafinder.
Directories of magazines, newsletters, and catalogs
- Patent searching.
- Quotations.
A great source for random quotes, with a search engine for a variety of
quotation sources, including Dave Barry.
- Quotations Book.
A searchable compendium of thousands of quotations from a variety of
authors on a broad range of topics.
- Quote.com.
Financial market data and real-time business news and commentary.
- U.S. Government
Printing Office. Includes the Federal Register, GAO reports,
and other official databases.
- U.S. Patent & Trademark
Office.
- Vanderbilt Television
News Archive.
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