Dear Tech Talk,

I really want to use Web resources to answer some reference questions we get: zip code or area code information, maybe quotes, elementary statistical questions, brief factual questions. In my limited experience, I've encountered some nifty Web resources that answered questions more efficiently and just as accurately as a traditional print resource. However, I'm having a hard time convincing others that it's a realistic endeavor. What should I do?

--Ruffled in Reference

Dear RiR,

There are a myriad of sites on the Web that could be very useful in answering many basic reference questions, and although these resources won't replace traditional print resources any time soon, they are certainly worthy of being used. One approach to take to convince others of the worthiness of these resources is to compile a list of useful sites and provide easy access to them. What?? You say that you just don't have the time or sufficient knowledge to create this list?? Then perhaps you can start with the one below:

Conversion of Units
URL: http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/chemistry/ general/units.html
Trying to convert miles to furlongs; admiralty knots to knots; bytes to bits? This site does the math for you.

Embassy Page
URL: http://www.embpage.org
Although not 100% inclusive, because it is based on embassies that have established Web pages, there are a surprising number of embassies and consulates listed here.

Flags of Native American Nations
URL: http://users.aol.com/Donh523/navapage/index.html
As long as we are talking about flags, what does the Navajo flag look like?

Flags of the US States
URL: http://www.law.uoknor.edu/flags.html
And if you need to know what the state flag for Hawaii looks like, check here. Or perhaps you want to see an earlier rendition of the US flag.

Foreign Currency Conversion
URL: http://www.olsen.ch/cgi-bin/exmenu
On March 3, 1995, how many American dollars would you obtain for 23.97 Albanian Lek's? Olsen & Associates Currency Converter will tell you; and it will also tell you how many Albanian Lek's you can obtain with $25.35 as well, with retrospective data back to 1990 for many currencies.

Internet Movie Database
URL: http://us.imdb.com/
An outstanding movie database where you can find a great deal of information on current and past movies, English-language and foreign.

Local Times Around the World
URL: http://www.hilink.com.au/times/
It's 3 PM CDT; can I call my boss in Perth, Western Australia? Probably a *bad* idea, since it's 4 AM the next day in Perth!!

Mortgage Calculator
URL: http://ibc.wustl.edu/mort.html
What will my mortgage payment (without taxes and insurance) be for a loan of $150,000 at 6%? What kind of income do I need to qualify for this loan?

Salary Calculator
URL: http://www.homefair.com:80/homefair/cmr/salcalc.html
I'm making $50,000 a year and living in Rapid City, SD; can I have a comparable lifestyle in Honolulu if I make $70,000? Probably not.

WebElements 2
URL: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/web-elements/
The Periodic Table of Elements on the Internet from the University of Sheffield, England.

World Clock
URL: http://www.stud.unit.no/USERBIN/steffent/verdensur.pl
This site also tells you that it's a bad idea to call your boss in Perth when it's 3 PM CDT!!

Nobel Peace Prize
URL: http://www.nobel.no/indexen.html
Among other things, a list of all of the laureates since 1901 is provided here. Dictionaries/Encyclopedias

A Basic Dictionary of American Sign Language
URL: http://home.earthlink.net/~masterstek/ASLDict.html
The title says it all.

Clinical Pharmacology
URL: http://www.gsm.com/clinphrm/monographs.html
Detailed information about drugs, including images of the chemical structures and the manu factured appearance of the drug and detailed text similar to that found in the Physician's Desk Reference.

Hypertext Webster Interface
URL: http://gs213.sp.cs.cmu.edu/prog/webster
Enter a term and obtain it's definition. In the definitions provided, most of the words used in the definition will have hyperlinks to their own definitions in the dictionary.

Internet Braille Wizard
URL: http://www.access2020.com/
Type in a word or phrase, and Braille equivalent is displayed on the screen.

Merck Manual
URL: http://www.merck.com/!!rBcqc2NcTrBcrH2C13/pubs/mmanual/
Although you have to register to use it (at no cost), the 16th Edition of the Merck Manual is available online.

[Editor's note: Try http://www.merck.com and follow the links to the Merck Manual, if the above URL doesn't work.]

Roget's Thesaurus of Words and Phrases
URL: http://www.thesaurus.com/

Translation Dictionary
URL: http://rivendel.com/~ric/resources/dictionary.html
More than 30 translation dictionaries are repre- sented here. Not all of them are for English translations.

Area Code Look-Up's
URL: http://www.555-1212.com/aclookup.html

ABI Yellow Pages
URL: http://www.abii.com/

Internet 800 Search
URL: http://www.abii.com/>
Can't find it in the AT&T 800 directory? Try this one.

USPS Zip Code Lookup and Address Information
URL: http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/>
Enter an address and out comes the Zip+4 Code.

PCL Map Collection
URL: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html
An impressive site, provided by the University of Texas at Austin Map Library, that provides access to digitized maps in their collection

Yahoo! Maps!
URL: http://maps.yahoo.com/yahoo/
You don't believe what MapQuest said about that address? Try it here and compare results.

Bible Gateway
URL: http://www.gospelcom.net/bible
Search for passages or words in the NIV, NASB, RSV, KJV, Darby, and YLT Bibles, or all of them at once.

Search Shakespeare
URL: http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/search.html

County City Databook
URL: http://www.census.gov/stat_abstract/ccdb.html
Selected statistics and tables from the County and City Databook.

Statistical Abstract of the US
URL: http://www.census.gov/stat_abstract/
Selected statistics and tables from the Statistical Abstract of the U.S.

U. S. Census
URL: http://www.census.gov/
Selected statistics, tables, maps, etc. from the U.S. Department of the Census.

World Population Figures
URL: http://www.worldonline.nl/~q/index.html
Population information on countries, provinces, and cities.

Set up this list of Web resources as a bookmark file for your Web browser of choice, let the other reference librarians know about it, and perhaps before you know it, they will be using it to answer questions and even adding new resources to it.

As always, send questions and comments to:

Snail Mail:
Tech Talk
Billie Peterson
Moody Memorial Library
P. O. Box 97148
Waco, TX 76798-7148


E-Mail: petersonb@baylor.edu