For Kids | Miscellaneous
Sites | Professional Reading
Databases Available at Public Libraries
News Sources | About Products & Technology
Study Guides for Literature | Scripts of Plays | Sheet
Music
Grammar |
Images
& Pictures | Z-Normal Table
Other UCF Librarians' Pages:
K. K. Montgomery - lots and lots of useful links
P. Beile - "100 (or so) Most Useful Reference Links"
A. Hoeppner - creator of WebLUIS Tutorial, she also provides instructions for creating a homepage at UCF on the Pegasus server.
For Kids:
Great Web Sites for Kids (American Library Association, Association for Library Service to Children)
Miscellaneous Sites:
General Internet Information provides links to tutorials, guides to evaluating internet resources, Google tips, and a short list of web directories.
Reference Resources (KnowPlay) provides quick search boxes for dictionary, thesaurus, quotation, etc. The UCF Library's subscription to xreferplus also provides encyclopedias, dictionaries (including bilingual), crossword solver, quotations, etc. See also TheFreeDictionary (NOTE: Access to the full Hutchinson Encyclopedia requires a subscription on TheFreeDictionary website, but is already available to UCF users through xreferplus.
Ethnologue - Languages of the World [See also: Compendium of the World's Languages REF P371 .C36 2000]
Internet Movie Database - comprehensive movie/TV database [See also: Internet Broadway Database] - other sites for TV episode info: TV Tome and Television Without Pity
Wikipedia - this free online encyclopedia can be a good starting point for research, but since it has no quality control other than self-policing by contributors, and apparently has nothing to guard against copyrighted or plagiarized material being posted, I would be extremely reluctant to cite entries from Wikipedia as a source of information. Actually, I also wouldn't recommend using World Book, Britannica, or any other general encyclopedia as a cited source in a college-level research paper. Encyclopedias provide a digested or abridged version of the topics. Use encyclopedias at the beginning of your research to help you understand and frame the concepts, track down the sources cited in the bibliographies of the encyclopedia entries, seek additional resources, analyze what you find, and demonstrate in your writing that you have critical thinking skills - - not just the ability to regurgitate someone else's words.
Rand Publications - Most titles published in 2000 or later are available online, along with selected earlier products.
The Hunger Site - make a free donation of food to hungry people around the world. The project's sponsors pay for your donation, which you can make once every day.
19th Century Schoolbooks (University of Pittsburgh) provides digital editions of 140 schoolbooks.
Guide to the Evaluation of Education Experiences in the Armed Services is the standard reference work for recognizing learning acquired in military life. It describes courses and provides recommendation of appropriate academic credit, i.e., "Electronics Technician Nuclear Field, Class A1. . . Length: 19 weeks. . . In the lower-division baccalaureate/associate degree category, 3 semester hours in communications systems and 1 in microwave systems. In the vocational certificate category, 2 semester hours in introduction to digital circuits and 3 in electronic equipment repair."
Digital Librarian: a librarian's choice of the best of the Web
Gary Price's List of Lists - information in the form of rankings of different people, organizations, companies, etc.
Internet Resources (Assn of College & Research Libraries) provide backfile of monthly lists of links on specific topics.
Library Spot - provides useful Web resources
Trivia & Hard-to-Find Info:
Print Resources in the UCF Library Reference Collection:
Famous First Facts, International Edition [REF AG5.A69 2000]
Cambridge Factfinder [REF AG5.C264 2000]
Famous First Facts [REF AG5.K315 1997]
Guinness Book of Answers [REF AG6.G83 1993]
New York Public Library Desk Reference [REF AG6.N49 1993]
Fast Answers to Common Questions [REF AG195.F37 2000]
Guinness Book of World Records [REF AG243.G87]
Florida Trivia [REF F311.5.C68 1986]
other resources can be found by searching the WebLUIS
catalog for the subject keywords "miscellanea" or
"curiosities"
Harper's Index provides an interesting flow of "related" facts and statistics each month. Sources are briefly cited. Full text access to the magazine is available for UCF card holders via EBSCOhost.
Beloit College distributes each year the Mindset List for first-year students.
Stumpers-L (Wonderful World of Wombats)
RUSA Index to the Exchange - "The Exchange" was a column in the journal RQ (volumes 1–37), which is now Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ, beginning with volume 38). Early irregular columns were titled “Salmagundi.” The intent of the column was to provide answers to tricky questions, notes on unusual information sources, and general comments concerning reference problems and their solutions. The last Exchange column ran in volume 38, number 4, in the summer of 1999.
Quick Reference Files at Various Libraries
Internet Public Library Frequently Asked Reference Questions
Santa Cruz Public Library (California) Ready Reference Files
Chicago Public Library (Illinois) Frequently Asked Reference Questions
Wheaton Public Library (Illinois) Answers to Reference Questions of the Month
St. Joseph County Public Library (Indiana) InfoFile Database
Hennepin County Library (Minnesota) Fugitive Fact File
Kanawha County Public Library (West Virginia) Reference Rolodex
Professional Reading has been moved to a separate page.
News Sources:
Florida Newspapers and Newspapers on Microfilm identify newspapers and other news sources.
News (Librarians' Index to the Internet) provides useful descriptions and links to Internet news resources.
Humorous:
The Daily Show and alternate resource On Lisa Rein's Radar: Daily Show Comedy Clips Archives
Left/Liberal/Alternative:
AlterNet.org is dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative journalism. It provides a mix of news, opinion and investigative journalism on subjects ranging from the environment, the drug war, technology and cultural trends to policy debate, sexual politics and health issues. The AlterNet article database includes more than 7,000 stories from over 200 sources.
Working for Change is a comprehensive Web site made up of resources for people with progressive values, including informative news and columns.
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
The Memory Hole exists to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known. This includes: Government files, Corporate memos, Court documents (incl. lawsuits and transcripts), Police reports and eyewitness statements, Congressional testimony, Reports (governmental and non-governmental), Maps, patents, Web pages, Photographs, video, and sound recordings, News articles, and Books (and portions of books). The emphasis is on material that exposes things that we're not supposed to know (or that we're supposed to forget).
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) the national media watch group, has been offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986.
Project Censored - objective is to explore and publicize the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, for one reason or another. Thereby, the project hopes to stimulate responsible journalists to provide more mass media coverage of those issues and to encourage the general public to demand mass media coverage of those issues or to seek information from other sources.
Subliminal
News identifies nixed news, hidden headlines, and suppressed stories.
Right/Conservative:
Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly
Townhall.com - Conservative News & Information
About Products and Technology:
How Products Are Made: an Illustrated Guide to Product Manufacturing [REF TS146.H67] provides in-depth, illustrated articles covering a wide variety of products such as computer mouse, pita bread, frisbee, hourglass, voting machine, and more. Each entry offers a straightforward, step-by-step description of the manufacturing and assembly process for the product. You'll also find historical information on the product, raw materials used, by-products generated during manufacture, quality control procedures, future applications and sources for more information.
How Stuff Works provides illustrated explanations about a wide variety of machines and technology, including bowling pinsetters, espresso machines, artificial hearts, DVD players, etc.
How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life provides text explanations about lasers, maglev trains, balloons, microwave ovens, roller coasters, etc.
How the New Technology Works: a Guide to High-Tech Concepts [REF T49.C66 1998] is also available through NetLibrary.
ScienceLab (U.S. Dept of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information) provides homework help, lab experiments, science fair ideas, and classroom resources.
Science of Everyday Things [REF Q162.K678] does not focus on specific products and technology, but does explain how scientific phenomena can be understood by observing common, real-world events. Volumes about chemistry, physics, biology, and earth science discuss luminescence, echolocation, buoyancy, geomagnetism, hydraulic presses, electric thermometers, etc.
Study Guides for Literature:
UCF's subscription to NetLibrary includes over 100 entries from the publisher Cliffs Notes.
lii.org identifies several free websites for the subject "study guides": NovelGuide, SparkNotes, BookRags and Study Guides for Various Works (PinkMonkey provides MonkeyNotes and Barron's Booknotes, but requires free registration)
Book Summaries & Study Guides and the Internet Public Library are two other resources with useful links.
Starting Point handouts are available in the display in front of the UCF Library's Reference Desk and several database subscriptions provide additional information about literature.
Scripts of Plays:
For a specific play, first try a keyword search of the
WebLUIS
catalog for the playwright's surname and one or two keywords from the
title.
DO NOT restrict your search to the author or title fields, since such a
search might miss the play where it is part of a collection.
Use the Starting Point handouts for Theatre and Literary Criticism-Plays available in the display in front of the UCF Library's Reference Desk. Some collections of scenes & monologues are available in the General Collection at PN2080... and there are several useful indexes in the Reference Collection at REF PN2080..., REF PN2054.G784, and REF PN4321.G86. If the plays are not indexed in the standard printed play indexes such as Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections [REF PN1631.O8] or H. W. Wilson's Play Index [REF PN1620.A1.P53], you might try Inter-Play, which also identifies the locations of some printed plays in collections, anthologies and periodicals.
North American Theatre Online (UCF subscription) includes selected full text of plays and the ability to search for scenes by various criteria.
The English Server Drama Collection also provides the full text of some plays, particularly classical works.
Screenplays - Browse the General Collection at PN1997 for screenplays or you can search the WebLUIS catalog for the subjects "television scripts" or "motion picture plays" or for the keyword "screenplay". American Film Scripts (UCF subscription) provides full text of authorized versions of over 1000 American film scripts. Some versions of film and television scripts/transcripts may be available via Drew's Script-O-Rama, but the website has a lot of ads, pop-ups, etc. You may also find film scripts through the Movie Screenplays Database.
The Orlando Public Library has a fairly strong play collection as well. If the script you're seeking isn't available locally, request it through Interlibrary Loan, with approximately 90% of UCF requests filled within 6-10 working days. If you must have the script sooner and are willing to pay overnight or 2nd day shipping costs, you might be able to purchase a personal copy from a commercial source, such as Samuel French, Dramatists Play Service, or Baker's Plays.
Sheet Music:
The UCF Library has many scores included in the collection; some scores are shelved on the 3rd floor in the General Collection at M through MA, but search the UCF library catalog on WebLUIS for specific pieces. Ask at the Reference Desk for assistance. Consider one of the following resources for more popular music.
Orlando Public Library has a card file index by song title of the popular music books in their collection.
Sheet Music Database Search (Clearwater Public Library) identifies which source contains a particular song title.
Popular Song Index is an index to selected books of popular songs in the collection of the Patchogue-Medford Library. There are approximately 102,786 entries from 1,118 books which have been indexed.
Search the Librarians' Index to the Internet for "sheet music" for other resources.
Guide to Grammar & Writing covers most aspects of effective use of the English language and includes lessons and quizzes.
The Blue Book of Grammar & Punctuation is another useful guide.
Common Errors in English includes a list of non-errors and commonly misspelled words.
The Elements of Style (William Strunk, Jr.) provides the full text of the classic guide.
Images & Pictures has been moved to a separate page.
Z Normal Table:
For most lower division courses, the students are probably looking for the table of numbers that give the area under the curve between the mean and z standard deviations above the mean. It's usually a one-page table in their textbook, either in an appendix or inside the front/back cover, with values in the left column of the table running from 0.0 to 3.0. Browse the UCF Library's General Collection on the 4th floor at QA276... for titles like Introduction to Statistics. It may also appear in some of the full text books about statistics available through NetLibrary.
For some upper division courses, the students may be looking for a two-page table that gives the areas under the Standard Normal Distribution, with values in the left column of the table running from -3.4 to -0.0 on the first page and from 0.0 to 3.4 on the second page. The region being evaluated under the curve in this table is different than the area between the mean and z standard deviations above the mean.
Miscellaneous links that don't quite fit elsewhere:
Constitution Society - definitely has an agenda, so approach with eyes wide open, but has extensive lists of documents and links.
rgause@mail.ucf.edu
(407) 823-2563
Last modified: June 6, 2005
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~rgause/other.htm