Web Sites of Interest

Libraries and Librarians

Between the Stacks is an "online community representing all information professionals, from library students to library directors [...] where ideas and support can be shared via discussion forums."

Search Engines and the Internet

Eric Lease Morgan's "Getting Started with XML: A Manual and Workshop" provides an overview of Extensible Markup Language (XML). The information is available both in HTML and PDF formats (so you can print it out to read on the bus), and is designed for librarians and library staff. It includes information on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and some XSLT.

The U.C. Berkeley Teaching Library has produced a Glossary of Internet & Web Jargon.

Canada

The Library of Parliament has introduced LEGISINFO, "an electronic research tool for finding information about bills currently before Parliament." It includes speeches, Legislative Summaries and related departmental information.

The Dictionary of Newfoundland English Online attempts to provide a "regional lexicon of one of the oldest overseas communities of the English-speaking world".

Reference

A Dictionary of Units of Measurement runs from a (an international symbol for year) to zoll ("the traditional German inch, equal to 1/12 fuss").

The American Society of Association Executives' Gateway to Associations Online is a searchable database of over 6,589 associations. You can search either by the name of the association, or by category (from "Accounting" to "Youth Organization").

The Search Systems Public Records Locator is an index to more than 11,000 free (and for fee) public record databases. Although it concentrates mainly on U.S. records, there are some Canadian and international ones as well. Databases include those that provide "business information (corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships, assumed business names), licensing (dentists, physicians, real estate, therapists, etc.), criminal records, sex offenders, inmates/offenders, missing children, unclaimed property, trade names/trademarks, state employee/department lookups, uniform commercial code filings, and state codes [...] civil, criminal, probate, family, and traffic court records; birth, death, and marriage records; assumed/fictitious business name filings; recorded documents; county/city inmates; and tax information."

Wikipedia is an on-line encyclopedia with over 100,000 articles. Its collaborative nature means that anyone can create or edit articles. Wired News profiled Wikipedia in "Not Your Father's Encyclopedia" (January 28, 2003).

Bartleby.com provides access to a wide range of reference, fiction and non-fiction materials, including an encyclopedia, a book of quotations, a complete Shakespeare and Gray's Anatomy!

Other

The Internet Intelligence Index "contains links to over 600 intelligence-related Internet sites, covering everything from macro-economic data to individual patent and stock quote information."

If you need to create Adobe Acrobat documents, but don't want to spend the money for the software, Adobe is now offering the ability to create an unlimited number of PDF files online, for US$9.99/month. For more details, see http://createpdf.adobe.com/index.pl/2928532476.63259?BP=NS. (Adobe is also offering a free trial, allowing you to create the first 5 PDF files for free.)