Reference & Resources

Ready Reference & Fast Facts

Acronyms & Abbreviations

Acronym Database
A large, searchable collection of acronyms and abbreviations covering a wide range of topics.  Search by word or by acronym.

Acronym Finder
Search for acronyms and abbreviations to find their meanings, or look for keywords to find an acronym. The database covers all topics, with particular emphasis on computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military.

Official U.S. Postal Service Abbreviations
Provides a list of postal service abbreviations for states, streets, and other units that have been approved by the U.S. Postal Service.

Almanacs, Calendars, and Yearbooks

Information Please Almanac
A compendium of statistics and up-to-date facts and figures, on everything you need to know.

American Secular Holidays Calendar
Find the date and day of the week for any secular holiday from 1776 to the current day.

Old Farmer’s Almanac
Information on astronomy, weather, gardening, and food, including sun, moon, and planet rise and set times.

Interfaith Calendar
Find English calendar dates for holidays and holy days for world religions.  Current year to future years.

Virtual Perpetual Calendars
Provides a calendar for any year from the 19th through the 21st century.

Calendar Zone
Links to religious, celestial, and cultural calendars with a heavenly guide from Farmer's Almanac, perpetual calendars, and today's date in history.

Baby Names

BabyNamer
This website contains 6500 names and meanings. You can learn about name origins and meanings, track name popularity, find 'real-life' name stories, check names in 14 languages, as well as 'try out' full names.

Behind the Name: the Etymology and History of First Names
This website does more than merely list African, Arabic, Biblical, English, French, German, Indian, Irish, Italian, and Spanish first names. It will provide you with the meaning of each first name.

Popular Baby Names - Social Security Administration
The Social Security Administration maintains this website which will provide you with the most popular baby names in the United States from 1880 to the present date.

Think! Baby Names
This easy to use web site provides the meanings and, in many cases, the pronunciations for thousands of baby names.

Calculation & Conversion Tools

http://www.pdfconverter.com/unitconverter/
Need to convert units of mass, area, pressure, angles, time zones or temperatures. This website can help.

Classic 164 Currency Converter
Provides foreign exchange rate conversions from 1997 through the current date.

Salary.com: Cost-of-Living Wizard
Calculate differences in the cost of living for over 300 cities in the U.S.

Universal Currency Converter
Interactive foreign exchange rate calculator providing live, up-to-the-minute currency rates.

Dictionary of Units
Information on measurements including history, definitions, formulas, and a conversion calculator.

Dictionaries & Thesauri

YourDictionary.com
Dictionaries for hundreds of world languages, English-language thesauri, quotation dictionaries, rhyming dictionaries, and dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms. Specialty dictionaries for many topics such as art, botany, computers, economics, engineering, politics, theatre, and the like.

Morse Code and Phonetic Alphabets
Includes a list of the codes, translation tools, and a dictionary of phonetic alphabets.

WWWebster Dictionary
Includes a thesaurus and links to multi-lingual and specialty dictionaries. Also links to Merriam Webster for Kids.

Roget’s Thesaurus
Online, searchable thesaurus from the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago.

A Basic Dictionary of ASL Terms
A selection of American Sign Language terms with both text and animated definitions.

Wordsmyth- The Educational Dictionary-Thesaurus
Definitions, pronunciations, synonyms, examples of usage, word derivations and syllabication in one easy search.

Langenberg.com
Links to rhyming, law, crossword, scrabble, anagram, computing, quotation, and traditional word dictionaries.

Facts & Trivia

Fast Facts
An extensive list of links to web sites providing factual and statistical information. Compiled by Gary Price.

Guinness World Records
Searchable database of records, both traditional and strange, in a diverse range of categories.

Holidays

Earth Calendar
This site is a convenient method to find holidays. You can look them up by date, country, and religion, as well as the current date.

Encyclopedia of Days
This is an international site for festivals and holidays. It gives the origin of some holidays. There are also holidays listed by the name of the appropriate religion.

Holidays on the Net
This site contains a wide variety of information on American and religious holidays.

Lottery

New YorkState Lottery
Check out the official page of the New York State Lottery for current winning numbers and jackpots, results from the past 12 months, a schedule of drawings, and locations of claim centers.

USA Today Lottery Results
Daily lottery results from around the U.S. are updated throughout the day as information becomes available. Links to old lottery results are also provided.

Style & Writing Guides

Citation Machine
Citation Machine is an interactive web tool designed to automatically generate citations using MLA and APA style.

Online Citation Styles
Citing Internet, Web, and other electronic resources in MLA, APA, Chicago, and other style formats.

Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling
Writing tips from Purdue University. Includes handouts and exercises on grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Elements of Style (by William Strunk, Jr.)
Elementary rules of usage and principles of composition most commonly violated.

Citing Sources
University of Minnesota’s Libraries' QuickStudy Guide. Includes tutorials about citing sources using APA and MLA citation styles.

APA Style
FAQ's, tips, and information on citing electronic resources.

Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Online version of the print guide, featuring rules and tips for grammar and punctuation.

Modern Language Association (MLA)
Click on MLA Style to access frequently asked questions about MLA Style of citing sources.

Telephone & Other Directories

AnyWho Directories
People, business, reverse lookup, toll-free, and website directories from AT&T.

Federal CitizenInformationCenter
Federal government blue pages, directories for U.S. House & Senate members, cabinet agencies, and other agencies and commissions.

Reverse Phone Directory
Identifies a name and address from a telephone number.

Switchboard
Both Yellow and White pages for the entire nation available. Search for someone or add your e-mail address to your phone number.

Telephone Directories on the Web
Index of online phone books, with links to White pages, Yellow pages, toll-free, business directories, email addresses and fax listings from all around the world.

International Dialing Codes
An extensive listing of telephone country codes and city codes along with dialing instructions.

Zip Code Lookup
Locate the zip code for any address in the U.S. using the official U.S. Postal Service website.

International Postal Codes
Listings to postal information by country.

Time

World Time Server
Calculates time conversions for almost any city, state or country in the world.

If you have questions after consulting these resources, please contact the Information Desk at (585) 359-7092.

Updated May 2007