ETS Best Free Reference Websites

American Kennel Club, www.akc.org

The American Kennel Club (AKC) is the most well-known and authoritative dog registry in the world. On the AKC website you can find information not only about different breeds of dogs, but also about dog health, nutrition, training, grooming, and care; upcoming dog shows and events; and pending legislation related to dogs. An AKC history and archive is also available, as are links to AKC publications. The website is easy to navigate. Dog breeds can be searched by name or browsed by category. Categories include group (herding group, hound group, sporting group, etc.), size, and characteristics (best for apartments, best family dog, hypoallergenic, smartest, etc.). Resources can also be searched by intended audience and area of interest (breeders, owners, clubs, events) and the resources page allows you to search by interest category (dog training, dog health, puppy information).

Author/Publisher: American Kennel Club
Date Reviewed: March 13, 2017

ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov

This database serves as an index and provides research results for clinical studies on human subjects in all 50 states and 196 countries. Search by keyword, or use the advanced search to filter results to open studies, closed studies, studies with or without results, phase of the study, funder type, or study location. The site includes a glossary, information about clinical studies, and several appendixes that explain how to search, how to read a study record, and how to find the results of studies. These trials are divided by audience group (patients and families, researchers, and study record managers) to target search strategies to specific research uses.

Author/Publisher: National Library of Medicine (National Institute of Health)
Date Reviewed: March 5, 2017

College Scorecard, https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/

College Scorecard allows users to easily access statistical information about higher education institutions throughout the United States. Search for information about colleges by programs and degrees, location, size, name, type of school, special missions, or religious affiliations. College profiles include location, number of students, type of institution, cost information, graduation and retention rates, earnings after school, student body makeup, academic programs, and more. The website also contains information about financial aid and what to look for when choosing a college to attend.

Author/Publisher: US Department of Education
Date Reviewed: March 13, 2017

Data.gov, www.data.gov/

Data.gov allows users to quickly find and access government data on a wide variety of subjects related to society, economics, science, and technology. Publicly available data from every department of the federal government can be found on the site. Datasets and data-driven reports are available in a wide variety of formats, including HTML and PDF. Users can search for data using simple keywords or using filters to discover data according to a variety of topics, categories, tags, formats, and authoring agencies. Lastly, Data.gov provides support to developers for building web applications that can directly access and use some government datasets.

Author/Publisher: US General Services Administration
Date Reviewed: March 6, 2017

Drug Information Portal, https://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/drugportal/

The Drug Information Portal provides users with a central starting point for learning about over 17,000 drugs. This includes drugs still undergoing testing and trials, all the way through established drugs that are widely available on the market. Users can search for known drugs by name or discover drugs by searching through various drug categories. Each drug has an individual entry which provides users with a quick overview of the drug’s use as well as a variety of links to other government websites and authoritative health and medical associations. These links connect users to information regarding trials, clinical research, and general drug safety information. The site also has a mobile friendly version that many library patrons will find useful.

Author/Publisher: National Library of Medicine
Date Reviewed: March 6, 2017

EuroDocs, https://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main_Page

EuroDocs offers links to primary sources in European history that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated (including some video, sound files, maps, photographs, etc.). The sources in EuroDocs cover a wide range of subject areas including politics, economics, and social and cultural history. The homepage allows you to browse by country or by means of a limited period menu. Documents are in chronological order. Visitors can also use the search box in the left-hand navigation pane to find specific documents or topics.

Author/Publisher: Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University
Date Reviewed: March 2, 2017

First Amendment Library, www.thefire.org/first-amendment-library/

Information about the First Amendment and its five freedoms, including an interactive timeline, a collection of articles, and a database of more than 900 Supreme Court cases make up this library. The library also contains Special Collections of primary-source materials, overview essays, and lists of Supreme Court justices and litigators of First Amendment cases. The resource can be searched by topic, year, keyword, or citation. A fifteen-member board of advisors, including First-Amendment lawyers, scholars, and historians, oversees the library.

Author/Publisher: Ronald Collins, Editor-in-Chief/Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Date Reviewed: March 5, 2017

GCFLearnFree, https://gcflearnfree.org/

GCFLearnFree is a free tutorial website that teaches basic technology skills as well as life skills needed in the workplace. From Microsoft Office and email to reading, math, and more, GCFLearnFree.org offers more than 2,000 lessons on more than 180 topics, including 800+ videos, and 55+ interactives and games, completely free. A search feature is available on every page of the website, or users can search tutorials by subject. The website contains videos and pictures to help aide the learner through the lesson, and provides links throughout the tutorial that point to additional resources. Free mobile apps are also available on the website for users who would like to complete tutorials on their mobile devices. This is a helpful resource for immigrants and individuals seeking assistance with computer use.

Author/Publisher: Goodwill Community Foundation Global
Date Reviewed: March 13, 2017

Grants.gov, www.grants.gov/

Grants.gov provides a centralized location for grant seekers to find and apply for federal funding opportunities. The funding is made available from more than 1,000 different programs and amounts to more than $500 billion annually. One goal of the site is to standardize and streamline the grant information, application packages, and processes for finding and applying for federal grants. Part of the site is dedicated to educating applicants on topics such as what types of grants are available, one’s eligibility to get grants, and how to apply for them. The online grant workspace allows applicants and affiliated colleagues to work on the same application together. Grants.gov also makes the necessary forms available, and provides instructions on how to fill them out. The online grants database allows applicants to search for grants and to apply such limiters as eligibility, type of agency, or different subject categories (education, health, science, etc.). This site is helpful for anyone wishing to apply for federal grant funding.

Author/Publisher: US Department of Health and Human Services
Date Reviewed: March 3, 2017

Motley Fool, www.fool.com/

Motley Fool is an investment education website that gives advice on investing, personal finance, and retirement planning. The intended audience is beginners in finance and investing as well as more experienced researchers who would like advice on stock options. Motley Fool contains a lot of advertisements throughout the articles as well as links to endorsed products. With that said, the advice is credible and the website is a free resource for those seeking basic information on the financial world. The Motley Fool, founded by brothers Tom and David Gardner in 1993, is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, but maintains offices in the UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Canada.

Author/Publisher: Tom and David Gardner/The Motley Fool
Date Reviewed: March 13, 2017

National Security Archive, http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/

Established in 1985, the National Security Archive is a non-governmental group that advocates for open government and expanding public access to government information. This group of investigative journalists and scholars has filed 50,000 Freedom of Information and declassification requests to more than 200 offices and agencies of the US government. The site serves as a library and archive of declassified US documents containing more than 10 million pages of previously secret US government documents. There is a standard, Google-style search link at the top of the page. The Documents link allows one to browse records relating to US national security, foreign policy, and intelligence policy, as well as diplomatic and military history. The links on the Documents page also include information on various foreign countries and their relationships with the US This information is organized by geographic region (i.e. Europe, China, Middle East, etc.).

Author/Publisher: National Security Archive
Date Reviewed: March 3, 2017

NIH 3D Print Exchange, https://3dprint.nih.gov/

The NIH 3D Print Exchange provides a platform for researchers and general users to share 3D printable files of biochemical and medical objects. In addition to allowing researchers to collaborate, the website provides students and educators with quick access to materials representing human and non-human anatomy, molecules and molecular structures, bacteria, and variety of other biochemical models for use as teaching and learning aides. Additionally, users can access files for printing customized laboratory or prosthetic equipment. Researchers can search the website through a Google-style search link, use an advanced search interface, browse models by category or license type and sort results by publication date. Participation in the exchange is not limited to researchers and authorized users, and all users are encouraged to create and share their 3D printable models on the exchange.

Author/Publisher: National Institutes of Health
Date Reviewed: March 8, 2017

Re3data, www.re3data.org/

The Registry of Research Data Repositories lists over 1,500 research data repositories worldwide that contain research in a wide-range of academic disciplines. It allows users to browse the list by subject, location, and by content type. Entries include links to the specific repositories. R3Data uses a system of badges to rate repositories on whether they are open, the types of licensing they offer, whether they are certified, and whether they allow the use of persistent identifiers. It helps researchers find a repository for their data that fits their preservation and sharing needs.

Author/Publisher: The re3data.org Project Consortium
Date Reviewed: March 9, 2017

Time & Date, www.timeanddate.com/

Time and Date offers many quick and easy tools to identify current times in other time zones. The website also features articles about various time/date topics such as daylight savings time and international holidays and festivals. It also provides diverse types of calendars such as “on this day in history” trivia, world-wide weather, phases of the moon, and sky maps. The site provides tools to easily calculate dates of future natural events such as solar and lunar eclipses. Additional features include a countdown to future dates, a timer, a stopwatch, an alarm, a calendar creator, and a distance calculator.

Author/Publisher: Time and Date AS
Date Reviewed: March 13, 2017

USA Jobs, www.usajobs.gov/

USAJOBS is the Federal Government’s official employment site. Search and apply for federal jobs across the US as well as internationally. More than five hundred Federal agencies use USAJOBS to facilitate their hiring processes and match qualified applicants to job openings. Establishing an account on this site allows you to upload resumes (which you can make available to recruiters) and other documents, receive application status updates, as well as save jobs and searches. USAJOBS also offers application guidance and resources for various populations (veterans, people with disabilities, students/graduates, etc.). The homepage allows searching by keyword (job title, agency, skills, etc.) or by location. An events section (toward of the bottom of the homepage) announces various hiring opportunities and workshops being held throughout the country.

Author/Publisher: US Office of Personnel Management
Date Reviewed: March 3, 2017

Wonderpolis, www.wonderopolis.org/

Wonderopolis is a collection of articles intended for children and families to peruse. Browse by category or search through more than 1,800 intriguing questions ( “Wonders of the Day”) that children ask, such as “What are stars made of,” or “Why don’t all books have pictures?” The website is similar to How Stuff Works, but is intended for a younger audience. Hosted by the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), Wonderopolis has won several awards including TIME magazine’s “50 Top Websites of 2011,” Parenting.com “Best Kids’ App,” and Winner of Learning Magazine Teacher’s Choice Award for the Family. Each Wonder of the Day article can be saved as a PDF and/or printed, and all articles contain ideas for easy activities and a list of sources.

Author/Publisher: National Center for Families Learning
Date Reviewed: March 9, 2017

American FactFinder  http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

This is a search portal for US census and survey information collected by the U.S. Census Bureau including demographic and economic information. The community facts feature gives quick demographic information about a city, state, zip code, or county. For more complex or specific searches users can choose between a guided search wizard or an advanced search. The three different types of search make this site appropriate for a variety of users.

Author/Publisher: United States Census Bureau
Date reviewed: March 13, 2016

AnnualReports.com  www.annualreports.com

AnnualReports.com bills itself as “the most complete and up-to-date listing of Annual Reports online”. Search by company or ticker symbol or browse by alphabetical name, sector, industry, exchange, or index. Once a company is located, its most recent annual report or 10-K report can be viewed in HTML and/or PDF. If available and the user requests it, a print annual report will be mailed to a specified address. Other information included is a brief description of the company and a short list of similar companies with annual reports on this site. Content is useful for shareholders, investors, company employees, students, and others interested in publically-traded companies’ financial statements, accomplishments, and goals.

Author/Publisher: AnnualReports.com, a division of IRSolutions.com
Date reviewed: March 9, 2016

Art UK  artuk.org

Art UK provides access to the entire collection of paintings in public ownership at national museums and organizations, local museums, charitable trusts, universities, hospitals, town halls, local libraries, and other civic buildings throughout the United Kingdom. In addition, the site includes works from a number of non-public collections, such as those in Bishop’s palaces and Oxford and Cambridge colleges. The vast majority of the works on the site are oil paintings, but works in acrylic and tempera are also included. Over 200,000 artworks by 38,370 artists from over 3,000 venues are included. While the majority of artists represented are British artists, a number of artists from other countries are also included, such as Raphael, Claude Monet, and Vincent Van Gogh. Project partners include the BBC, Oxford University Press, the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, Culture 24, the Visual Geometry Group at Oxford University and the University of Glasgow.

Author/Publisher: Public Catalogue Foundation
Date reviewed: March 1, 2016

Ballot Measures Database  www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/ballot-measures-database.aspx

The Ballot Measure Database is part of the much larger National Conference of State Legislatures website. This database “includes all statewide ballot measures, starting over a century ago” from all types of state elections: General, Primary, and Special. New ballot measures are added to the database when they qualify to be listed on a state’s ballot. They are marked “Pass” or “Fail” as soon as election results are available. Browse by State and/or Topic and limit by date. This is a very useful site for anyone interested in locating state issues that have appeared on a state ballot in the last 100 plus years.

Author/Publisher: National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
Date reviewed: February 24, 2016

Best Commencement Speeches, Ever  apps.npr.org/commencement

This web site provides links to over 300 commencement speeches from 1774 to the present. The speeches can be searched by name, school, or date; or browsed by theme or the name of the presenter. Speaker pages include a photograph or illustration of the speaker, the location and year of the speech, a quotation from the speech, the text or a link to the text of the speech on an outside web site, and, if available, a video of the speaker presenting the speech. Represented speakers include presidents, politicians, academics, musicians, celebrities, entrepreneurs, journalists, and actors. The site would be useful when needing to write a speech of one’s own, to analyze the content of various speeches, or when searching for quotations from speeches.

Author/Publisher: NPR
Date reviewed: January 29, 2016

Cancer Statistics Center  cancerstatisticscenter.cancer.org

The Cancer Statistics Center is an interactive website for learning about cancer in the United States. Produced by the American Cancer Society, the site provides statistics on the estimated new cancer cases and deaths by sex, state, and cancer type in the current year; current cancer incidence, mortality, and survival rates and trends; and risk factors (e.g.: smoking, obesity) and screening rates by state. The site “aims to serve the needs of cancer control advocates, journalists, government and private public health agencies, and policy makers, as well as patients, survivors and the general public, in order to promote cancer prevention and control.”

Author/Publisher: American Cancer Society
Date reviewed: January 29, 2016

CORE – COnnecting REpositories  core.ac.uk

The mission of CORE (COnnecting REpositories) is to bring together all open access research outputs from repositories and journals throughout the world and make them freely available to the public. CORE provides free unrestricted access to research for all through harvesting available open access content. One can search for CORE articles via a comprehensive search engine on the home page or by browsing the latest additions.

Author/Publisher: Knowledge Media Institute
Date reviewed: February 29, 2016

Digital Public Library of America  dp.la/subjects

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a non-profit organization that is a registered library in the state of Massachusetts. The DPLA offers users the opportunity to search over a million items from collections in libraries, archives, and museums located in the United States. Searches can be conducted by utilizing the search box on top of the website or the user can make use of available timelines, maps and virtual bookshelves. Apps are available on the App Library webpage. By registering for a free account, the user can save information on their own personal bookshelf for later use. The website works with widely used browsers. Apps for iOS and Android devices are available on the App Library webpage.

Author/Publisher: Digital Public Library of America
Date reviewed: February 23, 2016

Find A Grave – Millions of Cemetery Records  www.findagrave.com/

Find a Grave is a free resource for finding the burial places of famous people, family members, and ancestors. The site’s mission is to “find, record and present final disposition information from around the world as a virtual cemetery experience.” Burial records can be searched by name or by cemetery. Disposition information may include, depending on the person, tombstone photos, birth and death dates, biographies, obituaries, family links, and burial location. The site would be useful for genealogists, history buffs, or anyone interested in locating the final resting place of their favorite celebrity.

Author/Publisher: Find A Grave
Date reviewed: March 1, 2016

Global Terrorism Database  www.start.umd.edu/gtd

The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) is an open-source searchable database of information on terrorist events around the world. The site includes systematic data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents that have occurred from 1970 through 2014 and includes more than 140,000 cases. The database can be searched or browsed by date, region, country, perpetrator group, weapon type, attack type, or target type. For each incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and when available, the group or individual responsible.

Author/Publisher: National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
Date reviewed: March 1, 2016

Goodreads  www.goodreads.com

Goodreads provides users with recommendations for readers. The website also has the service were you are able to list items you have read, want to read and currently read to help keep track of reading lists. The website also lists author’s books as well as the order of books in a series and serves as a social network as well.

Author/Publisher: Goodreads, Inc.
Date reviewed: February 24, 2016

Guide to North American Birds  www.audubon.org/bird-guide

The Guide to North American Birds, part of the National Audubon Society website, describes over 1000 species of birds in North America. Birds can be browsed by species or searched by name or species. Entries provide information on conservation status, scientific classification (family, genus, and species), habitat, photographs, detailed range maps, migration information, and natural history (feeding, breeding, habitat, eggs, young, etc.). Apps are available for iPhones and Android and information can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and email. An About page describes the history and work of the Audubon society, as well as information about local chapters and birding.

Author/Publisher: National Audubon Society
Date reviewed: February 28, 2016

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy  www.iep.utm.edu

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) is a non-profit organization that provides open access to detailed, scholarly information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy. The staff of 30 editors and approximately 300 authors hold doctorate degrees and are professors at colleges and universities around the world (though mostly from English-speaking countries). Submissions are peer reviewed by specialists according to strict criteria.

Author/Publisher: James Fieser (Editor), University of Tennessee at Martin & Bradley Dowden (Editor), California State University, Sacramento.
Date reviewed: March 13, 2016

JournalTOCs  www.journaltocs.ac.uk

JournalTOCs is a very large collection of free Tables of Contents for subscription and open access scholarly journals. The over 2,800 publishers represented include Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, Oxford, Cambridge, the American Chemical Society, Project Muse, and the American Psychological Association. Search by journal title or keyword; browse by subject or publisher; or register for a free account to be alerted when journal(s) you elect to follow publish a new issue. This service is especially useful for scholars, students, librarians, and others who want to keep up with the articles published in selected journals.

Author/Publisher: School of Mathematical and Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
Date reviewed: March 4, 2016

National Parks Service  www.nps.gov/index.htm

The National Parks Service (NPS) will celebrate 100 years in August 2016. The website provides basic park information; celebrates park news & events; provides educational resources; and provides resources like web-cams to study air quality in several parks in the United States. The images and descriptions illustrate the breadth of the NPS, added features such as interactives and webcams provide greater content. Additionally, history and the sciences are represented by facts and projects. Teachers have several options including distance learning to use in a K-12 curriculum. The kids page offers opportunities for kids to join junior rangers and web rangers. This website is a reference site in that it provides access to the needed information to visit a park and all the activities available.

Author/Publisher: National Parks Service, US Dept. of the Interior
Date reviewed: February 19, 2016

National Transportation Statistics www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/index.html

National Transportation Statistics presents statistics on the U.S. transportation system. Information includes safety statistics (accident, injuries/fatalities, etc.), energy consumption, air pollution, how transportation relates to the economy (gross domestic product) and much more. Besides traditional motor vehicles, the site also included data for other modes of transportation such as airlines, water crafts and railroads. Data is accessible via HTML, Excel or CSV files. The site is updated quarterly.

Author/Publisher: Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Date reviewed: March 13, 2016

NYPL Digital Collections  digitalcollections.nypl.org

The New York Public Library has digitized over 650,000 items from their collections and made them searchable in a user-friendly web portal. A variety of different types of media are included in the collection such as images, texts, and streaming video. Contents of the digital collections are extremely varied and include things like images of mid-century Manhattan, cigarette cards, and fashion illustrations. Many of the items in the collection are also available for download, including over 180,000 of them that are in the public domain. The site is updated daily as more collections are digitized. NYPL also has a number of experimental tools for extracting data from the digital collections that allow users to further explore the materials.

Author/Publisher: New York Public Library
Date reviewed: March 13, 2016

Reference.com – A Free Online Encyclopedia & Information Reference  www.reference.com

Reference.com is a portal of language reference tools. Resources available on the site include an encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, translator, and Spanish language tutorial. Additional resources include word games, such as crossword puzzles, and a quotation finder. The various tools of the site can be accessed by clicking on the buttons at the top of the page. Each tool can be searched by using a basic search box. Dictionary definitions and thesaurus terms are taken from established sources, such as the American Heritage, Harper Collins, and Random House dictionaries. Encyclopedia entries are provided by the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Wikipedia. Special features include a blog, a daily crossword puzzle, a crossword solver, and a mobile app for the site’s online dictionary.

Author/Publisher: Dictionary.com, LLC.
Date reviewed: February 27, 2016

Statistical Abstracts of the United States  www.census.gov/library/publications/time-series/statistical_abstracts.html

This site provides digital copies of the Statistical Abstract of the United States for the years 1878 through 2012 when the Statistical Compendia program ended with a few omissions (1886, 1890, 1923, 1932, and 1975). Supplements such as the Historical Statistics of the United States, State and Metropolitan Area Data Book, and County and City Data Book are available for some years. The Statistical Abstracts and related supplements are a treasure trove of statistical data useful for students, researchers, and the general public seeking to locate social, political, and economic data for the United States since its beginning (and before).

Author/Publisher: U.S. Census Bureau
Date reviewed: : March 3, 2016

USDA Local Food Directory Listings  www.ams.usda.gov/services/local-regional/food-directories-listings

Maintained by the Agricultural Marketing Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture, this site has four directories to search for locally-grown food. Users can find nearby farmer’s markets, CSA networks, farms, and distributors of locally grown food. Directories are searchable by location, product availability, payment method, and whether or not the market participates in federal nutrition programs.

Author/Publisher: United States Department of Agriculture
Date reviewed: March 13, 2016

U.S. Small Business Administration  www.sba.gov

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the federal government. It works to provide assistance and aid to small businesses. This site contains educational videos, resource guides, free online classes, and contact information for local agencies. This site is well designed and has a comprehensive search engine.

Author/Publisher: U.S. Small Business Administration
Date reviewed: February 11, 2016

W3Schools  www.w3schools.com

This is one of the premiere reference websites for web developers and designers. In addition to a massive catalog of pages explaining different elements of HTML, Javascript, PHP, and more, it has built in tutorials and tasks that users can go through to learn more about web design. There are better places to learn the basics of web design and coding (ex. Codecademy), but as a reference tool for looking up commands and tools, ranging from both very basic to very complex topics, this site has a lot of the information designers and developers need to get started. Furthermore, this site is critically important to both novices and experts.

Author/Publisher: W3Schools – Refsnes Data
Date reviewed: March 1, 2016

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