Useful Websites

The following useful websites have been tested for information quality and reliability.

Writing and Citing:

• Purdue Owl Writing Guide:  Great for general writing help.
• Purdue Owl Citations:  Best places to go for citation help online.
  • MLA (Modern Language Association) Guidelines; most commonly used by students.
  • APA (American Psychological association) Guidelines.
  • Chicago Manual of Style Guidelines; most widely used for publications.
• MU Libraries’ Basic English 1000 LibGuide: Covers many basic researching skills

Educational:

• BBC Languages:  Learn over forty language with interactive tutorials.
• BBC School Radio: Video and sound resources for K-12 education, including historic speeches.
• Google Books: Search the full text of books.  Most titles are fully or partially available to read.
• Google Earth:  Interactive maps and 3D Tours.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook: U.S.  Bureau of Labor Statistics information on career paths.

Primary Sources:

American:

• American Memory: Sponsored by the Library of Congress and features content on all aspects of the United States from multiple institutions.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum Online Documents: Ike’s personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• Founders Online:  Collection of documents relating to the founding of the United States and related people.  Assembled by the National Archives and Records Administration.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum’s Online Collections: FDR’s personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Archives: Indexes and images of the elder Bush’s personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum Research: Indexes and images of the younger Bush’s personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum Archival Research: Features a photographic database and some audio recordings.
• Historic American Newspapers:  Scanned newspapers supplied by the Library of Congress.
• Jimmy Carter Presidential Library Research: Indexes personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Research Collection: JFK’s personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art Digital Collection:  Thousands of high-quality images available in the public domain.
• Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library Research:  Indexes personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• Missouri Digital Heritage:  sponsored by the Missouri State Archive.
• National Archives and Records Administration Research Portal:  Features some online material and records for all material.
• Naval Aviation Museum Exhibits and Collections:  Features several online exhibits and a searchable archive of scanned material.
• Richard Nixon Presidential Library Virtual Library: Nixon’s personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Archives: Indexes personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.
• Smithsonian Collections Search Center: Features catalog of all holdings and nearly one million uploaded images and multimedia files.
• Statistical Abstracts of the United States: Variety of 1900 to 2012 statistical data about the United States and its population. 2013 onwards will not be freely available.
• William J. Clinton Presidential Center: Indexes personal and presidential records plus other records related to events during his term.

European:

• Europeana: European Union venture to digitize all cultural and historical records throughout Europe.  Features content from most European libraries and museums.
• BBC Archive: Historical records and material from BBC.
• Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership: Formerly a paid database, EEBO-TCP is now freely available through several means.  This links out to the page that discusses the access methods.

World:

• FamilySearch.org: Freely available genealogical records provided by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Collection:  Offers a plethora of scanned pages on theater-related materials and classic plays.
• Historic Mexican and Mexican American Press: As its homepage says it contains newspapers from “Tucson, El Paso, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sonora, Mexico from the mid-1800s to the 1970s.”
• United Nations Documents Database

Secondary Sources:

All:

• Oxford Index: Indexes a variety  of titles produced by The University of Oxford Press and its affiliates on historic people, events, ideas, and places.

Arts:

• Internet Movie Database: Information on movies, television shows, and actors/actresses.
• MetPublications:  Over 400 art books have been made freely available for download by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) in New York City.

Historical:

• The Atlas of Early Printing:  Information on early printed books and printing presses.
• BBC History: Great for historical pieces written by historians about European and world history.
• History Channel’s History by Topics: Topical coverage of American and military history.
• History Channel’s Famous Speeches in History: Video and audio of famous American speeches.
• PBS History: Historical articles, videos, guides, and tutorials.

Science:

• BBC Science and Nature: Learn about the world around you.
• MedlinePlus:  Medical information for the public provided by the United States National Library of Medicine.
• PBS Science: Historical articles, videos, guides, and tutorials.
• WebMD: Medical information for the public provided by independent medical researchers and physicians.

Governmental:

• British Parliamentary Papers Research Guide
• Commonwealth Secretariat (British Commonwealth)
• EUROPA (European Union)
• UK.GOV (British Government)
• United States House of Representatives
• United States Senate
• United Nations
• White House

General Reference:

• RefDesk:  While a bit clunky, RefDesk features “one stop shopping” for multiple news and reference sites, plus offers search boxes for all major search engines.

News:

• BBC World News: Best newsource!  It reports everything in great detail.
• CNN: American national newsource.

Have another useful website for research or educational purposes?  Please let me know!

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