The sites linked below are part of the Fifth Annual List of Best Free Reference Web Sites chosen by the RUSA-MARS Committee of the American Library Association (more**).

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AIDS Info
http://aidsinfo.nih.gov
Well organized information for patients, the general public, health care providers, and researchers. They provide information on clinical trials for patients with HIV and AIDS. "A useful resource for anyone seeking in-depth information on this topic." (MARS)

American Presidents
http://www.americanpresidents.org
" From March to December 1999, C-SPAN profiled the 41 men who have served as chief executive of the United States. The network's 20th Anniversary television series covered 41 weeks and provided an in depth look at each of the presidents, their lives, families and administrations. The series was included among the 59th Annual Peabody Award winners in 2000." (National Cable Satellite Corporation)

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
" American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections." (From their Web Site)

AskArt
http://askart.com/
" Exclusive information about 30,000 American artists." Artist and museum information is free.

Baseball-Almanac: The "Official" Baseball History Site
http://baseball-almanac.com/
" Baseball Almanac has dedicated itself to preserving the history of this pastime and has rapidly grown into an interactive baseball encyclopedia filled with thousands of pages full of in-depth facts and statistics. Repeatedly recognized as THE online source for baseball related information, Baseball Almanac has something for everyone." (Baseball Almanac)

Best of History Web Sites
http://www.besthistorysites.net/
" Best of History Web Sites contains links to over 800 history-related web sites that have been reviewed for quality, accuracy, and usefulness. Included are links to K-12 history lesson plans, teacher guides, activities, games, quizzes, and more. Sites with engaging educational content and stimulating and useful multimedia technologies are most likely to be included in these pages. However, useful general resources and research-oriented sites have been included as well." (About Best of History Web Sites)

BBB: Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbb.org/
" The Better Business Bureau (BBB) system in the U.S. extends over 98% of the nation; coast-to-coast, and in Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. Since the founding of the first BBB in 1912, the BBB system has proven that the majority of marketplace problems can be solved fairly through the use of voluntary self-regulation and consumer education." (About Us BBB)

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present
http://bioguide.congress.gov/
A searchable directory providing biographical information on over 13,000 persons that served in the US Congress including the Continental Congress, territorial delegates, resident commissioners, and US vice-presidents. (MARS)

EDGAR
http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
" All companies, foreign and domestic, are required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through EDGAR. Anyone can access and download this information for free. Here you'll find links to a complete list of filings available through EDGAR and instructions for searching the EDGAR database." (EDGAR WEB SITE)

Fact Monster
http://www.factmonster.com/
" Fact Monster serves as a useful and unique web tool for school children (ages 9-14) looking for authoritative and reliable reference information when completing school projects and homework assignments." (MARS)

Farmers Almanac
http://farmersalmanac.com/
For weather forecasts, gardening advice, astronomy, best days for., cooking, hints, and a glimpse at yesteryear visit this web site. Not as much content as the most recent print copy of the Farmers Almanac but loads of information.

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/tgn/
"The latitude and longitude given in most records and each record's precise hierarchical placement, provide a "virtual map" for every place in the thesaurus." (WEBSITE) Searching for a place name yields information such as location "hierarchy", basic information such as longitude and latitude, and where available, short descriptive passages on the history and political, cultural, or commercial significance of the location over time." (MARS)

Google News
http://news.google.com/
" Google News is highly unusual in that it offers a news service compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention. While the sources of the news vary in perspective and editorial approach, their selection for inclusion is done without regard to political viewpoint or ideology. While this may lead to some occasionally unusual and contradictory groupings, it is exactly this variety that makes Google News a valuable source of information on the important issues of the day." (ABOUT GOOGLE NEWS)

GPO Access
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/
" GPO Access is a service of the U.S. Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to a wealth of important information products produced by the Federal Government. The information provided on this site is the official, published version and the information retrieved from GPO Access can be used without restriction, unless specifically noted. This free service is funded by the Federal Depository Library Program and has grown out of Public Law 103-40, known as the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Enhancement Act of 1993." (ABOUT GPO ACCESS)

Hoaxbusters
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
" These pages describe some of the warnings, offers, and pleas for help that are filling our mailboxes, clogging our mail servers, and that generally do not have any basis in fact......In addition to describing hoaxes and chain letters found on the Internet, we will discuss how to recognize hoaxes, what to do about them, and some of the history of hoaxes on the Internet." (HOAXBUSTERS)

HyperHistory Online
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
" HyperHistory is an expanding scientific project presenting 3,000 years of world history with an interactive combination of synchronistic lifelines, timelines, and maps." (HYPERHISTORY)

Informacion en Vivo: Servicios de referencia en espanol
http://www.nypl.org/branch/questions/index2.html
"¡Bienvenido(a)! Estamos contentos de que esté usando el servicio de referencia en español. Estamos aquí para ayudarle a conseguir las respuestas a sus preguntas - en cualquier momento y dondequiera que usted tenga acceso a la Internet. Este servicio es gratuito para los usuarios..." (THE NEWYORK PUBLIC LIBRARY)

Latin American Network Information Center
http://www.lanic.utexas.edu/
" LANIC's mission is to facilitate access to Internet-based information to, from, or on Latin America. Our target audience includes people living in Latin America, as well as those around the world who have an interest in this region. While many of our resources are designed to facilitate research and academic endeavors, our site has also become an important gateway to Latin America for primary and secondary school teachers and students, private and public sector professionals, and just about anyone looking for information about this important region." (LANIC)

LII: Legal Information Institute
http://www.law.cornell.edu/
" Search engines and ranking systems identify the LII as the most linked to web resource in the field of law. Sites ranging from Academic Info to Fedlaw to the Texas State Law Library and the Web site of the Virginia Judiciary, as well as numerous off-line references, e.g., Web Feet, the New York Times, The National Jurist (4/2000), and the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services recommend starting with the LII for law. A Google search on most law topics will lead straight to the LII. (See, for example, a search on "employment discrimination law".)" (LII)

The Making of America Project
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/ and http://moa.cit.cornell.edu/moa/
"The University of Michigan and Cornell University are developing a thematically-related digital library documenting American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction." (MOA)

Movie Review Query Engine
http://www.mrqe.com/
"350,000+ movie reviews written by professionals and amateurs and drawn form hundreds of sources including newspapers, magazines and fan sites." (MARS)

NASA
http://www.nasa.gov
" Here's your opportunity to learn more about NASA as an agency. Explore the many facets of NASA, from our administration and leadership, to our mission and vision for the future, to business, research and career opportunities." TITLE = "Here's your opportunity to learn more about NASA as an agency. Explore the many facets of NASA, from our administration and leadership, to our mission and vision for the future, to business, research and career opportunities." (NASA)

NCES : National Center for Education Statistics
http://www.nces.ed.gov/
" NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data that are related to education in the United States and other nations." (NCES)

The New York Times on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com/
You must register to view anything after the first page but registration gets you access to frequently updated coverage of national and international news for the past seven days. You may purchase the right to read articles that are older then seven days.

OAIster
http://www.oaister.org/o/oaister/
" Our goal is to create a collection of freely available, difficult-to-access, academically-oriented digital resources that are easily searchable by anyone." (OAIster)

The Online Books Page
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
"The Online Books Page is a web site that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all." (Online Books Page)

Perseus Digital Library
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
"Perseus is an evolving digital library, engineering interactions through time, space, and language. Our primary goal is to bring a wide range of source materials to as large an audience as possible. We anticipate that greater accessibility to the sources for the study of the humanities will strengthen the quality of questions, lead to new avenues of research, and connect more people through the connection of ideas." (PERSEUS)

Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/
" Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of FREE electronic books (eBooks or eTexts)....." (PROJECT GUTENBERG)

StartSpot Network
http://www.startspot.com/
" We believe the Web holds wonderful and worthwhile information that has the ability to empower people and enrich lives. We focus on topics that inform and educate. Our goal is to help you quickly and easily discover the best the Web has to offer for these topics." (STARTSPOT NETWORK)

US Patent and Trademark Office
http://www.uspto.gov/
The US Patent and Trademark Office offers the ability to investigate patent and trademarks on the website. Provided is information about applying for patents, patent law and intellectual property, and careers with the USPTO. "...USPTO site provide access to unique and previously difficult-to-access information through a straightforward, clean interface." (MARS)

Unbound Bible
http://unbound.biola.edu/
" The Unbound Bible is a collection of searchable Bibles consisting of, 10 English versions including the NASB, Greek and Hebrew Versions (the original Bible languages), 4 ancient versions, and 42 versions in other languages." (BIOLA UNIVERSITY)

Weather Underground
http://www.weatherunderground.com/
" Using information provided by the National Weather Service, users can locate weather information and forecasts for more then sixty thousand US and international cities." (MARS)

**The Machine-Assisted Reference Section (MARS) of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) in conjunction with The American Library Association, researched free reference Web sites and published this list in Reference & User Services Quarterly." (Vol. 43, No. 1, Fall 2003)

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