Best Free Reference

Brought to the web by government information librarian Kelly Smith, this resource rightly boasts of being “the most current, extensive and fully linked listing of U.S. government agency, office, program, and publication acronyms.” It is helpful that changes in agencies and titles are reflected in the entries. A link is provided to the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military Terms , which provides search and browse features for military acronyms, abbreviations, and definitions.

The National Gallery in Washington, DC, houses one of the largest collections in the world of painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts from the Middle Ages to the present. At the gallery’s website, information is available for more than 110,000 objects, with images provided for 20,000 of them. The site is searchable by keyword or phrase, and users can unearth teaching resources or in-depth studies and search the collection by artist, title, or subject. An extraordinary and easy-to-navigate resource.

NBR contracts independent research to the world’s leading experts to examine developments and trends in northeast, southeast, south, and central Asia; Iran; and Russia. Politics and security; trade, economics, and energy; and health are the broad topics covered. While not all of the reports are free, they are all free for 60 days after publication. NBR’s Strategic Asia Database contains more than 20 years of 70 key indicators in ten themes from the 37 countries that comprise “Strategic Asia.” Maps that track Chinese and Japanese military developments are available, with more countries to be mapped soon.

This online search engine developed by the National Library of Australia (NLA) covers content from the NLA, state, and territory libraries and over 1,000 other Australian libraries. As the name implies, it a treasure house of more than two million books, photos, maps, unpublished materials, and media. It’s a great place to search more than 6.8 million digitized pages from 260 Australian newspapers and now incorporates Picture Australia, a vast collection of more than two million images. Whether your patrons are looking for information about Australian swimming star Alicia Coutts or Australian X Factor winner Reece Mastin, this is a great place to begin. It’s interactive, allowing users to tag items and make comments and lists.

This small federal independent agency with 15 presidential appointees, an executive director, and 12 professional staff advises the President, Congress, and other federal agencies on policies, programs, practices, and procedures that affect people with disabilities. Briefs cover civil rights, education, empowerment, financial assistance, health care, and many other topics. This is a great place to research subjects from air carrier access to fair housing.

This is the definitive website for information about the Electoral College and how it works and for finding electoral votes by state beginning with the election of George Washington. Find answers to such questions as: How does the Electoral College work in my state? What happens if a candidate does not get 270 electoral votes? Identify how electors voted by viewing the Certificates of Ascertainment. Use the Resources page for links to state election sites, teaching materials, and other election sites.

This portion of the CDC website focuses on all facets of the environment that affect human health and, in turn, how people affect the health of the environment. Find information and data on topics from respiratory health to chemical-weapons elimination. Looking for data on the environmental health of your area? Use the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, which integrates health, environmental, exposure, and census data to provide users with maps, tables, and charts.

This website was launched in 1996 by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Learn about Jefferson and experience a typical day in retirement at Monticello. Read articles about the plantation and slavery. Discover the plants, flowers, fruit, and vegetables grown by the founder of the University of Virginia. Enjoy music and watch July 4th addresses, interviews, and lectures by notables from the United States and abroad. Access the digital archive of the Family Letters Project and the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery. Two of the most used features of the site are the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia and Monticello Explorer. The encyclopedia, with over 1,000 articles, is “the trusted source for information on Thomas Jefferson and his world,” and through Monticello Explorer users can take a 3-D virtual tour of the plantation, house, and grounds.

This online encyclopedia tells the story of the ship, the survivors, and the victims. You can check out the complete passenger list, arranged from first to third class, view a crew list or even see who survived, in which lifeboat, what their profession was, and what they paid for their passage. Frequently updated, the site offers a discussion page, movie section, and even a Facebook page. This is the final word on all things about Titanic .