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Reference Sources on the Internet

These are resources that professional indexers may find useful in their daily work. Please visit Yahoo's resources if you are looking for beginner's guides to the Internet, or visit the Internet Public Library for more general reference sources. If you want only thesauri, narrow your search by looking at ASI's list of online thesauri

And, as always, ASI does not endorse or promote products, companies, political parties, religious groups, advertising or information found in web sites we provide links for. 


General Reference Sources Specific References Sources

General Reference Sources

Art and Architecture Reference Sources

  • The Art & Architecture Thesaurus. The AAT is a controlled vocabulary for describing and retrieving information on fine art, architecture, decorative art, and material culture. This database is created and maintained by the Getty Information Institute, and endorsed by library, archives, and museum professional groups.
  • The Union List of Artist Names. The ULAN is a database of biographical and bibliographical information on artists and architects, including a wealth of variant names, pseudonyms, and language variants. This database is created and maintained by the Getty Information Institute, and endorsed by library, archives, and museum professional groups.

Biographical Reference Sources

  • The Biographical Dictionary. This award-winning commercial site covers more than 28,000 notable persons.
  • Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Searchable biographical data on members of the U.S. Congress from 1774 to the present.
  • ECHO Science & Technology Virtual Center. This is a list of links to biographical information for significant figures in these fields. Included are links to sites devoted to a single person and sites specific to a particular field, e.g. Chemistry, Mathematics, the Manhattan Project, etc.
  • Political Graveyard. This database of historic cemeteries and political families offers brief biographical data on 53,115 (as of December, 1999) deceased politicians, diplomats, and judges, and is indexed in a number of ways, including an alphabetical index (by last name). The site also features a list of links, and some of those sites might also be helpful.

Business Reference Sources

[General Business Information] [Small Businesses, Self-Employment, and Working from Home] [Working Over the Internet][Health in the Workplace] [ Finding Work] [Additional Lists of Business Reference Sites]

Computer and Technology Reference Sources

Health and Medicine Reference Sources

  • The Allied Health Database (Cinahl) has a thesaurus geared toward nursing and a variety of other allied health areas.
  • AllRefer Health Encyclopedia Health information on more than 4000 topics.
  • American Medical Writers Association (AMWA). The American Medical Writers Association was founded in 1940 to help medical authors improve their writing skills. Now, as then, AMWA strives to help biomedical communicators construct more effective communications by offering continuing education seminars, courses offered at our Annual Conference, and through our many publications.
  • The American Occupational Therapy Association produces a database that has its own thesaurus. The link above will take you to this database, from which you can access the database.
  • Healthopedia.com - Medical consumer information resource on over 1,500 health topics
  • Kinsey Institute The Kinsey Institute has at its site a thesaurus that deals with all aspects of sexuality. Although there is no direct link to their thesaurus, you can contact the librarian of the site for more information.
  • Martindale's Health Science Guide. Thousands of health-related resources.
  • Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): on the WEB. These subject hierarchies are brought to you by the National Library of Medicine. MeSH is the most used thesaurus in publications for medical and health professionals.
  • Medicine Net. Lists of diseases and medications, in nonmedical language.
  • MEDLINE Plus. This is NLM's consumer health site, with links to MEDLINE and a host of other medical info sources, including databases, web links, dictionaries, physician listings, organizations, etc.
  • Merck Manual. The most widely used medical text worldwide. Click on the Publications Page to access the manual. Searchable.
  • MT Desk. Medical transcription and terminology site offers weekly updates of new medical and surgical terms, medical dictionary, A-Z index of new terminology, word lists, sample operative reports, links to the best medical information on the web by topic, public forums, free classified ads, and live chat.
  • National Rehabilitation Information Center (U.S) produced a thesaurus of rehabilitation terms.
  • PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 11 million citations from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources. A tutorial is provided on the site as an aid to first-time searchers.
  • Reference.MD, Medical information from National Library of Medicine 2007 Medical Subject Headings, National Institutes of Health Unified Medical Language System, Drugs@FDA, Federal Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System. Medical concepts or drugs are presented as concept trees that you can drill into to see related concepts.
  • Sites dealing with health in the workplace

Legal Reference Sources

Science Reference Sources

  • Biological Sciences
  • Botany and Zoology Sciences
    • Botanical glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function. Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
    • Botanical name roots dictionary. Search only.
    • PLANTS National Database. Maintained by the USDA's National Plant Data Center, this huge database can be searched by common or scientific name; reports accessible from the home page include invasive and noxious plants, threatened and endangered plants, wetland plants, and much more.
    • Zoological Record thesaurus. Browse a systematic or subject thesaurus.
    • Zoology glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function. Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
  • Chemistry and Biochemistry Sciences
  • Electronics
  • Environmental and Earth Sciences
    • Ecological glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function. Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
    • Geologic glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function. Hosted by the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
    • Solar-terrestrial physics glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
  • Physics, Astronomy, and Aerospace
    • Astronomy thesaurus. This thesaurus, compiled by Robyn M. Shobbrook and Robert R. Shobbrook provides access to the thesaurus in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. For browsing and searching.
    • NASA Thesaurus. Although this is the NASA thesaurus, it includes much more than just aerospace terms! See for yourself!
    • Nine Planets Glossary. Astronomical glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
    • PACS (Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme). PACS is arranged hierarchically by subdivision (down to four levels) of the whole spectrum of subject matter in physics- and astronomy-related sciences.
    • Physics laws list. This glossary contains laws, principles, effects, paradoxes, limits, constants, experiments, and thought experiments in physics—an absolute must for physics junkies and indexers. Browse only.
    • Plasma/fusion glossary.
    • Solar-terrestial physics glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.
    • Space flight glossary. Browse only; requires browser's "search" function.

Technical Writers' Resources

Libraries and Library Sciences

Miscellaneous References

  • Academic Info. Extensive listing of academic programs and much more. The subject guides cover hundreds of topics and list both print and online resources.
  • Alcohol Industry and Policy Database. This database, built by the Marin Institute, contains citations and brief abstracts for over thirteen thousand articles and news stories about the alcohol beverage industry, alcohol policy, and prevention efforts.
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation. Includes the ten-most-wanted list.
  • Literary Quotations. Compendium of literary quotations arranged by author, subject, and source. Includes links to other quotation sites.
  • LitQuotes. A small listing of literary quotations.
  • Marin Institute Thesaurus. This is a comprehensive thesaurus of terms designed for organizing a collection of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug materials. It is arranged alphabetically, hierarchically and in KWIC formats; it also includes instructions for use. It's a bit awkward to browse, but it's still quite useful. Browse only.
  • Martindale's Reference Desk. Online reference tools on everything from Aerospace medicine to Zoology: calculators, dictionaries, shareware, and more.
  • Mediafinder. Directories of magazines, newsletters, and catalogs
  • Patent searching.
  • Quotations. A great source for random quotes, with a search engine for a variety of quotation sources, including Dave Barry.
  • Quotations Book. A searchable compendium of thousands of quotations from a variety of authors on a broad range of topics.
  • Quote.com. Financial market data and real-time business news and commentary.
  • U.S. Government Printing Office. Includes the Federal Register, GAO reports, and other official databases.
  • U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
  • Ultimate Outdoor Activity Resources. Biking, climbing, equestrian, fishing, hunting, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, skiing, and surfing links.
  • Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
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Page last updated: February 25, 2010