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Evaluating Web Sources: Recommended Websites

Resources for evaluating information you find on the web.

Topical Websites

When searching for information online, visit these suggested websites for resources on your topic.

Art

     Artcyclopedia is a search engine guide to locating art online with entries for 9,000 artists and
     indexing to 2,900 art sites. 

Business

      Global Edge offers a wealth of information about international business.

California / U.S.

California Population Data is taken from the latest data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. It provides statistics on population and congressional districts, including demographics, social, economic and housing characteristics by counties and cities in California. It also provides statistics on businesses, including types and sizes of businesses and building permits.

Calisphere covers the culture and history of California in primary sources, including “photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts.”

FirstGov is the official web portal for the U.S. government. It provides access to information on the U.S. government and its services. It covers topics such as benefits/grants/loans, businesses/non-profits and immigration/citizenship. It also provides access to government agencies websites (federal, state, local and tribal).

GPO Access Find Federal Government information through the InfoGov which “provides free online access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.”

Public Policy Institute of California provides non-partisan information on social, economic and political issues in California focusing on climate change/energy, correction, economy, fiscal/governance reform, health and human services, higher education, K-12 education, political landscape, population and water.

Career Planning

Occupational Outlook Handbook is a guide to career information about hundreds of occupations. For each occupation, it provides information such as educational requirements, job responsibilities and working environments, salaries, and job outlook.

Countries / Cultures

CIA World Fact Book provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 countries.

Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection includes thousands of digitized maps, which can be downloaded as image files. World, country, state, and local maps are included, as well as historical, thematic, and topographic maps.

Humanities

Voice of the Shuttle is a searchable list of thousands of links to humanities and humanities-related resources on the Internet. Topic pages include: Art, Classical Studies, Cultural Studies, Cyberculture, Dance, History, Literature, Media Studies, Music, Philosophy, Politics and Government, Religious Studies, Sci-Tech and Culture, Technology of Writing, and many others.

Sciences

MedlinePlus is the National Institutes of Health’s website for patients and their families and friends. It provides reliable, up-to-date information about diseases, treatments, and medications in language general audiences can understand.

National Library of Medicine is the world’s largest biomedical library, which produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics. NLM’s searchable databases include PubMed Central, which provides free biomedical and life sciences journal literature,

PLOS (Public Library of Science) publishes seven peer-reviewed open-access science journals, including PLOS ONE (which covers all science disciplines) and PLOS BiologyPLOS MedicinePLOS Genetics,PLOS Computational BiologyPLOS Pathogens, and PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Social Sciences

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan source of facts about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. The Pew Research Center’s Pew Internet & American Life Project conducts surveys that examine how Americans use the internet and how their activities affect their lives.

 

Multidisciplinary Resources

General / Multidisciplinary

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a directory of scholarly journals in different disciplines and languages that are available for free on the internet.

Google Scholar searches like Google, but only retrieves credible, scholarly information in various disciplines. It includes journals, books, thesis and court opinions.

HighWire includes journals, books, reference works and proceedings from independent scholarly publishers, societies, associations and university presses.

ipl2: Information you can Trust is a subject directory that provides links to credible websites in areas such as the sciences, business, social sciences, humanities and the arts.

Library of Congress offers a wealth of information from the print as well as the digital collections at the Library. The digital collections include America’s historic newspaper from 1836, America’s historic films and personal accounts of events, just to name a few.

Open Science Directory includes free journals in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts.

eBooks

Project Gutenberg includes over 45,000 free ebooks that can be read online or downloaded.

Statistical Sources

Statistics

Data and Statistics from USA.gov provides links to statistical information on a variety of topics such as business, international relations, environment, energy, health, education, law, science, recreation, and transportation.

U.S. Census Bureau provides access to data about people, business, and geography, from the United States Census.

World Bank Data provides free and open access to data about development in countries around the globe. Topics include Agriculture, Health, Poverty, Economy, Education, Energy, Science & Technology, Environment, Development, Trade, Gender, and others.

 

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