General Research 

There are a lot of web sites on the Internet relevant to religious studies research. You need to be careful, however, as not all Web sites provide authoritative information.

Ask yourself the following questions when evaluating information on freely-available Web sites:

Who is the author of the page/site?

What are the credentials of the author (what qualifies him or her to write on the topic)?

Who sponsors the site?

What is the purpose of the site - To inform? To entertain?, To sell you something? To argue for a certain point of view?

Who is the intended audience?

Are the sources cited? Where did the author(s) get the information?

Can the information on the page be verified with other sources?

How current is the information?

Here's your jumpstart on locating websites covering general information, from acronyms to tax forms to basic statistics and weather.

Abbreviations & Acronyms Almanacs Associations & Organizations Business Calculators & Conversion Tools Calendars & Time Colleges & Universities Consumer Guides Currency & Money Dictionaries & Thesauri Encyclopedias Financial Aid & Grants Georgia State University Links Government Information Images & Pictures International Information

Jobs, Wages & Salaries Language Translators Libraries Maps, Atlases & Geography News and Media Nutrition Patents & Trademarks Phone, Postal & E-Mail  Information Prizes & Awards Quotations & Speeches State & Local Information Statistics & Polls Tax Forms Weather Weights & Measures

Abbreviations & Acronyms

Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government

http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html

Acronym Server

http://silmaril.ie/cgi-bin/uncgi/acronyms

Journal Abbreviation Sources (All That JAS)

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/JAS.htm

Almanacs

Information Please

http://www.infoplease.com/people.html

Old Farmer's Almanac

http://www.almanac.com/index.php
 

Associations & Organizations

Associations & Organizations (IPL)

http://www.ipl.org/div/aon

Links to International Organizations (UIA)  

http://www.uia.org/extlinks/pub.php

Scholarly Societies Project

http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/society/overview.html
 

Business

D & B Business Directory

http://www.dnb.com/us/

EDGAR (Securities & Exchange Commission)

http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

Small Business Association

http://www.sba.gov/

Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at GSU

http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwsbp/

Thomas Register

http://www.thomasregister.com/

  

Calculators & Conversion Tools

Calculate Me

 http://www.calculateme.com

Calculator.com

http://www.calculator.com/

Conversion Factors

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/reference/metrics/factors.htm

Cost-of-Living Calculator

http://www.bestplaces.net/COL/

 Online Conversion

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

Relocation Salary Calculator

http://www.homefair.com/homefair/calc/salcalc.html  

 

Calendars & Time

Earth Calendar

http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php

Local Times Around the World

http://swissinfo.net/cgi/worldtime/ 

Time Zone Converter

http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc 

Virtual Perpetual Calendars

http://www.vpcalendar.net/
 

Colleges & Universities

100 Best Values in Private Colleges

http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/privatecolleges 

100 Best Values in Public Colleges

http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges

America's Best Graduate Schools

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

College and University Rankings

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/rankings.htm

College Board Online

http://www.collegeboard.com/

CollegeNet 

http://www.collegenet.com/

Financial Reports for Georgia Colleges and Universities 

http://www.audits.state.ga.us/internet/ead/colltech.html 

Georgia's Colleges, Universities, and Technical Colleges

http://www.gacollege411.org/FinAid/ScholarshipsAndGrants/HOPEScholarship/overview.asp

The Historically Black College and University Megasite

http://www.hbcu-central.com

Peterson's Online

http://www.petersons.com

Princeton Review's College Rankings

http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankings.asp
 

Consumer Guides

Better Business Bureau 

http://www.bbb.org/

Consumer Information from the Federal Trade Commission

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm

Edmunds Automobile Buying Guides

http://www.edmunds.com/

Kelley Blue Book

http://www.kbb.com/ 

 

Currency & Money

Historical Currency Exchange Rates

http://www.oanda.com/convert/fxhistory 

Universal Currency Converter

http://www.xe.com/ucc/ 

What Is a Dollar Worth?

http://www.minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm

 

Dictionaries & Thesauri

American Heritage Dictionary

http://www.bartleby.com/61/

Cambridge Online Dictionaries

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Merriam-Webster Online

http://www.m-w.com 

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

http://bartleby.com/62/m 

World Languages Dictionary

http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages.html#table 

 

Encyclopedias

Columbia Encyclopedia

http://www.bartleby.com/65/ 

Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

Financial Aid & Grants

Federal School Code Search Page

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/FSLookupServlet

Finaid - The Financial Aid Information Page

http://www.finaid.org/

Foundation Center - Atlanta

http://fdncenter.org/atlanta 

GrantsWeb 

http://www.srainternational.org/newweb/grantsweb/index.cfm 

Georgia State University Office of Sponsored Programs 

http://www.gsu.edu/~wwwosp 

Internet Prospector

http://www.internet-prospector.org/found.html

Peterson's Financing Education

http://iiswinprd03.petersons.com/finaid/file.asp?id=780&path=ug.pfs.financial

Student Financial Assistance Program

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/funding.jsp?tab=funding

 

Georgia State University Links

GSU Academic Calendar

http://www.gsu.edu/academic_calendar.html 

GSU Catalogs, Undergrad and Graduate

http://www.gsu.edu/es/catalogs_courses.html 

GSU Computer Labs

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwets/labsclassrooms/index.html 

GSU Current Lab Usage

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwets/labsclassrooms/computerlabs/usage.html

GSU Schedule of Classes

https://www.gosolar.gsu.edu/bprod/bwckschd.p_disp_dyn_sched 

Network Status from IS&T

http://www.gsu.edu/help/27831.html

Statware Index

http://dss.gsu.edu/statware 

Wireless Network (CatChat) Instructions

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwccs/doc/wireless2/wirelessindex.htm#procs

 

Government Information

Budget of the U.S. Government

 http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/

 GPO Access

 http://www.gpoaccess.gov/index.html 

Thomas

 http://thomas.loc.gov 

 United States Supreme Court

 http://www.supremecourtus.gov 

 USA.gov (formerly FirstGov) 

 http://www.usa.gov

 

Images & Pictures

Google Image Search 

 http://images.google.com

  

International Information

 Aneki.com - Country Information, Regional and World Rankings

 http://www.aneki.com

 Chiefs of State and Foreign Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments

 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/world-leaders-1/index.html

 Country Studies (Library of Congress) 

 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html 

Flags of the World

 http://flagspot.net/flags/ 

 World FactBook

 http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
 

  

Jobs, Wages, & Salaries

Atlanta Jobs Online

 http://www.ajobs.com/ 

Career Guide to Industries - Bureau of Labor Statistics 

http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/

Georgia Career Information Center

 http://www.gcic.peachnet.edu/

Occupational Employment Statistics

http://www.bls.gov/oes/ 

Report of the State Auditor of Georgia - Salaries

https://www.audits.state.ga.us/esa/index.html

Salary.com

http://www.salary.com/salary/layoutscripts/sall_display.asp

University System of Georgia Salary Reports

https://www.audits.state.ga.us/esa/index.html

  

Language Translators

BabelFish

http://babelfish.altavista.com/ 

Google Translator

http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en 

Polly Glotto

http://www.pollyglotto.com

 

Libraries

ARCHE (Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education)

 http://www.atlantahighered.org

Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System

http://www.afplweb.com/index.html 

Auburn Avenue Research Library On African American Life and Culture

http://www.af.public.lib.ga.us/aarl/Home1.htm

The Carter Center

http://www.cartercenter.org/

Emory University Library

http://www.library.emory.edu/

GALILEO Participating Libraries

http://www.galileo.usg.edu/cgi-bin/homepage.cgi?_cc=1&_id=8360138d-1251831454-1079 

Gateway to Library Catalogs

http://www.loc.gov/z3950

Georgia Institute of Technology Library

http://www.library.gatech.edu

GIL - Library Online Catalog

https://gil.gsu.edu/

GIL Universal Catalog

https://giluc.usg.edu/

Libcat: A Guide to Library Resources on the Internet

http://www.librarysites.info/

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/ 

Library of Congress Classification Outline

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco 

Open WorldCat

http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open

Public Libraries: Listing

http://www.publiclibraries.com/georgia.htm

Robert W. Woodruff Library (Atlanta University Center)

http://www.auctr.edu

University of Georgia Libraries

http://www.libs.uga.edu

   

Maps, Atlases & Geography

Blank & Outline Maps

http://geography.about.com/cs/blankoutlinemaps/index.htm 

Columbia Gazetteer of North America

http://www.bartleby.com/69/

Geological Survey

http://www.usgs.gov

Georgia City and County Maps

http://gis.state.ga.us/emaps/dotmaps 

Google Maps

http://maps.google.com

How Far Is It?

http://www.indo.com/distance/

MapQuest

http://www.mapquest.com

Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html

  

News and Media

Access Atlanta

http://www.accessatlanta.com/

News and Newspapers Online

http://library.uncg.edu/news/

Vanderbilt University Television News Archive

http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/

 

Nutrition

World Food Habits Bibliography

http://lilt.ilstu.edu/rtdirks/

 

Patents & Trademarks

U.S. Patents & Trademarks Office

http://www.uspto.gov

  

Phone, Postal & Email Information

AnyWho Online Directory

http://www.anywho.com/index.html 

Area Decoder: Area Code Lookup Service

http://decoder.americom.com 

Switchboard.com

http://www.switchboard.com/ 

Telephone Directories

http://www.infobel.com/teldir/ 

WhoWhere?

http://www.whowhere.com/

Yellow Pages Directory

http://www.yellowpages.com/

 

Prizes & Awards

Academy Award Winners

http://wwwdb.oscars.org/awardsdatabase/index.html

Literary Awards

http://www.pw.org/mag/grantsawards.htm 

Nobel e-Museum

http://www.nobel.se/index.html

The Pulitzer Prizes

http://www.pulitzer.org/ 

Tony Awards Online

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/index.html

 

Quotations & Speeches

American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm

Quotations @ Bartleby.com

http://www.bartleby.com/quotations/

 

State & Local Information

50States.com

http://www.50states.com

Atlanta Regional Commission

http://www.atlantaregional.com

City of Atlanta Online

http://www.atlantaga.gov/

Georgia Data and Research Center

http://www.gadata.org

Georgia Flag

http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/flagweb.htm 

Georgia QuickFacts

http://www.census.gov/datamap/www/13.html 

Georgia Vital Statistics

http://health.state.ga.us/programs/vitalrecords/

GeorgiaInfo Home Page

http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/county.htm 

GeorgiaNet

http://www.ganet.state.ga.us 

Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

http://www.metroatlantachamber.com

State & Local Government on the Net

http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm

 

Statistics & Polls

Fedstats

http://www.fedstats.gov

The Gallup Poll

http://poll.gallup.com/

Statistical Abstract of the United States

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab

Statistical Agencies (International)

http://www.census.gov/main/www/stat_int.html

Statistical Data on Georgia

http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/gastat.htm

Statistical Resources on the Web (University of Michigan) 

 http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

 

Tax Forms

Federal Tax Forms - IRS

http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html

Georgia Tax Forms

http://www.dor.ga.gov/inctax/individual_income_tax_forms.aspx

 

 

Weather

Historical Weather Database

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/historical/historical.htm

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

http://www.noaa.gov

Weather Channel

http://www.weather.com

World Climate

http://www.worldclimate.com/

 

 

Weights & Measures 

Dictionary of Measures, Units, and Conversions

http://www.ex.ac.uk/trol/dictunit/index.htm

Units of Measurement

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/