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Helpful Websites from Willard Memorial Library

[For changed or dead links, please email galliodo@oplin.org]

Updated on 11/03/2009.

Link Contents     

Computer Help

Employment and Education [Post High School]

Financial Resources

General Interest

Health Resources

Homework / Research Sources

Kids / Teens -- For the Fun of It

Legal Resources

Local Interest

Maps

News

Parent / Teacher Resources

Reader Advisory

Search Engines

Computer Help

  • Annoyances.org -- With discussions and tips on subjects from "What to do if you hate the Start menu" to "Top five reasons why Windows doesn't support your hardware," you're bound to find the solution to your Microsoft or Windows annoyance.

  • Answers that Work -- This great repository for tech advice can help you do everything from troubleshooting a network to editing a Web site.

  • BlackViper.com -- A rather weird and quirky site that gives all kinds of good information on computers.

  • Easter Egg Archive -- "Easter Eggs" are small secret entertainment features found in many common software programs.  You can find over 6,000 hidden goodies in everything from applications to DVDs to your favorite TV shows and movies.

  • Education Online for Computer Software: "We offer you both Free and subscription-based educational training and tutorials ... for the most popular computer software applications and productivity tools." Training is included on Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, Front Page, Publisher, Outlook, and many others.

  • Error Messages -- Ever wonder how you can find out what that mysterious error message meant that flashed across your computer screen?  Here is a site that will tell you.  Give it a try.

  • ExtremeTech.com -- A "do-it-yourself" site.  All kinds of information about operating systems [both Windows and all flavors of Linux], various parts of computers [such as video cards, motherboards, etc.], and building your own computer.

  • Free Gifs, Animations, and Clip Art: Do you want to underscore your text with a moving boat or flying airplane? This site has these nifty underscoring for you. Also a nice little collection of animated gifs, of flowers and animals and such like fillers. The site also has fancy roll over buttons and other quaint gif's for you to add to your list.
  • Free Workhorse Utility Software.  All you need to do is download, install, and use them.  No computer system should be without these programs.  [Click to expand this category.]
    • AdAware -- One of the two best free Anti-Spyware programs.  See Spybot Search and Destroy below for the other one.  They also have a commercial version.
    • AVG -- A high rated Anti-Virus program from Grisoft, an Eastern European company.  They have a commercial version, but the free one works just fine.
    • Irfanview -- A graphics viewer that supports most format and has some editing capabilities.
    • Spywareblaster -- A little different approach from the two top programs mentioned in this list, but still good.  Its object is to inoculate your system from spyware, not to erase it.
    • Spybot Search and Destroy -- One of the two best free anti-Spyware programs.  See AdAware above for the other one.
    • Zip Genius -- A file compression program that supports more than 20 formats of compressed archives, including RAR, ARJ, ACE, CAB, SQX, ZIP and the excellent 7-zip.
    • Zone Alarm -- The free version of this firewall program does much more than the standard Windows XP firewall.
    • Xteq -- The best Windows tweaking program.  They also have a pay version, but the free one is sufficient for most uses.

  • Hoaxbusters -- Tells you how to recognize computer, chain letters, and other hoaxes, and what you should do about them.

  • McAfee --  The website of a common antivirus software program.  If you have any questions about computer viruses, check out this site.

  • Microsoft Knowledge Base -- Information and solutions about all kinds of computer problems.

  • PC Magazine -- Features product reviews, solutions, tips, utilities, and more that you won't find in the print edition--or anywhere else.

  • PC Mechanic -- "We provide easy, plain-English information on computers that other sites just assume you already know. We provide tutorials to show you how to perform various tasks, from installing a video card to assembling an entire computer. We also provide background information on hardware and provide explanations on how things work" [website quote].

  • Simtel.com -- Huge site with "free downloads of the best computer software freeware and shareware."

  • Tech Support Guy -- The site has forums on all kinds of computer problems, and it's easy to browse until you find your answer. Registration is required to post a question in the forums.

  • Tudogs -- "The Ultimate Directory Of Free Software"  Authoring & Web Design, Graphics software, Clipart, Animation, WebTools, Windows, Music, Games, Education, Business & Finance, Health, News, Special Recipes, Free Web Developer Software. 28 awards.

  • Viruslist.com -- Answers to all your questions about viruses, malware, and other computer vulnerabilities from "The Biggest Virus Encyclopedia" [website quote].

  • W3schools -- Exhaustive information on building your own web site.  You will find tutorials, information, and programming, 

  • Webopedia -- The comprehensive guide for computer and internet terms, allowing you to search by specific term or category.

  • Zdnet.com -- The premier website for computer information of all sorts -- product reviews, how to articles, etc.  The site is huge, so be prepared to look and study.

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Employment and Education [Post High School]:

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Financial Resources

  • AnnualCreditReport.com -- The official site to get a free annual credit report that credit agencies are required to provide according to law.  There are no subscriptions, memberships, or obligations required on this site to get the credit report.

  • Audits of any public institution in Ohio.

  • Benefits Check-up -- For elderly people, find benefit programs that help with utility bills, food, health care, applying for the government prescription drug program, and other needs. You can also apply for these programs from the site.  The site is a service of the National Council on Aging.

  • Bloomberg.com -- Offers in-depth news, free quote lookups, educational investment information, and domestic and international market snapshots.

  • Investors' Alliance -- A non-profit organization for investment education and home of the Power Investor's software.

  • The Motley Fool -- All kinds of free help on investing.
  • MSN Money -- All kinds of general advice and news on saving, borrowing, investing, and taxes.
  • State Tax Forms  and information from the Ohio Department of Taxation web site.
  • State Tax Information -- A pdf file that gives the latest State of Ohio tax information.
  • Tax Forms and information from the IRS government web site.
  • Tax information -- from www.1040.com. 
  • TheStreet.com -- Provides commentary and news for the serious investor.
  • U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission -- Has online any financial report that public companies have filed.  A must for investment research.
  • Yahoo! Finance -- Like MSN Money (above) but with much more information.  The stock message boards can be especially helpful if you want to find out information and street gossip about particular stocks.

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General Interest

  • Bible Study Programs --These are all free and enable you to study the Bible in as much depth as you desire to go [Click to expand category].
    • Online Bible -- The premier Bible study program that can be downloaded to your computer.  And most of it is free.  Follow their "links" page to find many more Bible study modules to add to it.
    • E-Sword -- A program similar in content to "Online Bible" above with different layout.  It would cost thousands of $ to duplicate in books what you can do with these two free programs.
    • The Sword Project -- "The CrossWire Bible Society's free Bible software project. Its purpose is to create cross-platform open-source tools -- covered by the GNU General Public License -- that allow programmers and Bible societies to write new Bible software more quickly and easily. We also create Bible study software for all readers, students, scholars, and translators of the Bible, and have a growing collection of over 200 texts in over 50 languages."  Even though this quote sounds impressive, this program does not do as much as the first two in this list.
  • Board of Elections by County
  • Child Care in Ohio
  • Discover Ohio -- "The place to learn about our vital, diversified state and people.  Topics range from Arts to Travel."
  • ESPN -- A detailed website for all you sports fanatics out there.
  • Federal Consumer Information Center
  • Food411 -- "The ultimate resource for everything on the Web related to online food shopping opportunities; gourmet foods, ingredients, recipes, cooking, and dining, food blogs, unique gift ideas, [and] meals delivered."
  • FreeTranslation.com -- Provides quick translations for sentences and phrases from many different languages.
  • Genealogy links compiled by Willard Memorial Library
  • Hotsheet.com -- A portal with hundred of useful links for anyone.
  • How To Clean Stuff -- A treasure trove of helpful cleaning tips. They'll help you get your house squeaky clean!  A special section is included on how to remove stains.
  • The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) -- The premier source for movie information on the internet.
  • Kelley Blue Book -- Used car bluebook values and new car pricing.
  • Mathematical Puzzles Page
  • Mr. Showbiz -- Movie, TV, & Music News and Reviews.
  • Musipedia from Name-this-tune.com -- A "searchable, editable, and expandable collection of tunes, melodies, and musical themes."  If you are looking for a name for a certain tune, go to this site.  If you don't know the name of the tune, you can hum it into your computer microphone and it will return a title.
  • Native American Resources from Encyclopedia Smithsonian
  • Ohio Department of Insurance
  • Ohio Kids Card -- "Provides a discount card for products and services for Ohio families with children under 6 years of age."
  • Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook -- "Primary sources from archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums that document Ohio past from prehistory to the present."
  • Online Tutor and Typing Practice -- These two sites are for children, but adults can also use them to learn how to type.
  • Ohio Web Library -- Has MUCH information available of just about anything in Ohio and more.
  • Planet G-hop -- A portal to all kinds of places on the internet.
  • Petfinder -- Information about finding or adopting or how to care for a pet.
  • Project Vote Smart -- A non-partisan website to inform you of candidates' views on issues, their voting record, and other factual information on the national and local levels. 
  • U.S. Postal Service -- Postage Calculator -- Domestic & International, Zip Codes, buy stamps on line and much more.
  • Reversephonedirectory.com -- You type in a phone number and it returns the person and address the number belongs to.
  • Television Without Pity -- If you miss any episode on any TV program, this site brings you back up to date with summaries of all programs.  It also has news items and forums about current series.
  • Thistothat.com -- A helpful site for gluing items.
  • TheKnot.com -- All kinds of wedding information.
  • Urban Legends Reference Pages on Snopes.com -- Anytime you read a news article or trivial knowledge item and wonder, "Is that really true?", go to this site and check it out.
  • The Weather Channel
  • Voter Information -- How to register, where to vote, and much more information about voting.

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Health Resources

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Homework / Research Resources

  • About.com -- "Practical advice and solutions for almost any problem."
  • Ask a Librarian Online Reference Service
  • Auto Repair -- Detailed instructions on repairing almost any late model automobile.  If you access this database from home, you will need a library card number from Willard Memorial Library or one of its branches.  Willard Memorial Library has purchased a subscription to this database for its patrons.
  • Bartleby.com -- "The best of both contemporary and classic reference works into the most comprehensive public reference library ever published on the web."
  • Books & Authors Research by OPLIN -- An OPLIN customized Google engine to search for authors, titles, subjects... anything about books. Use it to find books, to get background information about books and authors, to see reader reviews and suggestions for similar reading, to get series information, to preview books, and even to find books in WorldCat libraries.
  • CIA World Factbook -- Has an incredible amount of geographical information.
  • Cleveland Public Library Databases and Links -- Collection of MANY education and literature-related links.
  • Dictionary.com -- Find all kinds of definitions in all kinds of dictionaries.
  • DiscoverySchool.com -- Website of the cable Discovery Channel.  Has much useful information.

  • Dewey Browse -- Web Sites classified by the Dewey Decimal Classification System for Grades K-12.

  • Electric Library -- An On-line library to find MANY resources.

  • FactCheck.org -- A non-partisan site that strives to give objective information on government and political facts.

  • Factmonster.com -- Has facts about anything imaginable.
  • The Franklin Institute Science Museum--A number of online exhibits worth checking out. Good for both teachers & students.
  • How Stuff Works -- In an entertaining way, this site shows how just about anything you can think of works.
  • Internet Public Library -- Project of the University of Michigan
  • Internet Archive -- Archive of discontinued and lost websites.  Anytime you come to one of those "404: file not found" pages and you know the page or website once existed, go here and search over 11 billion past pages.
  • Librarians' Index to the Internet -- a searchable, annotated subject directory of more than 11,000 Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries. 
  • Library of Congress -- A great deal of information from many areas can be found here. Organized well.
  • Literary Resources on the Net
  • Martindale Centre Calculators -- With over 18,000 different calculators, that can handle Mathematics and Statistics, Science A-z, Physics Astrophysics and Astronomy, Engineering, A-z, Electrical and Computing Engineering. The use of these calculators and converters is an education in its self.
  • National Geographic
  • Ohio Web Library -- See OPLIN below.
  • Online Encyclopedia
  • Open Library -- Their goal is to have on-line a page from every book written.  As of 8/12/2008, they have over 13 million books with full text of over 200,000 books.
  • OPLIN (Ohio Public Library Information Network) Databases -- Has MUCH information available of just about anything in Ohio and more databases of just about anything else you desire to know.  These databases have recently been renamed to Ohio Web Library.  Click here to do a simple search of the databases.
  • Refdesk.com -- "A free and family-friendly site that indexes and reviews quality, credible, and current reference resources."  Includes the useful "Newspapers - USA and Worldwide" which gives links to newspapers in every state, major newspapers of the USA, and all over the world.  
  • Smithsonian Website -- Has many online resources for research.
  • The Straight Dope -- Syndicated columnist Cecil Adams answers all kinds of questions -- both strange and straight ones.
  • Students.gov -- A government-wide web portal to help students find any kind of federal service or information.
  • The Tank Museum -- Everything you've always wanted to know about Army tanks and more.
  • ThinkQuest -- Contains unique educational web sites that have been created through ThinkQuest competitions and programs. The library currently contains more than 5,000 web sites. Built by students for students to use and learn. It is also a great place to get ideas for your own project.
  • Time-warp.org -- Information about any technology in the 20th Century.  
  • Top 20 Education Links
  • U.S. Census Bureau -- "Your source for population, housing, economic, and geographical data."
  • The Why Files -- Explanation of the Science behind the News.
  • Wikipedia -- The well known Internet Encyclopedia in all kinds of languages.  The English part has over 800,000 articles.
  • Wired for Books.org -- Contains author interviews -- an educational project of the Ohio University Telecommunications Center.

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KIDS / Teens -- For the Fun of It

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Legal Resources

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Local Interest

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Maps

  • Digital Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps collection -- Historical Maps of Ohio towns and cities.  From 1876 to 1970, the Sanborn Insurance Company created more than 40,035 maps of Ohio towns and cities. Originally used for fire insurance records, these detailed maps identify individual buildings on each block. Detailed information on the maps includes a given building’s occupant status (e.g., hotel or state capitol), the building’s height, and building’s street address among other things. 
  • Huron County Map
  • Online Maps

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News:

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Parents/Teacher Resources

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Reader Advisory

  • All About Romance -- A good place for romance readers to find the perfect match.

  • AllYouCanRead.com -- Browse all kinds of magazines and newspapers

  • Award-Winning Children's Literature Database by librarian Lisa Bartle

  • Book Browser -- "The guide for avid readers."

  • Bookhive.org -- Your Guide to Children's Literature & Books. Especially check out the "Zinger Tales" section, an exciting feature which allows viewers to experience the craft of storytelling through the use of Internet and streaming video.

  • BookPage Online -- A site for new book reviews.

  • Fantastic Fiction -- Separates information by author on series, stand-alone books, and collected works.  Helps to narrow down your choice from over 15,000 authors and 250,000 works.
  • The Fiction_L Booklists -- The ever-popular Fiction_L list of lists.

  • FindAGoodBook.net -- Reviews, suggestions on what to read next, locate lists of bestsellers and prize winners, add comments to the message board, read our blog and so much more. A service of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library.

  • Free eBooks.net -- Specializes in free fiction, tutorial, marketing and business eBooks.  Downloadable books can be read with the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

  • Historical Fiction Network -- Information on historical fiction for all time periods. Click on "Books" at the top for an assortment arranged by timeline.

  • Mid-Continent Public Library Recommended Reading for Young Adult and Juvenile Readers -- The 'Juvenile Series and Sequels' database currently contains over 24,500 books in series titles that are classified into three audiences.

  • Reader's Circle -- "If you've been looking for a way to connect with book-related groups, this is it. Reader's Circle is a free public directory that specializes in listings for book clubs and reader's circles. Anyone may post a listing or search for a group by zip code - all for free." [Quote from website]

  • Recommended Reading Lists from Springfield Library.

  • Recommended Reading for Kids from Omaha Public Library.

  • Recommended Reading for Teens from Omaha Public Library.

  • Scholastic Teacher Book Wizard -- Lets you search for juvenile books by reading level, interest level, subject, genre, and more.

  • Stop You're Killing Me! -- An excellent resource for mystery readers.

  • StoryPlace -- Provides animated online stories, reading lists, children's craft projects, and activity sheets in English and Spanish.

  • WhichBook.net -- Allows for setting levels on several "gauges" (happy-sad, gentle-violent, conventional-unusual, etc.) and finding books that exhibit those characteristics.

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