September 5, 2004: The National Guard This site offers a complete collection of information on the National Guard, including links to each state National Guard, fact sheets, the latest news involving the National Guard plus an archives, a listing of staff, and much more.

August 29, 2004: Power Reporting, Resources for Journalists This Web site by Bill Dedman provides links to a large number of free resources that are essential tools for journalists. Arranged by broad topic, the site will lead you to useful links relating to government, nonprofits, companies, journalism and more.

August 22, 2004: U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features: Labor Day Labor Day is just around the corner and this entry in the Facts for Features Web site will provide plenty of information and statistics about the holiday.

August 15, 2004: Olympic Interesting Facts The 2004 games have started and this site offers interesting and unusual facts relating to the Athens Olympics.

August 8, 2004: Cement & Concrete Basics With the occasional confusion in stories about the use of the words cement and concrete, this site will help to set the record straight. It includes a FAQ, how each material is made, basic information on the industry and much more.

August 1, 2004: Online Journalism Review This site from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California offers a close look at all aspects of online journalism, including the Internet, online newspapers, blogs, ethics and technology.

July 25, 2004: Lyme Disease It's Lyme disease season and this site from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a wealth of information on this topic. The information includes geographic distribution, life cycle of ticks, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research.

July 18, 2004: West Nile Virus The wet weather has produced a bumper crop of mosquitoes this summer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers a factsheet on the West Nile virus.

July 11, 2004: Summer Safety Tips The American Academy of Pediatrics Web site offers short lists of tips for families during the summer. The helpful information can be used with stories involving preventing sunburn, heat stress, pool safety, boat safety, bug safety, playground safety, bicycle, skateboard and scooter safety.

July 4, 2004: Extreme Heat With the warmest days of summer beating down on us, this site from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a good one to keep in mind when reporting on heat related illnesses. Includes information on heat exposure and tips on how to prevent heat illnesses. Includes FAQ and links to related sites.

June 27, 2004: Gigablast Want to try a different search engine? Try Gigablast. This search engine has far fewer indexed Web pages compared to the big boys, such as Google and Yahoo, but sometimes size doesn't matter. It has a very simple, ad-free interface and it has an interesting feature showing when a site was indexed and last modified. Another special feature is "Gigabits," allowing you to quickly add unique words or phrases associated to the previous search.

June 20, 2004: The State of the News Media 2004 This feature, offered by Journalism.org, provides an annual report on American journalism. It provides an overview of the media but also focuses on each segment. Issues dealing with newspapers include content analysis, audience, economics, ownership, news investment, and public attitudes.

June 13, 2004: Nieman Watchdog Put out by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, this site attempts to encourage more and better watchdog reporting. A main section of the site is called "Ask This," connecting journalists with experts to help frame informed, probing questions.

June 6, 2004: Quarterly Workforce Indicators The U.S. Census Bureau offers this site to help measure the performance of the local economy in terms of jobs, the type of workers and their income. The database allows you to view the information by individual county and to build the results by selecting the year, age groups, sex and industry.

May 30, 2004: CampaignSearch.com This site includes campaign-related video and audio files reporting on the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and George W. Bush. The files are from a number of Web sites, including C-Span, PBS and NPR. Also includes links to the Web sites of Kerry and Bush.

May 23, 2004: Infobel.com Here is another Internet telephone and address directory but this one includes a number of foreign countries. Search results will provide address and telephone number.

May 16, 2004: Military Casualty Information This site, maintained by the Directorate for Information Operations and Reports at the U.S. Dept. of Defense, provides statistics on military casualties. The list includes casualties from the Iraq war, but also includes the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.

May 9, 2004: Religionwriters.com Reference Library If you cover religion this site will be invaluable to you. It contains a collection of links that have been suggested and compiled by Religion Newswriters Association members and staff. The listing of links are arranged by topic, including culture & society, faith groups, religion journalism & education, government, and research & holy texts.

May 2, 2004: Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau's site is an essential resource when looking for information or statistics on businesses, labor and the economy. The site includes information on inflation, consumer spending, wages, job safety, employment and labor demographics. The 'At a Glance' and 'Latest Numbers' tables are handy for quick information.

April 25, 2004: Geographic Names Information System This online gazetteer, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, contains information on nearly 2 million physical and cultural places in the U.S. and its territories. Besides providing basic information on each place, the site provides links to maps.

April 18, 2004: Earth Day 2004 Online: A handy site to learn what Earth Day events are schedule in the area. It includes a searchable database of events and an extensive calendar arranged by date. The site also has a segment on the history of Earth Day.

April 11, 2004: Sports Facility Reports The Sports Facility Reports is part of the Marquette University Law School Web site. Besides including citations to books and articles on the topic of sports facilities, this site has compiled a listing of all professional baseball, basketball, football and hockey playing facilities. The information includes the name of the stadium, principal owner, the most recent purchase price and the percentage publicly financed, and the current value.

April 4, 2004: WisStat Some of you might already know about this site maintained by the UW Applied Population Laboratory. It is an excellent tool for demographic data, allowing you to create tables using a variety of census information. Wisconsin census information is available down to the tract and block levels on every county, community and place.

March 28, 2004: Virtual Hospital This digital health sciences library was created in 1992 at the University of Iowa to meet the growing needs of health care providers and patients. The site contains thousands of textbooks and booklets covering all health topics and includes a section on health topics in the news. Each month spotlights several health related issues.

March 21, 2004: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count This up-to-date site tracks the casualties in the Iraq war. The casualties are sorted by month, state and by name. The name list can be sorted alphabetically, by rank, age, service branch or by unit. The site also provides links to news stories relating to military deaths in Iraq.

March 14, 2004: Stateline.org - 50-state rundown on gay marriage laws Another visit to Stateline.org provides a handy list of the laws from each state regarding gay marriage. This year alone, 35 states have introduced legislation on this topic. Stateline.org provides updates to the list as new information becomes available.

March 7, 2004: Infobel.com Another online telephone directory with often accurate results. It searches by last name, community and state. As the WSJ/TCT library's telephone book collection is slowly going away, it is always good to have several online telephone directories you can rely on. A full collection of the directories can be found in the "People Finding" listing in The Library Files.

February 29, 2004: Amazon.com Search Inside the Book You might already know about this service from Amazon.com, but it is worth a mention as the Site of the Week. Last October, Amazon.com made available the complete contents of 120,000 contemporary books to full-text searching, providing a unique and useful research tool. Books to search include novels, popular history, technical and academic works and short stories.

February 22, 2004: Guidestar Guidestar provides access to current year and historical IRS tax filings (990s) for over 850,000 registered charitable organizations. The site provides revenue, expenses, assests and liabilities for each organization. The search is free but you are required to register.

February 15, 2004: The Campaign Desk This blog from the Columbia Journalism Review monitors the news reporting and commentary of the 2004 presidential election. It allows you to view reports by candidate, issue or by "angle," such as Fact Check, Hidden Angle, Echo Chamber, Money Trail, Spin Buster, Distortion, Tip of the Hat, and Cheap Shot. The site is searchable.

February 8, 2004: Times on the Trail: A continuously updated blog from the New York Times, this site reports on the 2004 presidential election campaign. The stories are from The Times' Washington bureau. It also includes links to newspaper stories from around the country and candidates' schedules.

February 1, 2004: Gannett News Department The Gannett Newspaper Division has now made its News Department's Web site available to everyone on the Internet. It includes training tools, a listing of Web resources for newsrooms and examples of the best work around Gannett. A few of the links are password protected for Gannett employees, but overall, a good site for any journalist.

January 25, 2004: Lake Superior State University Banished Words List: Each year, a selection committee from the Lake Superior State University compiles a banished words list - words and phrases that are misused, overused or are just plain useless. The Web site provides the list for each year plus an alphabetical listing of all the words chosen for the banished list since its beginning in 1976.

January 18, 2004: Governing.com - The Way We Tax This report from Governing magazine analyzes and evaluates the tax structure of all 50 states. Includes a tax collection by source breakdown and fast tax facts for each state. Includes a helpful tax glossary.

January 11, 2004: Complete Planet: Complete Planet is a useful Internet directory, arranging information by 34 topics, including agriculture, arts, business, finance government, health, law, music, religion, sports and weather. Each topic has a collection of subtopics, leading you to Web sites that are very specific to your searching needs.

January 4, 2004: Search Inside the Book: Launched by Amazon.com this past October, "Search Inside the Book" allows you to search the full-text of over 120,000 titles. More than 190 publishers are participating with Amazon.

December 28, 2003: AnyWho Online Directory: One of the better online telephone and address directories is AnyWho. The search results, which often are successful, offer the telephone number and street address. AnyWho does not require all search fields to be filled in. For example, you can search just by last name and state if you are not sure of certain details, such as first name or community. One nice feature of AnyWho allows you to find neighbors of the person you have searched by simply clicking on the street name .

December 21, 2003: The New York Times Article Archive: This database allows you to search the complete New York Times archive, over 16 million articles, since 1851. The search is free but to print or download will cost $2.95 per story.

December 14, 2003: Cyber Times Navigator: Cyber Times Navigator is the Web directory used by The New York Times newsroom. It organizes links into useful categories, such as search engines, reference sources, telephone directories, online publications, entertainment, sports and more.

December 7, 2003: Secrecy News: Secrecy News is an e-mail publication of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy (FAS stands for Federation of American Scientists). The site allows you to subscribe to the list for future e-mails but also provides an archive of previous issues. The articles provide coverage of new developments in government secrecy, security and intelligence policies.

November 30, 2003: The University of Wisconsin Collection: This collection of digital resources focuses on the history of the University of Wisconsin. The primary item in the collection is the four-volume set, "The University of Wisconsin: A History." Some of the other resources center around the Memorial Union. The searchable database allows for simple, boolen and proximity searching.

November 23, 2003: Media Resource Service: Maintained by Sigma Xi, an interdisciplinary, non-profit honor society, this site provides names of scientists and expert sources of scientific and technology information. The database includes thousands of scientists, engineers, physicians and policy-makers who are willing to provide information on short notice to journalists.

November 16, 2003: HomeTownLocator Gazetteer: The HomeTownLocator Gazetteer is a very handy and easy way to locate demographic information. You can search by community, county or by zip code. The data includes population, housing units, land area, water area, population density and housing density. The gazetteer also provides aerial photos from the U.S. Geological Survey.

November 9, 2003: Wisconsin Law Enforcement Directory This site, maintained by the Wisconsin Dept. of Justice, offers a great resource of contact information for law enforcement personnel throughout the state, including police officers, district attorneys, victim/witness coordinators, wardens, county sheriffs, and key people in the Justice Department. Information includes phone numbers, e-mail address and fax numbers.

November 2, 2003: The Internet Movie Database A great Web site if you are looking for anything related to movies - characters, quotes, bios of actors, plots and more. A very thorough and authoritative source for film research.

October 26, 2003: Reference Databases This resource offers reference links through the South Central Library System Web site. You will need a library card in order to use these links. One of the resources that the South Central Library System links to is Reference USA. Reference USA allows you to search for basic business information nationwide, including estimated sales and number of employees. Other links are to magazine and newspaper databases, EBSCO and Proquest.

October 19, 2003: Journalism.org This Web site is the result of the combined efforts of the Project of Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists. It contains a collection of tools, research, links and many other useful items for practicing journalists and journalism students.

October 12, 2003: Dialing for Dollars The U.S. Cenus Bureau's Facts for Features has a special edition on the telemarketing industry. It provides statistics on the number of telemarketing establishments, sales, employees, payroll and more. It also gives data on telephone service.

October 5, 2003: FEMA Federal Disaster Declarations Arranged by date with the most recent disaster declarations on top, this site provides a complete list of major disaster declarations, emergency declarations and fire management assistance declarations. Each listing gives the date, state, type of disaster and links to more information regarding the disaster. An archives going back to 1992 disasters is also available.

September 28, 2003: U.S. Census Bureau - Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. This site of the U.S. Census Bureau will provide statistics and facts about Hispanics, including population, income, education, employment, housing, and more.

September 21, 2003: University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Ecology and Natural Resources Collection This site brings together writings about research in ecology and natural resources conducted by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff. A special feature offers 188 images of naturalist Aldo Leopold.

September 14, 2003: Wind Powering America The U.S. Department of Energy maintains this Web site and program with its goal to dramatically increase the use of wind energy in the United States. It includes state wind maps and regional information along with consumer information.

September 7, 2003: U.S. Newspaper Program This site, an arm of the National Endowment for the Humanities, allows you to monitor the progress of the project of locating, cataloging, and preserving on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. It provides a state-by-state listing with contact information and Web links for specific collections.

August 31, 2003: Special Recall Election Voter Guide This site provides helpful information and links for the upcoming California gubernatorial recall election. It includes links to the candidates' Web pages, FAQs, campaign finance information and news from various California and national newspapers. The site is maintained by the California Voter Foundation, a non-profit organization.

August 24, 2003: How Stuff Works If you need background information on almost anything, this is a good place to start. How does the electoral college work, what do the numbers in social security cards mean, what does "Auld Lang Syne" mean, and how do power grids work are just a few examples of what you will find answered in How Stuff Works.

August 17, 2003: Back to School Facts for Features - U.S. Census Bureau The U.S. Census Bureau's Facts for Features this month provides statistics, facts and numbers for back to school stories.

August 10, 2003: Licensed Occupations Database This site provides the capability to search for occupational licensing requirements by state, occupation and agency. Offers lists of licensed occupations and the licensing board contacts. A description of each occupation is included.

August 3, 2003: Search Systems A comprehensive site for finding public records. Provides a very handy listing for each state that links you to court records, professional license information, savings institutions, nursing homes and much more.

July 27, 2003: Aesop's Fables A great resource of over 655 full-text Fables, the online collection includes an index, accompanying morals and 127 fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen.

July 20, 2003: 1stHeadlines Want to keep up with the wire editor, or maybe stay just one step ahead? Try this site. It gives you the latest headlines and a link to the story from hundreds of newspapers and online news sites around the world.

July 13, 2003: WhoWhatWhen Sticking with the timeline theme from July 6, the WhoWhatWhen site offers interactive historical timelines from 1000 AD to the present time. The site allows you to compare events and people in many disciplines, including music, art, literature, science, politics, sports and many others. Clicking on each name or event performs an automatic Google search for more information.

July 6, 2003: OurTimeLines.com Now, a time for a little fun. OurTimeLines.com allows you to create a chronology of events during your lifetime. Just type in your dates and within seconds a chronology will appear. Many of the listings will link to additional information.

June 29, 2003: The National Council on Fireworks Safety This site provides an overview of fireworks laws in all states, fireworks injuries and tips for fireworks safety and displays.

June 22, 2003: Well Connected Well Connected is a site maintained by The Center For Public Integrity. It offers searchable databases that provide information regarding ownership of every radio, television and cable station and telephone company in the United States. The database allows you to search by company name, call sign or location.

June 15, 2003: Encyclopedia of Television This site is a treasure trove for information and facts on past television programs and entertainers. The Encyclopedia of Television also offers major policy disputes on topics such as violence on TV, tabloid television and the quiz show scandal.

June 8, 2003: Father's Day June 15 The latest 'Facts for Features' segment from the U.S. Census Bureau provides statistics on fathers.

June 1, 2003: Today's Front Pages: This site is the online version of a popular exhibit of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The Web site includes over 150 front pages from newspapers in the U.S. and an additional 85 papers from 30 countries. A very handy site if you want to see how other papers played a big story on the front page.

May 25, 2003: Wordcounter: Paste your story text into Wordcounter and it will rank the most frequently used words that you have used in the story. It allows you to include or exclude the small "noise" words, such as "it" "the" "if" and so on. The site gives you a quick glance at your word usage.

May 18, 2003: NASCIO State Search: NASCIO is an association that represents state chief information officers from the 50 states. The State Search allows links to the states' Web pages on a variety of subjects, including agriculture, corrections, education, governors, legilatures, revenue, state libraries, statutes and many others.

May 11, 2003: The Journalist's Toolbox: The American Press Institute offers The Journalist's Toolbox, a collection of links that features more than 19,000 Web sites that journalists will find helpful.

May 4, 2003: PowerReporting: A great site for journalists, PowerReporting offers a large collection of Web sites that are arranged by beat. It also provides sites for doing research on companies or people. PowerReporting, a partner of Columbia Journalism Review and maintained by Bill Dedman, has a diverse listing of journalism related Web sites.

April 27, 2003: Newsroom Technology Training: This site is full of tip sheets for journalists, including how to use Excel, search engine comparisons, backgrounding beats, 50 story ideas, math and more. These tip sheets are used at IRE and NICAR training sessions. The site is maintained by Deb Wolfe, technology training editor for the St. Petersburg Times.

April 20, 2003: J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism from the University of Maryland has a Web site to help news organizations use innovative computer technologies. The site includes examples of what other newspapers have done regarding critical public policy issues.

April 13, 2003: The Foundation Center: This site offers a wealth of information on over 70,000 foundations in the United States. A simple and free 'Foundation Finder' tool allows you to retrieve basic information on U.S. foundations, including address, contact person, type of foundation, assets, total giving and the foundation's most recent IRS filing (form 990-PF).

April 6, 2003: World Health Organization: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) The World Health Organization's Web site provides up-to-date information on SARS. Among other things, the WHO site lists the number of reported SARS cases, travel advice and affected areas of the world.

March 30, 2003: Social Security Online History Page It's hard to tell what the future of Social Security will be, but with this Web site, it will be no problem in gathering the historical information regardng the program.

March 23, 2003: Military Casualty Information This site might offer useful information if you need to compare numbers of the current Iraq war with other conflicts and wars. Includes casualty information for the war on terrorism.

March 16, 2003: NewsLab Links for Journalists This journalism site contains a list of excellent links arranged by topic, including children's issues, clergy sexual abuse, health care, school funding, terrorism, transit and light rail, water quality and many more. It also contains a listing of research reports and articles relating to journalism and Internet resources for covering Iraq. The NewsLab is associated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

March 9, 2003: Online Conversion A great site when you need to convert almost anything you can think of. Distance, temperature, speed, volume, area and power are just a few of the units that you can convert.

March 2, 2003: CBS News Disaster Links A fairly extensive subject directory of disaster-related topics. Some of the categories are biological weapons, terrorism, drought, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, oil spills, tornadoes and wild fires. The CBS site is a good starting point when looking for reliable disaster-related Web sites.

February 23, 2003: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Anderson Library Internet Directory The librarians at the Anderson Library, UW-Whitewater, have created a useful directory to the Internet, arranging the links by broad category. Examples of the directory topics include: general reference, government, law, arts, humanities, education, business, science and the social sciences.

February 16, 2003: GovEngine.comThis site provides links to each state's legislative, judicial and executive Web sites, plus links to counties and municipalities. GovEngine also links you to Web sites pertaining to the federal government and federal courts.

February 9, 2003: Black Facts Online Black Facts Online offers information on blacks around the world, not just in the U.S. You can search the database by keyword or by date, listing the various historical events and accomplishments for each day of the year.

February 2, 2003: GPO Access This site is a treasure trove of federal government information. It includes the Congressional record, a history of bills since 1983, the U.S. budget, U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 1937, the Federal Register and all of the core documents of U.S. democracy, such as the Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

January 26, 2003: GuideStar This is a terrific site that allows you to search for and view IRS tax returns (Form 990) of over 850,000 non-profit organizations. The site provides information on an organization's finances, mission and programs and leaders.

January 19, 2003: The National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial The launch of the bicentennial celebration of the epic journey begins at Monticello on January 18. Use this site as a starting point to do research on Lewis and Clark, learn about the upcoming events and read the latest news releases.

January 12, 2003: What's Up With The Weather? Public Broadcasting's NOVA examines global warming, looking at the scientific and political aspects of this controversial issue. Includes a list of resources and Web links, program excerpts and graphs.

January 5, 2003: Securities Class Action Clearinghouse This site is a part of the Stanford Law School Web site and provides detailed information relating to the prosecution, defense, and settlement of federal class action securities fraud litigation. Includes news and press releases and a searchable database of all federal district courts.

December 29, 2002: FirstGov for Science This site is maintained by the National Technical Information Services and serves basically as a gateway to authoritative science Web sites. The links are sorted by topic, including agriculture and food, astronomy and space, biology and nature, health and medicine, science education, and much more.

December 22, 2002: State Environmental Resource Center (SERC) The State Environmental Resource Center (SERC) researches state environmental policies and assembles information and tools to help legislators and activists make important decisions on key environmental issues. The Web site includes "policy issues" such as clean energy, saving wildlands, safe air and water, and urban issues. Each issue includes the text of bills, press clips, facts and background, and links to related Web sites.

December 15, 2002: University of Wisconsin Experts Database This site is already listed in The Library Files under UW in 'Links by Beat' but it is worth mentioning again. This very useful site will lead you to the professors and researchers that are experts in a given subject area. A simple search will provide the contact information and a short annotation explaining the area of expertise.

December 8, 2002: PeopleSpot PeopleSpot is a handy directory for finding information on people. This site provides a collection of Web links that will allow you to search for a person's address, read biographies on people in the news and celebrities, look up census data and much more. There are companion sites to PeopleSpot, including BookSpot, GovSpot, HeadlineSpot and LibrarySpot.

December 1, 2002: Rocketinfo Finding late breaking news on the Internet is difficult unless you go to specific news Web sites, but that doesn't always satisfy your information needs. The search engine, Rocketinfo, looks at thousands of news and information Web sites daily and provides an updated news index, allowing you to read a variety news stories on your desired topic from the most recent five days.

November 24, 2002: NCAA Record Books This site has all the collegiate sports information you will ever need. All of the major sports are included in the various record books available through the NCAA. The site allows you to view the books online. It is a bit hard to read at times, but the pages print out very clearly. A great sports resource.

November 17, 2002: TinyURL Have you ever found a terrific Web site and wanted to e-mail the URL, or Web address, to another person only to find the address was too long and it would break apart while being e-mailed? This Web site will solve the problem of long Web addresses. Just copy and paste the address into TinyURL and you will receive a small-sized address that is more manageable.

November 10, 2002: Romenesko's MediaNews Jim Romenesko maintains this site for the Poynter Institute. In his column, Romenesko follows the various issues concerning the media and provides links to credible news sources.

November 3, 2002: The Merck Veterinary Manual The very reliable Merck and Co. maintains this comprehensive reference for animal care. It allows you to search by topic, species, disease and keyword. A handy resource for quick definitions of animal health terms and explanations of various health problems found in all types of animals.

October 27, 2002: A Comprehensive Glossary Of Weather Terms This site is maintained by the National Weather Service and provides definitions to a wide variety of weather terms. Check this site for the meaning of scud, wedge, dry punch, helicity, and hundreds of other weather terms.

October 20, 2002: The Calendar Home Page Have you ever needed to check an old calendar only to find out it's impossible to find an old calendar? This website allows you to create a calendar for any year and month, past and future. There are many features with this site, including a calendar converter, a date calculator and links to other calendar websites.

October 13, 2002: Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention Based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention is dedicated to advancing the science of tobacco dependence and its treatment. The website includes fact sheets, providing smoking trends and statistics for people in Wisconsin and the nation. It also includes a compilation of sources and links pertaining to outreach and prevention services.

October 6, 2002: Politicalweb.info This site is maintained by the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement at the University of Washington. The purpose of this site is to track the use and development of websites used in national and state-wide campaigns.

September 29, 2002: 100,000 Watts U.S. Radio and TV Directory A directory of over 18,000 radio and television stations in the U.S., includes great searching capabilities. Need to know all of the PBS stations in a particular state? How about all of the radio stations in the country with a frequency of 101.5? You can find the answers here plus a lot more. Each entry lists the owner, network service, the location of the transmitters and a link to the station's website.

September 22, 2002: TranStats A new website from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics providing access to more than 100 transportation related databases. The site allows you to locate transportation data by agency, mode (aviation, highway, transit, etc.) and subject.

September 15, 2002: Who's Alive and Who's Dead This site has over 2,000 celebrities arranged by category - politician, musician, actor, athlete, models, business leaders, and many more - and notes if they are alive or dead. The author of this site includes people on his list based on his personal, subjective criteria and does not include the obvious, such as people who have been dead for over 25 years. Includes date of birth, date of death and very brief biographical information. It is a helpful site when you can't remember if a particular celebrity is still living.

September 8, 2002: West Nile Virus Maps - 2002 This site, maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey and supported by the Centers for Disease Control, offers recent data on the spread of the West Nile Virus. It includes maps of the U.S. and individual states and counties, reflecting the tracking and spread of the virus. It includes frequently updates to the 2002 map, plus information from 2000 and 2001.

September 1, 2002: Geography IQ Need quick information on a country? Then this site is for you. Geography IQ provides facts and figures about each country's geography, demographics, economy and government. It also provides historical and cultural background, weather, currency and foreign relations. The site also provides rankings on a number of topics, including area, land use, population, death rate, literacy and much more.

August 25, 2002: Medical Reference for Non-Medical Librarians This site, compiled by a information services librarian at the Health Sciences Library at UNC-Chapel Hill, is a subject directory linking to numerous sites that cover health topics. Subject links include those relating to cancer, children's health, dentistry, nutrition and senior health. It also provides links to dictionaries, magazines and medical guides.

August 18, 2002: Facts for Features This site is compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau. It consists of a collection of statistics pertaining to holidays and special events or observances. The data, compiled from demographic and economic subject areas by the Census Bureau, makes for great background information for feature stories.

August 11, 2002: NewswiseA handy database if you are looking for news release information from universities and medical and scientific research institutions. It also provides exclusive privileges to journalists, including access to embargoed news releases. Newswise offers an 'expert query' when you need to locate experts in various fields.

August 4, 2002: State Health Facts Online This site, sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, offers state-level data on health, including demographics, policy, legislation, coverage and access. It allows health comparisons of the fifty states and provides individual state profiles complete with Website contact information and the names of governors and U.S. Senators.

July 28, 2002: Navigating the Maze of Criminal Records Retrieval This link will take you to a very comprehensive article written on the LLRX.com site. The article directs you to the online services that offer criminal records information. The story was updated in 2001 but still very helpful.

July 21, 2002: Are you interested in Wisconsin history? Need to know what happened on a particular date? Check this site out while it is still free.

July 14, 2002: Thomas Regional This is a searchable directory of products and services from 550,000 industrial manufacturers, distributors and service providers. You can structure your search by state. It includes catalogs of product specs and photos. The site requires you to register before you can gain full access to the information.

July 7, 2002: How Air Force One Works Learn everything about Air Force One by going to this "How Stuff Works" site. It includes a floor plan of the airplane, a history, special features and a great deal more.

June 30, 2002: National Coalition Against Censorship This advocacy site has a compilation of news stories on censorship, a selective timeline of censorship in the U.S. since 1989 and a list of upcoming events related to censorship. The site is searchable, allowing you to search by keyword, for example your state or community, to see if there are any censorship-related issues.

June 23, 2002: Polling Report This Web site is maintained by an independent, non-partisan group, offering a collection of polls on national and international matters. It also provides state-by-state presidential, congressional and gubernatorial polls. The polls are collected by major media, such as CNN/USA Today, Fox News, Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, Harris and many others.

June 16, 2002: Homeland Security (GovExec.com) This online magazine is published by Government Executive, whose primary mission is to cover the business of the federal government. Their primary clientele are senior executives and managers in the various federal agencies. Homeland Security is one of their publications. Others are 'Procurement,' 'Technology,' and 'A-76 & Outsourcing.'

June 9, 2002: 2001 State Government Tax Collections This U.S. Census Bureau site lists the 25 taxes collected by each state, including property, motor fuels, tobacco, motor vehciles, hunting, corporate and income. You can view each state separately or in a handy spread sheet format listing all 50 states together. The Web page also includes a ranking option, allowing you to see where the states rank in terms of total taxes collected and per capita.

June 2, 2002: Virtual Reference Shelf This handy collection of Web reference tools is compiled by the Library of Congress. It provides links to almanacs, encyclopedia, directories, biographies, quotations and much more. It also includes Alcove 9, an annotated list of reference Websites in the humanities and social sciences division of the Library of Congress covering 26 categories.

May 26, 2002: National Image Library of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service This site offers over two thousand digital images on a wide range of wildlife and environmental topics. All photos are in the public domain and can be used without concern of copyright infringement. The site is searchable by subject, photographer or location.

May 19, 2002: HomophoneZone This is a fun site, providing a list of homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). Besides being fun, it can also be a handy writing tool if you are unsure of the correct version of the word, as each homophone comes with a short definition.

May 12, 2002: Fire Wars (NOVA) This is a companion Web site to a recent NOVA program, "Fire Wars," detailing the wildfire battles of 2000. It will be a useful site for the future as it includes links to additional wild fire Web sites, facts about wild fires, a virtual fire lab, a glossary of fire terms and much more.

May 5, 2002: The National Environmental Directory The National Environmental Directory contains over 13,000 organizations in the U.S. involved with environmental issues and education. It allows you to search for an organization by name, zip code or keyword and displays a wealth of information on each organization.

April 28, 2002: e-Podunk This site provides community profiles on practically every community in the country, along with the business patterns of all U.S. counties, all listed and arranged by state. Other listings include colleges with brief profiles, museums and historic sites. Looking for the communities that have apple festivals? You'll find that here as well as other festivals, all arranged by month.

April 21, 2002: U.S. Newspaper List Another handy site for locating U.S. newspaper Web sites. The links are arranged by state, allowing for a quick and easy access to the list of newspapers. Also included are links to Web sites of television and radio stations.

April 14, 2002: The Great Buildings Collection

This is an interesting and well-done site focusing on architecture. It documents a thousand buildings around the world and hundreds of architects. The buildings can be found by searching under the name of the building, architect or location. It also lists the entries by architectural style and building type. Also includes a bibliography of some of the best books on architecture.

April 7, 2002: Finding Court Opinions on the Web

This is a great site of links to every level of courts, beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court and going down to the state level. Provides a state-by-state arrangement of district courts, bankruptcy courts and state courts.

March 31, 2002: Financial Services Factbook

This site offers information and statistics on the financial services industry, including banking, credit unions, insurance, brokers, securities and mutual fund managers.

March 24, 2002: National Association of Counties

This handy site provides information on the 3,066 counties in the U.S., including county officials, statistics and ordinances. The listing of county officials is complete with an e-mail link. Statistics include population, square miles, and a listing of all communities in each county. The county information also provides a link to the U.S. Census Bureau that offers income and poverty data, economic census information and a Tiger map link.

March 17, 2002: Year by Year, 1900-2001

A great site if you are looking for historical events over the past 101 years. This InfoPlease site allows you to browse by year or by decade. Every entry includes additional links that provide definitions or broader information. Includes links to many timelines on a variety of topics. You can also find information on disasters, entertainment and sports.

March 10, 2002: Obituary Index

The obituary index compiled by the Madison Public Library is available online. The database includes obituaries that have appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal since 1960, and also a selection of Wisconsin State Journal stories that appeared in the paper between 1968 and 1996.

March 3, 2002: Government Printing Office

The Government Printing Office Web site is a treasure trove of information. By selecting the GPO Access option, you have links to Congressional bills, the U.S. Code, the U.S. budget, Supreme Court decisions going back to 1937, the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution, plus a great deal more.

February 24, 2002: RobertNiles.com

For the second consecutive week the Web site in the spotlight focuses on statistics. The site includes basic statistical information every writer should know. RobertNiles.com is maintained by Robert Niles, a senior producer at latimes.com.

February 17, 2002: STATS (Statistical Assessment Service)

A helpful Web site pertaining to scientific and social research information and statistics. STATS is a non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to weeding out bad data before it reaches the media. A great resource for any journalist with a statistical question regarding science or social research. The site includes STATS monthly newsletter, "VitalSTATS: The Numbers Behind the News.

February 10, 2002: Washington Headquarters Services

Do you need to know the military spending in the state, what communities are receiving military dollars, and the companies that are receiving the big military contracts? The answers to those questions, and more, can be found at this interesting site maintained by the Department of Defense. It allows you to search by state.

February 3, 2002: AlternaTime

This site offers links to a wide assortment of timelines on the Web. Compiled by a librarian at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., the timelines are arranged by broad topics - history, science and technology, arts and literature, pop culture and current events, and science fiction.

January 27, 2002: Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau

A collection of the full-text audit reports since 1993 published by the state's Legislative Audit Bureau. The site lists the reports by topic and by year and it also includes a handy search box.

January 20, 2002: Business Filings Databases

A directory of links, arranged by state, to public businesses and non-profit organizations and their various business filings. The site is from the Law Library Resource Exchange (LLRX).

January 13, 2002: Grass-roots.org

This site lists, by state, programs and organizations that are committed to improving their communities. Three listed for Wisconsin include the Community Action Coalition, Esperanza Unida and the Institute for Research on Poverty.

January 6, 2002: Facts About Newspapers

This site, maintained by the Newspaper Association of America, provides information on newspaper circulation, employment, readership, advertising and much more. Backtracking on the Web address to www.naa.org will take you to the home page of NAA, providing you with additional information on the newspaper industry.

December 30, 2001: EPA Storage Tanks Web site

This site will provide information on regulations and laws regarding underground storage tanks. A handy link is available listing state agencies that deal with underground tanks. The link is: http://www.epa.gov/swerust1/states/stateurl.htm

December 23, 2001: Editorial Matters

You all have read the printed version of "Editorial Matters." Now here is the virtual version developed and maintainted by David Stoeffler. It is a great way to keep up-to-date with the journalistic efforts throughout Lee.

December 16, 2001: National Academies report - "America's Uninsured: A Closer Look"

The National Academy of Sciences offers information on Americans who are uninsured. The site provides a summary of facts, myths, demographics, etc. from their report. An excellent site if you are covering a story related to health insurance because of the quality and quantity of links to related Web sites.

December 9, 2001: BuzzWhack

This site claims to be educational with a sense of humor with a goal of de-mystifying buzzwords. It was created by John Walston, a veteran editor at USA Today and the Wilmington News Journal.

December 2, 2001: Barbara's News Researcher's Page

Barbara's News Researcher's Page is compiled and maintained by veteran news researcher Barbara Shapiro, formerly with the Palm Beach Post and Associated Press. She has compiled an exhaustive list of links by topic. This is a great site to begin your search if you are unfamiliar with the topic. Just overlook the biography of her cat.

November 25, 2001: The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk

This site offers daily tips on useful online and Internet resources. A great way to keep up on the latest Internet news and information.

November 18, 2001: The Mother Goose Pages

Did you ever need to add a line of a nursery rhyme to one of your stories or double-check the accuracy of the wording of a children's poem? If yes, then this site will help you the next time that situation arises. The Mother Goose Pages contains the full-text of numerous rhymes, some well-known and others that are not.

November 11, 2001: The Veterans Day Home Page

Maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, this site offers links to various Veterans Day sites, including a patriotic fact sheet, a history of Veterans Day and frequently asked questions about the holiday.

November 4, 2001: Kiosken

Need to find a newspaper Web site from another state? Or country? This site will help you easily find newspaper, magazine and trade paper Web pages.

October 28, 2001: INTA Trademark Checklist

This site, compiled by the International Trademark Association, includes listings for nearly 3,000 trademarks registered in the United States. The list can be useful to journalists when questions arise concerning trademark usage and punctuation. Includes links to other trademark resources.

October 21, 2001: The Archives Computer Catalog (ArCat)

The catalog of the Wisconsin Historical Society's archives is online. The extensive manuscript collections and government records can be searched from the comfort of your own desk. Want information of campus protests during the Vietnam War or Kirk Douglas' movie production company? You'll find it, and a lot of other interesting material, at this site.

October 14, 2001: Best Information on the Net

This site, sponsored by the O'Keefe Library at St. Ambrose University, acts as a simple subject directory, linking you to helpful sites on a variety of topics, including: Biographies, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, English Usage Guides, Image Finder, Quotations, Rankings and much more.

October 7, 2001: Newspaper Links

This Newspaper Association of American site is a handy way to link to newspaper Websites around the country and world. It provides you with a clickable map and drop-down menus, allowing you to choose which page you want to link to, such as the paper's home page, classified page, calendar page, city guide, etc. It includes links to dailies, weeklies, campus papers and news organizations.

September 30, 2001: Kids Count

Statistics on the state and national level which tracks the status and well-being of children. Profiles, graphs, maps and rankings detail the information on children in poverty, teen birth rate, infant mortality rate, school dropouts, teen death rate, employment and much more.

September 23, 2001: Resources on the Islamic World

This site, sponsored by the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, offers a large number of links on the Islamic world, including newspapers, research institutes, organizations and societies.

September 16, 2001: Cyberjournalist.net

A key site for Internet journalism. One of the useful tools at Cyberjournalist is the SuperSearch page. It provides a handy compilation of search engines, useful reference sites, newsgathering links and Internet guides for reporters.

September 9, 2001: DeadlineOnline.com

Created by journalist Alan Schlein, this site provides links to Internet tools for finding people and news on the Web.

September 2, 2001: Statistical Resources on the Web

A great Web site for finding statistics on a wide-range of topics, including business, health, housing, demographics, crime and a ton more. A handy index links you to the desired pages.

August 26, 2001: Copyright Search

The U.S. Copyright Office has launched a new and easier way of searching for copyright information on millions of books, music, recordings, movies, software and other works dating back to 1978.

August 19, 2001: CheeseNet

Practically everything you need or want to know about cheese. The site includes cheese links (including newsgroups), references to cheese in literature, the history of cheese, a cheese glossary and much more.

August 12, 2001: AgriSurf

This agricultural search engine contains nearly 20,000 Web sites, hand-picked by ag experts. The Web sites can be searched using keywords or by using the directory.

August 5, 2001: Zip Code Lookup

A quick and handy way to find a community's zip code. You can search by community, county or area code. It also allows you to search by zip code in order to find the name of a community.

July 29, 2001: Wisconsin Historical Society Digital Library and Archives

This new site from the Wisconsin Historical Society offers over 41,000 newspaper clippings between 1870 and 1940 from many newspapers in the state.

July 22, 2001: World Press Institute

Based in St. Paul, the WPI's mission is to foster understanding about the role and responsibilities of a free press in a democracy. John Ullmann is the executive director.

July 15, 2001: Cupolas of Capitalism: State Capitol Building Histories

Historical and architechtural information is available for every U.S. state capitol. Links are made to various sites to provide a wide assortment of photos and historical background.

July 8, 2001: Google Image search engine

Google's new search engine has indexed over 150 million images. Enter keywords to find pages with 20 thumbnails. The thumbnails include the image size the and URL of the source page.

July 1, 2001: World Chamber of Commerce

Not only will you find the obvious, the addresses (including e-mail) and telephone numbers (including fax) of chamber of commerce offices around the globe, you will find information on visitors bureaus, economic development groups, state tourism contacts and U.S. and foreign embassies.

June 24, 2001: Investigative Reporters and Editors

An important site for all newspaper journalists. The IRE national conference was held last week in Chicago. To learn more about the worth of IRE and the conference, ask Andy Hall, Phil Glende, Phil Brinkman or Lisa Schuetz.

June 17, 2001: The Slot

A site copy editors might enjoy, The Slot is authored by Bill Walsh, a copy editor for The Washington Post. The site might tend to be a bit self-centered and promotional, but there are a few tidbits that makes it worth a visit.

June 10, 2001: What'sOnWhen

Need to know when something is happening? This site offers you the ability to search for world-wide events by keywords or by broad category, such as music, literature, film, heritage, adventure and even bizarre.

June 3, 2001: Poynter Institute

Most of you probably have visited this site previously, but it is an important one for journalists to continue to visit on a regular basis. Other good Internet sites for journalists are listed in The Library Files under "Links by Beat," - Journalism. Check them out.

May 27, 2001: Economic Research Service

The Economic Research Service is one of two major research agencies (the other being Agricultural Research Service) within the USDA. The ERS site focuses on the economics of agricultural production, trade, food safety and nutrition, agriculture and the environment and rural America.

May 20, 2001: Stateline.org

Stateline.org is a good resource for news and information from specific states. Just choose which state you want news from and the top stories will be listed. You also have the option of searching the database for additional stories or registering to receive e-mail news alerts.

May 13, 2001: American Factfinder

The basic facts service of the Census Bureau which you can search for quick and easy information. It provides demographic data on the state, county, and city and village levels. 2000 census data may not be available in all cases at this time.

May 6, 2001: Mother's Day statistics

With Mother's Day next Sunday, this site from the Census Bureau offers many interesting demographic statistics and facts about mothers.

April 29, 2001: Librarians' Index to the Internet

Indexed by topic, this site offers a handy approach to finding interesting and helpful web sites. Sign up for the current awareness service and receive email every Wednesday listing the top 10 to 20 new web sites added to the Librarians' Index to the Internet each week.

April 22, 2001: USDA Historical Photos

At times we are in need of historical photos. This site provides hundreds of images, mostly taken between 1937 and 1943, but some going back to the ninteenth century, of agricultural, business, transportation and domestic scenes, and landscapes and portraits.

April 15, 2001: Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize winners will be announced on Monday, April 16, at 2:30 p.m. The winners and nominated finalists will be posted on this site. You can also search for past winners and read about the history of Joseph Pulitzer and the Pulitzer Prizes.

April 8, 2001: Major League Baseball/Historical Statistics

With the start of the 2001 baseball season this past week, you may find this baseball site interesting, if not helpful. The statistics for every major league ballplayer since 1871 can be found with a simple and quick search.

April 1, 2001: Ameristat

This population statistic site is sponsored by The Population Reference Bureau in conjunction with the University of Michigan's Social Sciences Data Analysis Network. Issues and trends include the following areas: Marriage & Family, Population Estimates, Race and Ethnicity, Income and Poverty, Migration, Foreign Born Population, Children, Older Population, Labor Force and Employment, and Mortality.

March 25, 2001: Reporting Tools

Another good source for journalists. Dan Browning, the computer-assisted reporting editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, has compiled a number of helpful web sites covering many subject areas.

March 18, 2001: Cinemedia

With the Academy Awards just around the corner, this site allows you to find practically everything you need to know about actors, films, film studios, festivals and film organizations.

March 11, 2001: Census 2000 Data

The U.S. Census has released the redistricting data for Wisconsin, one of the first states made available.

March 4, 2001: eXitSource: Know the Way

Before traveling on the Interstate for work or vacation, be sure to check this site. It lists the services - gas, food, lodging, etc. - at every exit on every Interstate highway in the country.

February 25, 2001: Nutrition.gov

Need food or nutrition facts for a story? Check out this federal government site.

February 18, 2001: Harper's Weekly: Black History

Writing about Black History Month? The Harper's Weekly site will provide a lot of helpful information.

February 11, 2001: The Campaign for America

With assistance from FECInfo, the Campaign for America is providing free access to an interactive database of IRS 527 filers (tax-exempt political organizations). The database is searchable by organization name, zip code or state. You can also search by IRS 527 donors. For zip code search, type in 537** to see what entries are available from Madison.

February 4, 2001: Google-UncleSam

A specialty search engine, this is the place to go for finding government documents from the federal and state levels.

January 28, 2001: Opensecrets.org

Find out who made the top-ten list in political donations in your area. Just type in the zip code. This site will also tell you which candidate received the most support in your area. Also provides information on who is contributing money to current issues, such as tobacco, gas prices, prescription drugs and gun control.

January 21, 2001: American Journalism Review Online Catalog

AJR maintains an online catalog of searchable Web sites for newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations.

January 7, 2001: Carroll's Online - Who's New

Having a hard time keeping up with the various changes in government personnel? Print sources are helpful but quickly go out of date. Carroll's Online monitors over 200 sources and updates the listings daily. It reports personnel changes on the federal, state, military and local levels, as well as the defense industry.

December 31, 2000: The Presidential Appointee Initiative

Sponsored by the Brookings Institute, this site provides information and guidance for appointees but also is useful to journalists by offering concise packages and insight on the current process and previous presidential transitions.

December 24, 2000: Population of Counties by Decennial Census, 1900-1990

This site gives the historical census figures for every county in Wisconsin, decade by decade since 1900, and also gives the total state and U.S. population for each census. Need figures for other states? Just change the state abbreviation in the URL.

December 17, 2000: Computer Almanac

This site from Carnegie Mellon University contains useful bits of information and statistics when writing about computers, the Internet or technology.

December 10, 2000: The Pew Research Center For People & The Press

This independent opinion research group studies public attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. They released a study on December 3, 2000 that measures how the youth vote was influenced by online information.

December 3, 2000: Pandia Newsfinder

Search for daily news using the Pandia metasearch engine, and get headlines, summaries and links to articles.

November 26, 2000: Activa Spanish Dictionary

Looking for a good English-Spanish/Spanish-English dictionary on the web? Try this one which specializes in technical and business terms.

November 19, 2000: AP Band-aid AP Stylebook

This stylebook is a summary of the most commonly used items in the Associated Press Stylebook. It includes helpful reminders, but it is not a substitute for it. When in doubt, look it up in the AP Stylebook. ALSO CHECK OUT THE DIRECT LINK TO THE FULL AP STYLEBOOK BY CLICKING ON THE STYLEBOOK SECTION OF THE LIBRARY FILES.

November 12, 2000: Florida Department of State - Division of Elections

Gives county reporting status and summaries of the the latest election news out of Florida.

November 5, 2000: The Inflation Calculator

This site adjusts any given amount of money for inflation for any two years between 1800 and 1999.

October 30, 2000: Pravda

The online version of the Russian newspaper, in English.

October 23, 2000: FirstGov

If you haven't seen this site by now, here's your chance. This U.S. government website offers users access to all 20,000 government Internet sites with over 27 million web pages from one central point.

October 16, 2000: Jane's Online

The same company that publishes the reference tools such as Jane's Fighting Ships and Jane's All the World's Aircraft now has a very comprehensive web site featuring worldwide news and analysis, country assessments, equipment specifications, special reports and selected archives.

October 9, 2000: Bankrate.com

This site is useful for tracking current consumer finance issues, such as mortgages, interest rates, etc. It also features studies on topics such as consumer checking and ATM fees.

October 2, 2000: American Media Columnist Index

An index of over 500 online columnists and editorial cartoonists.

September 25, 2000: ABC News Country Profiles:

An ABC News site which contains basic information and news about each country.

September 18, 2000: USA Today List of Websites:

USA Today's collection of all the interesting and new web sites it has published.

September 11, 2000: Common Cause Laundromat:

The campaign finance site maintained by Common Cause is a database of special interest soft money. Search by donor, location of donor or by industry. Provides profiles on the top 50 soft money donors.

September 4, 2000: Newswise:

This site consists of a database of news releases from top institutions engaged in scientific, medical, liberal arts and business research. Also allows reporters to ask questions of experts at any of the 350 institutions cooperating with Newswise.

August 28, 2000: Reporter's Desktop