These newly added e-resources include titles that enable the USC community to search the oral and written addresses, executive orders, proclamations, signing statements, press conferences, radio and television broadcasts from the nation's first president to our current president using The American Presidency Project. In addition, they can follow the President's Weekly Address, the state of the National Budget and the economic recovery plan by visiting The White House online. Here's a complete list of newly added e-resources, which you can access from the USC Libraries E-Resources Database Page.
The American Presidency Project
URL: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
Established in 1999, this site is valuable for its extensive coverage of both historical and current information on United States presidencies and is easy to navigate. It provides a searchable database of over 85,000 documents, such as speeches, official papers, executive orders, proclamations, news conferences, and press briefings. Various retrieval options are available, including by keywords, dates, document type, and presidents. Additional in depth analyses are offered on topics that may be challenging to locate by other means, such as presidential relations with Congress. Lastly, Quick Time Player videos of important presidential election moments, addresses, and speeches are provided.
BBC Country Profiles
URL: https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/country_profiles/default.stm
This site supplies information on the history, economy, and politics of countries and territories. Each profile includes an overview, map, facts, and current leaders. A media overview provides information on the press, television, radio, news agencies, and number of Internet users. Links provided on the side of the profile connect to the latest news and key stories, BBC links, background articles, related Internet sites and video and audio clips from the BBC archives. Additional features include timelines, recent news links, background articles, Internet sites, and BBC archive video and audio clips. Information on over 20 key international organizations is also included.
Blue Letter Bible
URL: https://www.blueletterbible.org/
Containing 14 searchable versions of the Holy Bible, Blue Letter Bible offers an extensive insight into one of the world’s most popular books. Passages can be changed from version to version for easy comparison and various tools (an encyclopedia, a dictionary, 23 text commentaries, and 30 audio/video commentaries) help users explore chapter and verse. Additional resources include charts, outlines, timelines, and maps, plus four streaming audio versions, are available from each passage’s page. When appropriate for the passage, over 2,700 hymns are also available (lyrics are shown with link to a MIDI file to play music). This web resource is useful for anyone interested in biblical study and especially notable for comparing Bible versions.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
URL: https://www.business-humanrights.org/
This site is one of the fastest ways to find information about the exploitive practices of 4000 businesses worldwide, which would be difficult to locate by other means. Users can begin searching by company name, issue, country, or topic. Balanced coverage is provided via news, announcements, and special resources while providing responses from the accused companies. By making negative enterprise behavior more transparent, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre may help stop companies’ human rights abuses.
CareerOneStop
URL: https://www.careeronestop.org
CareerOneStop is a U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored portal that provides career resources and workforce information. With its occupation and industry information, salary data, self-assessment tools, and career exploration assistance, this rich resource will help those exploring career opportunities to make informed choices. It also has useful information for job seekers, students, and career counselors, such as where to file unemployment insurance, locations of career centers, resume advice, and relocating options. This thorough site even has a special section devoted to military transition. Fulfilling its promise to be a one-stop shop, CareerOneStop includes links to state job banks, the online version of Occupational Outlook Handbook, and other useful resources.
ePodunk (TM)
URL: https://www.epodunk.com/
Detailed, easily browsable profiles of cities and counties across the U.S. are the specialty of ePodunk, which has grown to include data on airports, cemeteries, museums, and other institutions as well. Profiles include historical postcard images from the Making of America project and all imaginable statistics at the city and county level: income, educational level, economic, crime. Not only does the site link to useful municipal/county government and chamber of commerce sites, but it also displays or links to harder-to-find information like local media outlets, community organizations, political reports, historical weather information, support for libraries, a “gay index” based on the Gay and Lesbian Atlas, films shot in the area, and celebrity residents.
FastWeb: Scholarships, Financial Aid, and Colleges
Students fill out a detailed questionnaire about academic achievement, future plans, interests, and awards and then receive information on scholarships and internships for which they are eligible. The beauty of this site rests in its organizational features. Students can set up e-mail reminders about application due dates, mark favorites or delete entries from their lists, e-mail descriptions to friends, and add personal notes about a scholarship. The site also contains advice on test preparation, navigating the admissions process, and transitioning to college. FastWeb boasts that their database searches “1.3 million scholarships worth over $3 billion,” making this a valuable resource for busy students.
Google Maps
Ah, finally - a map system that does it all. This free service offers detailed street and terrain maps, robust locator tools to find addresses/businesses/places, and a route planner for traveling by car, public transport, or walking. Live traffic conditions for several cities are available as well. For those who need visual cues, Google Maps provides that too. Its fascinating "Street View" shows 360° panoramic street-level views, inviting users to virtually walk and explore the area. This is available in many U.S. cities and in several countries abroad. There is also a feature for those wanting to create their own maps. No more fumbling with folding paper maps, just click on this great site.
Lexicool
URL: https://www.lexicool.com/
This web site provides a searchable directory to over 6000 freely available online bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and glossaries. Searches may be entered by language(s), subject, or title/keyword. Search results provide the number of entries and links to the online dictionaries. The site also provides a directory of translation and interpreting courses, a listing of translator and interpreter associations worldwide, language resources, freeware to download and links to sites for currency conversion, text analysis and language identification. Language-related software and products may be purchased at the website.
National Ocean Service
URL: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/
The National Ocean Service (NOS) studies, monitors, and protects coastal and marine areas in the United States. The NOS web site offers detailed information about the agency’s activities, including access to educational videos and weekly podcasts on various coastal science topics. The site also hosts more than 1,000 up-to-date nautical charts, tide level data updated every 10 minutes, and beautiful photography in an image gallery. Teachers will find games, activity suggestions, and lesson plan ideas for students in grades 3-12. This site is an excellent resource for students, teachers, mariners, and anyone interested in America’s coastal ecology.
OnlineConversion.com
URL: https://onlineconversion.com/
This site boasts that one can “convert just about anything to anything else.” And with 50,000 conversions and 5,000 units, it has an impressive range. Sure, it has the popular conversions: length, temperature, speed, volume, weight, cooking, area, fuel economy, and currency. But it also contains measurements for women’s clothing sizes between countries, light-years, density, torque, horse height, meeting room size needed for attendees, gauge and much more. There is even a “Fun Stuff” category that is practically addictive where users can find their age in dog years, convert their names into Morse code, determine their weight on Mars, and verify how many days until retirement! Indispensible.
PubChem
URL: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
PubChem is a search tool for chemical information, divided into three areas: Compounds, Substances, and BioAssays. Full entries provide detailed information with the most basic information—a general description, the molecular weight and formula, the structure, plus a Table of Contents (ToC) for the full entry—all easily found “above the fold.” Use the ToC or scroll down to retrieve more advanced information, such as bioactivity results, synonyms, chemical actions, detailed properties, and more. Each module is fully interlinked with the other sections of PubChem as well as resources in ToxNet and PubMed, providing full access to toxicology resources and the medical literature, and allowing users access to as much or as little of the chemical information as they need.
United States Environmental Protection Agency
URL: https://www.epa.gov/
Well organized, very interactive, and full of information for all, the EPA site offers news, local information, teacher resources, multimedia (videos, photos, audios), resources, and even a trivia quiz, all accessible from the homepage. The “For Youth” section includes tabs for elementary, middle, and high school students while “Work with Us” offers career, grant, and contract information. The site shows lots of depth, too, with navigation tabs for “Learn the Issues”, “Science & Technology”, “Laws & Regulations”, “Newsroom”, and “About EPA”; each is a treasure trove of information in itself, adding to the usefulness and comprehensiveness of the site.
UrbanRail.Net
URL: https://www.urbanrail.net/
This site is a resource that has grown over the course of 15 years from a site focusing on the metro system in Barcelona to a site called “metroPlanet” to its current incarnation with an international scope and convenient, easy-to-use maps of urban railway systems in the world’s largest cities on 6 continents. Users will mainly appreciate UrbanRail.Net for its quick, simple maps, but the site put together by a Berlin public transportation enthusiast and historian also features practical information such as transit pricing, links, and timelines of transportation history for each rail service or line.
The White House
URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/
With prominent links to the President’s Weekly Address, the National Budget, and the economic recovery plan, the searchable site also provides links for both current news (“The Briefing Room”), the administration’s “Agenda” (nicely narrowed by topic), and ways to learn about “Our Government”, especially the Executive Branch. “The Administration” lists the President, First Lady, Cabinet members, White House Staff and even the Vice-President and his wife; “About the White House” tours the building itself and its former residents, Air Force One, and Camp David.