Embassy of the United States Spain

Virtual Reference Service is a series of hyperlinks to electronic resources available on the Internet. Sorted into major themes. We have tried to cover most common issues that arise in our center.

• Encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc
• To find people
• To find places
• For the latest news
• For information on scholarship and education in the U.S
• To find a job
• To find information on Internet
• Miscellany
• Other collections of electronic reference resources
• Electronic resources of large federal institutions
• Official publications, maps, laws and regulations

About the copyright of the information on the Internet...

The Copyright Website. The consultation will be interesting if you want to stay abreast of copyright issues online.

Electronic reference resources most common

Encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.:

• Encyclopaedia Britannica.

• Multilingual glossary of technical and popular medical terms in nine European languages, by the Heymans Institute of Pharmacology, University of Gent.

• Quote links: links to a number of dictionaries of quotations.

Finding people:

• Switchboard, a telephone directory of individuals and businesses.

• Telephone books around the world.

• Internet Address Finder, a directory of email addresses that allows searching y bname and institutions.

• American Universities website addresses of different universities, which offer their directories of employees, teachers and students.

• The Scholarly Societies Project, hiperlynks to more than 1,000 academic and professional organizations.

• Gateway to Associations, the American Society of Association Executives provides links to the websites of its more than 1,000 members.

Finding places:

• U.S. Gazetteer Census Bureau.

• MapQuest: U.S. street maps.

• Subway maps, to plan trips on the metro.

• DiscoverAmerica.com

To know the latest news:

• CNN's news media, continually updated.

• C-Span, provides links to ElectionLine, public domain resource on the Internet, and sound files of the sessions of the Senate and House of Representatives.

• The Weather Channel, with weather forecasts.

For information on scholarships and education in the U.S.:

• Education, Scholarships and Exchange Programs at the Embassy.

• Commission for Cultural, Educational and Scientific Exchange between Spain and the U.S.

• The Foundation Center, a database of public and private scholarship programs.

• Graduate Students, funding opportunities and scholarships.

• The Community of Science server with links to research institutions that offer federal and private funding.

• U.S. News Online's Colleges and Careers Center, to learn the value of universities.

• Princeton Review, cranking of the "310 Best U.S. Colleges" and information about the GRE, MCAT and universities.

• The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)

Finding a job:

• The Riley Guide, prepared by Margaret Riley, offers links to may sources of information.

• Job-Hunt: A Meta-list of On-Line.

• The Monster Board, a huge server with employers and curricula descriptions.

• JobSmart Salary Surveys.

• Hoover's Online.

• Yahoo's Companies listings. Good starting point when looking for a job.

• Thomas Register of American Manufacturers. Although it is free, it must be a sign to be used. Includes information on thousands of U.S. manufacturing companies.

Finding information on the Internet:

• Dictionaries

  • NetLingo: the dictionary of words relating to Internet.

  • O'Reilly Dictionary of PC Hardware and Data Communications Terms.

• How to cite electronic information.

• Guide to using Internet search engines, with a point-and-click access to each.

• Internet Tools, Browsers and Viewers. Information on how to take advantage of Web applications.

• Dept. of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability. Virus information contains background information and links.

• The Tile.Net list of listservs, information on mailing lists and newsgroups.

 Miscellaneous

• Nist Online Reference Databases by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, includes information such as the Chemistry WebBook, the Physical Reference Database produced by the NIST Physics Laboratory, the High Temperature Superconductors Database and Electron Interactions with Plasma Processing Gases.

• Internet Movie Database, describes filmographies, credits of movies, and a search engine for actors, characters, etc.

• U.S. Patent Office provides patent databases.

• IBM Patent Server includes images of new patents.

Other collections of electronic reference resources:

• Princeton University Electronic Reference Shelf. A thematic repertoire.

• The Internet Public Library, developed by the University of Michigan. The resources are arranged by subject.

Electronic resources major federal institutions:

• Library of Congress.

• National Library of Medicine.

• Center for Disease Control.

• National Archives.

• NASA Space Calendar includes dates of their releases, current and historical information about this agency, etc.

Official publications, maps, laws and regulations:

• Our official publications, maps, laws and regulations to find specific information sources.

Warning: The Embassy is not responsible for the content of hyperlinks to servers that do not belong to the United States government.