why buy the cow: milk these information resources for free!

Why Buy the Cow?

Milk These Information Resources for Free!

Bill Meltzer- Worthington Libraries Chris May- Mansfield/Richland County Public

Library

Why look for alternatives?

• Shrinking reference collections

• Pricing model for databases is different

• Shrinking budgets

• OPLIN provides fantastic databases but usage is down

• Can we supplement those resources?

But it can’t be just anything!

• Remember the basics in evaluating websites

– Coverage

– Objectivity

– Author/Publisher/Organization

– Currency

– Accuracy

Books & Readers’ Advisory

BookBrowse.com

http://www.bookbrowse.com/


Literature-Map.com

http://www.literature-map.com/


KDL What’s Next

http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/whatsnext.asp

Literary Criticism

IPL Literary Criticism PAL: Perspectives in American Literature

http://ipl.org/div/litcrit/

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/TABLE.HTML

History, Geography, Cultures

CIA World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

History, Geography, Cultures

NationMaster

http://www.nationmaster.com/

Science

Encyclopedia of Life Encyclopedia of Earth

http://eol.org/

http://www.eoearth.org/

Science

Animal Diversity Web

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/

Science

WolframAlpha

http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/

Learning Languages

Duolingo BBC Languages

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

https://www.duolingo.com/

Careers & Self-Education

Mooc-list.com

http://www.mooc-list.com/


Khan Academy GCFLearnFree

https://www.khanacademy.org/

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/


BLS Resources for Jobseekers

http://www.bls.gov/audience/jobseekers.htm


Career One Stop

http://www.careeronestop.org/

Research & Writing Tools

ProCon.org DOAJ.org

http://www.procon.org/

http://www.doaj.org/


IPL A+ Research/Writing

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


Purdue OWL

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Health

Medlineplus.gov MerckManuals.com

http://www.merckmanuals.com./

Health

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

http://nccam.nih.gov/

Genealogy

Cyndi’s List

http://www.cyndislist.com/us/

Genealogy

FamilySearch.org

https://familysearch.org/

Genealogy

Ancestry (Two-Week Trial)

One-Stop Shop

Internet Public Library

http://www.ipl.org/

why buy the cow: milk these information resources for free!

Education

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