Search Engines | Reference and Guides | Open Access and Encyclopedias
Associations and Organizations | Miscellaneous Sites of Interest

Search Engines

• Google | | Bing | Ask | WorldCat | Ixquick | Metaeureka | Lycos | Yahoo | Altavista | Microsoft | AOL | SearchBug
  These are some of the more common portal and search engine sites although the potential list is almost endless. The development of the Internet proceeds rapidly. No list of resources is ever complete, and even well-known sites change with disconcerting rapidity. One solution to this phenomenon is to use some of the better search engines to find materials of interest. The technology and the commercial competition among search engine providers and the portal sites that use them is intense, and these tools become better and better over time.
  
  For those doing research using the Internet, search engines are indispensable tools and often undiscriminating robots. Each search engine, using somewhat different techniques, finds every site that matches some criteria. In most cases the criteria presented to a search engine are simple: a key word or words. While many search engines can run sophisticated searches using Boolean logic and other search techniques, many users find that simple search procedures do almost as well as sophisticated ones, although they often lead to large result lists with anything from zero to tens of thousands or more sites. Browsing through many sites is not feasible, so many people do multiple searches, refining their search terms until they find what they need among the first 100 or so hits. However, because the system of classification used to capture relevant sites follows rules that do not always match the intent of users, almost every search comes up with a large number of irrelevant sites. Some search sites accept advertising and list paid sites before general sites (although usually they are clear about this process). Effective use of search engines takes some practice.
  
  The sites listed above include both pure search engines such as Google or Bing and portal sites such as MSN or Yahoo. The pure search engine simply searches for results defined by the criteria the user enters. Portal sites offer a wide range of services (news, sports, self-help, directories, advertisements), along with search engines. Often connected to ISP's or other business ventures, the purpose of a portal site is to drive traffic to the site and sell services and advertising viewed by visitors.
  
  The competition among portal sites and search engines is fierce, and most businesses now have portal sites of their own selling, advertising, and supporting their services and merchandise. Newspapers, towns, states, and many other organizations have portal sites to serve their customers and clients, and most of these too have search engines (some to search internal to the organization, some to search the entire Internet). Universities, journals, libraries, and academic associations (some mentioned below) all have their own portal sites.

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Reference and Guides

• MLA Style APA Style and Chicago Manual of Style. These sites from the MLA, the APA, and the Chicago Manual of Style provide authoritative guides to documenting quotations and sources for different disciplinary groups. They provide examples for referencing Internet sources used by students and scholars in their research, demonstrating the style or format best used to cite scholarly projects, reference databases, texts from books, articles in periodicals, and professional or personal sites. Because of the complexity and changing nature of the Internet, students and scholars need a standardized method for citing resources found online. The items here offer a variety of ways to do this to ensure proper attribution.
  
  Another excellent practical guide to using Internet citations is in Melvin E. Page's "A Brief Citation Guide for Internet Sources in History and the Humanities, (Version 2.1), for H-AFRICA Humanities On-Line. The guidelines for APA style show short examples taken from the published APA style manual and adapted for electronic media. They show examples for inserting citations into the text stream as is common in many scientific disciplines. As is always the case, style requires consistency as much as conformity. Most humanists including most historians use a version of the MLA or the Chicago Manual styles. Most scientists including most social scientists use variations on the APA style. A list of links on this subject by John Lamp is available at Citation Styles for Electronic Media,".


• Electronic Statistics Handbook. StatSoft Inc., provides this electronic textbook on the use of statistics in laboratory research, business, social sciences, data-mining, and engineering, among other fields. Its 24 sections deal with topics such as ANOVA/MANOVA, experimental design, process analysis, and survival/failure time analysis. There is also a detailed glossary and extensive bibliography. The book can also be purchased in print form.


• A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices and A Glossary of Literary Terms. Professor Robert Harris provides these sites. The material "contains definitions and examples of more than sixty traditional rhetorical devices, (including rhetorical tropes and rhetorical figures) all of which can still be useful today to improve the effectiveness, clarity, and enjoyment of your writing. Note: This book was written in 1980, with some changes since. The devices presented are not in alphabetical order."


• Association for Institutional Research: Web-Based IR Resources. "With over 2200 links to external IR Web pages, IR Resources is one of the most comprehensive sites on the Internet for IR professionals seeking information across the spectrum of IR concerns."


• ipl2 . "ipl2 is a public service organization and a learning/teaching environment. To date, thousands of students and volunteer library and information science professionals have been involved in answering reference questions for our Ask an ipl2 Librarian service and in designing, building, creating and maintaining the ipl2's collections. It is through the efforts of these students and volunteers that the ipl2 continues to thrive to this day. In January 2010, the website 'ipl2: information you can trust' was launched, merging the collections of resources from the Internet Public Library (IPL) and the Librarians' Internet Index (LII) websites. The site is hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology, and a consortium of colleges and universities with programs in information science are involved in developing and maintaining the ipl2."


• Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Clearinghouse on Higher Education. "ERIC - the Education Resources Information Center - is an online digital library of education research and information. ERIC is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC provides ready access to education literature to support the use of educational research and information to improve practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making, and research. ERIC provides unlimited access to more than 1.4 million bibliographic records of journal articles and other education-related materials, with hundreds of new records added multiple times per week. If available, links to full text are included."


• The Library of Congress. "The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library's mission is to support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people."
  This site also includes links to the catalogs and other search tools for using the Library of Congress' immense resources.


• Integrated Science and Engineering Resources Data System. "The WebCASPAR database provides easy access to a large body of statistical data resources for science and engineering (S&E) at U.S. academic institutions. WebCASPAR emphasizes S&E, but its data resources also provide information on non-S&E fields and higher education in general. "


• Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. "An international consortium of about 700 academic institutions and research organizations, ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for the social science research community. ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields. ICPSR is a unit within the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and maintains its office in Ann Arbor."


• College and University Rankings. "For many years, various bodies have undertaken statistical and reputational rankings of colleges and attempted to provide information to prospective students. Increasingly, the importance and validity of college rankings is a hotly debated issue. Many universities, including highly ranked ones, are beginning to question both the data and methods used by some ranking services. Of special concern are the aspects of the rankings which deal with the difficult to measure concept of institutional reputation. At this site, you will find links to many ranking services, along with cautionary notes and a discussion of the ongoing controversy over rankings."


• Ranking Systems Clearinghouse. "Ranking of higher education institutions is now one of the most debated issues in higher education, emerging as a major force in the dialogue about higher education's role and impact on students and society. These efforts to rank and order what higher education does are popular and clearly here to stay. Currently, over 30 different nations now have some form of ranking that is regularly published, with more being added each year. In addition, international ranking systems have emerged to compare institutions across countries. The Institute for Higher Education Policy's (IHEP) Ranking Systems Clearinghouse provides a road map of this complex rankings landscape, offering annotated links to these national and international ranking systems and to research about rankings world-wide."


• Global Research Benchmarking System (GRBS). "In pursuit of its core mission of providing countries and other stakeholders with the tools they need to better assess and develop their own research capacity, making the most of scarce resources, UNU-IIST has launched programs to support this. Among these programs, a key project is the Global Research Benchmarking System (GRBS) which is intended to provide objective data and analyses to benchmark research performance in traditional disciplinary subject areas and in interdisciplinary areas for the purpose of strengthening the quality and impact of research. The GRBS supports universities to determine their own research profile and identify niche areas in which they can excel; to make more rational strategic and resource allocation decisions; and to publicize program strengths."


• Oxford English Dictionary Online. "The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words--past and present--from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from those of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You'll still find these in the OED, but you'll also find the history of individual words, and of the language--traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to films scripts and cookery books." Note: Many university libraries have a subscription to the OED that makes this service available to students and faculty.


• Education Review. "Education review (ISSN: 10945296) publishes reviews of recent books in education, covering the entire range of education scholarship and practice."


• The Condition of Education. "The Condition of Education (COE) is a congressionally mandated annual report that summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available statistics. The report presents statistical indicators containing text, figures, and tables describing important developments in the status and trends of education from early childhood learning through graduate-level education. "


• Encyclopaedia Britannica on line. "Encyclopaedia Britannica Online is a Web site with more than 120,000 articles and is updated regularly. It has daily features, updates and links to news reports from The New York Times and the BBC. . . . Beginning in early 2007, the Britannica made articles freely available if they are linked to from an external site; such external links often improve an article's rankings in search engine results. On 3 June 2008, an initiative to facilitate collaboration between online expert and amateur scholarly contributors for Britannica's on-line content (in the spirit of a wiki), with editorial oversight from Britannica staff, was announced. Approved contributions would be credited, though contributing automatically grants Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. perpetual, irrevocable license to those contributions. On 22 January 2009, Britannica ...announced that the company would be accepting edits and additions to the online Britannica website from the public. The published edition of the encyclopedia will not be affected by the changes. Individuals wishing to edit the Britannica website will have to register under their real name and address prior to editing or submitting their content. All edits submitted will be reviewed and checked and will have to be approved by the encyclopedia's professional staff. Contributions from non-academic users will sit in a separate section from the expert-generated Britannica content, as will content submitted by non-Britannica scholars. Articles written by users, if vetted and approved, will also only be available in a special section of the website, separate from the professional articles. Official Britannica material would carry a "Britannica Checked" stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content." [this description is from the Wikipedia article on the Britannica, with citations omitted.] This is a subscription service.


• United Nations Global Statistics. "The Statistics Division is committed to the advancement of the global statistical system. We compile and disseminate global statistical information, develop standards and norms for statistical activities, and support countries' efforts to strengthen their national statistical systems. We facilitate the coordination of international statistical activities and support the functioning of the UN Statistical Commission as the apex entity of the global statistical system."


• Wordsmyth. This is "...a dictionary that has several important and distinctive qualities. Chief among the distinctive features are (1) clarity, simplicity, and precision of style resulting in definitions that are more accessible than those of American college dictionaries; and (2) the integration of dictionary and thesaurus data, so that only one entry is required instead of both dictionary and thesaurus entries. Succinctly stated: The Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (WDT) is the only Dictionary with a complete, integrated thesaurus. Synonyms are keyed to dictionary definitions. No dictionaries (online or in print) offer synonyms keyed to each of the definitions in a dictionary entry. This level of precision is unmatched in any other thesaurus. It is also the only thesaurus with a complete, integrated dictionary. Clarity, simplicity, and precision of style, result in definitions that are more accessible than those of American college dictionaries. The definitions are ordered by frequency of use, so the first definition is most frequently the one the user is seeking. The WDT has more examples than other, comparable dictionaries. The WDT is the only thesaurus to systematically distinguish exact synonyms and near synonyms."


• Every file format in the world -- whatis. "This is a list of file extension names or suffixes that indicate the format or usage of a file and a brief description of that file extension. In general, if you have the program that uses that file extension, that program can be used to open or otherwise use the file."


• Alex Catalog of Electronic Texts. "This is a collection of public domain and open access documents with a focus on American and English literature as well as Western philosophy. Its purpose is to help facilitate a person's liberal arts education."

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Open Access and Encylopedias

Open access or open source refer to the process of putting intellectual property into the public domain for anyone to use without cost. In some forms of open source, the user is authorized to modify or reuse this intellectual property. Two major types of open source intellectual property are of particular interest to colleges and universities.

Computer programs used to operate networks and computer operating systems, for example, are one type of open source software. These works of intellectual property generally have the characteristic that they are the work of many people and that the work involved is owned by none of them. Instead, they put their work into the public domain. Others may take these programs and modify them and reissue them. However, while this sounds like a free for all, the process of managing open source software is quite complex with various levels of control and protection for the material, even if available without cost.

Sometime, material can be used and reused as long as the revised version includes the origin or authorship of the original. Other material is made available for use and reuse freely, but without any changes permitted. Certain programs and other intellectual property are put into the public domain without charge for non-commercial uses, but the originator or creator retains ownership and control of the property and prohibits reuse without permission or payment.

One element of the open source model is that the internal workings of computer programs must be made visible to all who want to see how they work. The alternative model of proprietary software keeps the inner workings of the program invisible to the user.

A significant example of this class of property is the Linux operating system for personal computers and servers. It exists in many variants, and evolves with the work of many many individuals. While there is a structure for the control and management of authorized versions of this operating system, others may create unauthorized versions for particular purposes as well. The Linux community and many corporate sponsors have developed an endless array of computer programs to run on variants of the Linux operating system.

Other products, such as journal articles, books, and other intellectual property may be put into the public domain for free non-commercial use, called open access, but the author or publisher retains the copyright and users cannot change or reuse the material without explicit permission from the copyright holder.

Academics struggle with these new forms of intellectual property. The key issue for many is the problem of authority. Who determines and certifies the accuracy of the material put into the public domain? In traditional proprietary academic publishing, the publisher takes responsibility for the review of material submitted for publication using an elaborate peer review process to determine whether academic material is authoritative and publishable. However, this gatekeeper function, sustained by the revenue from the high prices of expensively produced printed media, functions much less effectively in a world where publication is almost free online and anyone can bypass the peer-review validation process. In this new world, it is not always possible to rely on the imprimatur of a high quality publication house to determine which electronic materials are authoritative and which are not. Online, everything appears equal, from the spurious rant to the carefully researched paper. The reader must evaluate the authority level of any particular electronic publication posted without peer review.

A special case that illustrates these issues involves encyclopedias. Often seen as the ultimate example of authoritative information, the traditional encyclopedia seeks out the best scholars to write about their specialties. The sum of all this authoritative commentary is a comprehensive reference work that identifies the state of knowledge on a wide variety of subjects. The Encyclopedia Britannica is one of the classic examples of this genre.

However, with the emergence of Wikipedia, this notion of authoritative authorship came under a double challenge. Traditional print encyclopedias present themselves as having identified the essential and important topics requiring authoritative presentation. Although perhaps less explicitly stated, the need for defining essential and important came primarily from the physical limitations of printed space, even for such a multivolume work as the Britannica. The traditional reference works also aligned their value with the quality of the experts identified to produce the entries. The encyclopedia did not provide new knowledge, it codified the authoritative version of current knowedge and identified the significant elements of human knowledge through the process of selecting topics for inclusion.

Wikipedia violated both of these norms: authority and selectivity. Under the Wikipedia framework, anyone could provide an entry on any subject, and expertise or validation of expertise was not a requirement, although the user community has a mechanism to challenge and revise Wikipedia entries and Wikipedia also seeks to ensure that entries have reference documentation. However, the user community participates in this activity without attribution. Using the open source model of constant review and iterative corrections, and additions, defective or incomplete entries would in theory be revised and improved until they approached the authority and accuracy of the traditional reference books. In addition, because the internet is almost an infinite resource, Wikipedia placed no limit on the topics or subjects included in the reference work. Thus the selectivity by authority characteristic of the printed encyclopedia also disappeared.

While much controversy swirls around the quality of Wikipedia articles, the user community has embraced this structure with great enthusiasm, much to the consternation of more authority-minded academics. Over time, the free form approach to information and accuracy that characterized the early days of Wikipedia has given way to a more authority based approach with various forms of review and validation. Nonetheless, being free, open, and infinitely expandable has made this reference work a major challenge to the authoritative, expensive, closed, and limited reference works such as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Other, Wiki type reference works have emerged as well, again challenging specialized printed reference works. In the initiatives described below some of the issues discussed here are clearly evident in their organization, sponsorship, and editorial policies.

• Scholarpedia. "Scholarpedia is a peer-reviewed open-access encyclopedia written by scholars from all around the world. Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program -- MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to read and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link. However, Scholarpedia differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways: Each article is authored by the top expert who is sponsored by two existing curators.
  Each article is peer-reviewed and validated by two independent curators. > Upon validation, the author of the article becomes its curator. Any registered user can modify and improve the article. However, the modification needs to be approved by a team of article contributors before it appears in the final approved version. Upon approval, the user joins the team of article contributors. Article Contributors are assigned a Curator Index that reflects their contribution to the article and allows them to evaluate revisions to the article. The sum of Curator Indices across articles forms the Scholarpedia Index and endows users with certain privileges. When an article curator resigns or is no longer available, a team of contributors elects the world's best expert to become the curator. Their votes are weighted by their Curator Ranks (to be implemented in 2012). Herein also lies the greatest difference between Scholarpedia and traditional print media: although the initial authorship and review are similar to a print journal so that Scholarpedia articles could be cited, articles are not frozen and outdated, but dynamic, subject to an ongoing process of improvement moderated by their curators. This allows Scholarpedia to be up-to-date, yet maintain the highest quality of content."


• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. "Welcome to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP). From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public. Consequently, our dynamic reference work maintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in response to new research. You can cite fixed editions that are created on a quarterly basis and stored in our Archives (every entry contains a link to its complete archival history, identifying the fixed edition the reader should cite). The Table of Contents lists entries that are published or assigned. The Projected Table of Contents also lists entries which are currently unassigned but nevertheless projected."


• Encyclopedia Virginia. "Encyclopedia Virginia is a publicly accessible online publication of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. As a web publication, the Encyclopedia adds an entirely new dimension to the work done by VFH over the last thirty years. With the mission to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth by creating learning opportunities for all Virginians, VFH brings together the resources and content to make the Encyclopedia a valuable tool for exploring the people, history, government, economy, and culture of Virginia."


• Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. "The on-line edition of the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture is a joint project of the Tennessee Historical Society and the University of Tennessee Press. This fully searchable version of the print edition, originally published in 1998, contains over 1,500 entries. The online version has updates to existing entries, new entries, more than five hundred additional images, plus audio and video files."


• The New Georgia Encyclopedia. The New Georgia Encyclopedia is a project of the Georgia Humanities Council in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, and the Office of the Governor. The NGE is a work in progress, and because of the generous support of our sponsors and partners, our content is continually growing and updated, and is accessible to everyone."


• Citizendium. "Citizendium is a wiki encyclopedia project aiming to create the world's finest free encyclopedia (and general reference) source, one that is reliable as well as comprehensive. To achieve this, we are inviting the public to help create content, but we also have a "gentle guiding" role for experts. Our contributors use their real names, and the whole project is largely vandalism-free and friendly-but also productive and growing!."
  
  "Our goal is to capture the full range of humanity's various understandings and knowledge of reality. We also expect our approved articles to be, in the long run, as authoritative, error-free, and well-written as encyclopedia articles are expected to be. We believe that an indispensable means to this end is the involvement of many levels of experts who will not only write, but also help guide and, ultimately, approve many of our articles."


• Encyclopedia of Egyptology. "Egyptology has as its object of study the history, practices, and conceptual categories of a culture, which was remarkably prolific in terms of written texts, art, architecture, and other forms of material culture. The richness of this culture, of which we find ample traces, allows us to reconstruct religious thinking, economic systems, intimate details of daily life, as well as ancient pathology, to name just a few aspects. The knowledge of Egyptologists, archaeologists, linguists, geologists and all other professions that are involved in research in Egypt , reflect the interdisciplinary approach that is needed to make sense of such a wealth of information. Truly encyclopedic knowledge in this day and age means to have access to every relevant source, of guaranteed quality, with clear guidelines on how to search for the desired material with the potential to open u nexplored research paths."

Although there are significant intellectual and academic issues surrounding open access, many of the concerns are really about money. Who pays for the material, who owns the material, and how does the academic community of users support the production of intellectual property?

These questions do not lend themselves to easy answers. Before the Internet, the structure of support for intellectual property, while complex, appeared relatively well understood and stable. This financial structure relied on academic institutions with their libraries and faculty, government grants, foundation support, commercial and university presses, and academic associations with their scholarly journals. These institutions provided a method to pay for the production of academic intellectual property, but they also subsidized the editorial process of reviewing for quality and accuracy and a system for putting authoritative material into circulation through books, articles, journals, and other primarily print media sold to various audiences.

The Internet destabilized this system, and the growing financial challenges faced by many of the institutions providing financial support contributed to the rapid partial undermining of these arrangements. Libraries, struggling to pay for expensive subscriptions to scholarly journals, faculty dissatisfied with the slow pace of publication and often the need to pay for publication in some scientific journals and others critical of the gatekeeper functions performed by journals and book publishers, all contributed to a strong interest in exploring alternative publication methods using the open access model.

This set of circumstances has begun a change in the publication process for academics, and while the consequences are not yet entirely clear, we are surely likely to have a modified model in the future. However constructed, the costs of research, publication, and review must be paid. In the open access model, the payment is made by institutions that employ the people who do the work of preparing intellectual products or the task of putting them in a form that is accessible online. Other institutions pay for the hardware and software that provides Internet access, and users pay for the equipment that permits them to read the materials. Peer review and gatekeeping will not disappear, as the academy requires a method for expert review and determination of accuracy and reliability, but they may not be as formally tied to the mechanics of publication as they are at present.

In any event, the distribution of scholarly work, and the process of academic review associated with publication are sure to change more before the new structure stabilizes. In large part this is also a function of the immature nature of the Internet which has yet to develop a clear method for recovering the cost of production from the users of the products it distributes.

Associations and Organizations

• American Association of University Professors. "The AAUP's purpose is to advance academic freedom and shared governance, to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education, and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good."


• American Association of Community Colleges. "Founded in 1920, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) has, over four decades, become the leading proponent and the national "voice for community colleges." Today, the association represents almost 1,200 two-year, associate degree-granting institutions and more than 12 million students, as well as a growing number of international members in Puerto Rico, Japan, Great Britain, Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. The colleges are the largest and fastest-growing sector of U.S. higher education, enrolling close to half (46 percent) of all U.S. undergraduates."


• Educause. "EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. EDUCAUSE helps those who lead, manage, and use information resources to shape strategic decisions at every level. A comprehensive range of resources and activities is available to all interested employees at EDUCAUSE member organizations, with special opportunities open to designated member representatives."


• American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO). "AACRAO is a nonprofit, voluntary, professional association of more than 11,000 higher education admissions and registration professionals who represent more than 2,600 institutions and agencies in the United States and in over 40 countries around the world. The mission of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers is to serve and advance higher education by providing leadership in academic and enrollment services."


• AACSB--The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. "AACSB International--The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is a global, nonprofit membership organization of educational institutions, businesses, and other entities devoted to the advancement of management education. Established in 1916, AACSB International provides its members with a variety of products and services to assist them with the continuous improvement of their business programs and schools. These products and services include internationally recognized accreditation for undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs in business and accounting."


• American Association for the Advancement of Science. "The American Association for the Advancement of Science, 'Triple A-S' (AAAS), is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to organizing membership activities, AAAS publishes the journal Science, as well as many scientific newsletters, books and reports, and spearheads programs that raise the bar of understanding for science worldwide."


• American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). "AASCU is a Washington-based higher education association of nearly 420 public colleges, universities and systems whose members share a learning- and teaching-centered culture, a historic commitment to underserved student populations and a dedication to research and creativity that advances their regions' economic progress and cultural development. AASCU's more than 400 public college and university members are found throughout the United States, and in Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Campuses range in size from approximately 1,000 students to more than 45,000."


• American College Personnel Association (ACPA). "American College Personnel Association (ACPA), headquartered in Washington, D.C. at the National Center for Higher Education, is the leading comprehensive student affairs association that advances student affairs and engages students for a lifetime of learning and discovery. ACPA, founded in 1924 by May L. Cheney, has nearly 7,500 members representing 1,200 private and public institutions from across the U.S. and around the world. ACPA members include graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in student affairs-higher education administration programs, faculty, and student affairs educators, from entry level to senior student affairs officers, and organizations and companies that are engaged in the campus marketplace."


• American Council on Education (ACE). "Founded in 1918, the American Council on Education (ACE) is the only higher education organization that represents presidents and chancellors of all types of U.S. accredited, degree-granting institutions: community colleges and four-year institutions, private and public universities, and nonprofit and for-profit colleges. ACE represents the interests of more than 1,600 campus executives, as well as 200 leaders of higher education-related associations and organizations. Together, ACE member institutions serve 80 percent of today's college students. In its role as the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, ACE provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives."


• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). "The mission of the American Council of Learned Societies is "the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences and the maintenance and strengthening of relations among the national societies devoted to such studies. ACLS, a private, nonprofit federation of 71 national scholarly organizations, is the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences."


• Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU). "AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,200 member institutions--including accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size."


• Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). "Founded in 1876 and based in Washington, D.C., the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is a not-for-profit association representing all 136 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 62 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and 93 academic and scientific societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC represents 128,000 faculty members, 75,000 medical students, and 110,000 resident physicians."


• Association of American Universities (AAU). "The Association of American Universities (AAU) is a nonprofit organization of 61 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1900 to advance the international standing of U.S. research universities, AAU today focuses on issues that are important to research-intensive universities, such as funding for research, research policy issues, and graduate and undergraduate education. AAU member universities are on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship, and solutions that contribute to the nation's economy, security, and well-being. The 59 AAU universities in the United States award more than one-half of all U.S. doctoral degrees and 55 percent of those in the sciences and engineering."


• Association of American University Presses (AAUP). "The AAUP is an organization of nonprofit publishers whose members strive to advance scholarship through their offerings. The Association's mission is to assist its members through professional education, cooperative services, and public advocacy. We educate by offering training programs and workshops, by holding specialized and general annual meetings, and by aggregating and distributing industry information. Our cooperative services expand our members' reach and efficiency. We advocate by promoting the value of university presses both within and outside the university community and by acting as our members' collective voice on matters of free speech, academic freedom, copyright, and other core issues."


• Association of International Educators (NAFSA). "With nearly 10,000 members, NAFSA is the world's largest nonprofit professional association dedicated to international education. NAFSA and its members believe that international education and exchange--connecting students, scholars, educators, and citizens across borders--is fundamental to: establishing mutual understanding among nations, preparing the next generation with vital cross-cultural and global skills, and creating the conditions for a more peaceful world."


• Association for Institutional Research (AIR)."The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) is a professional association of more than 4,000 institutional researchers, planners and decision-makers from more than 1,500 higher education institutions around the world. AIR helps advance research that improves the understanding, planning and operation of higher education institutions. "


• Association of Research Libraries. "The Association of Research Libraries is a nonprofit organization of 125 research libraries at comprehensive, research-extensive institutions in the US and Canada that share similar research missions, aspirations, and achievements. The Association's importance and distinction is born from its membership and the nature of the institutions represented. Its mission and values shape these basic principles that are essential elements of the Association’s success: Open and equitable access to information is a fundamental tenet to society, Research libraries are active agents central to the process of the transmission and creation of knowledge, Research libraries have a responsibility to anticipate and prepare for the information needs of present and future users, Collaboration among libraries improves prospects for individual library success in fulfilling local needs. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace, spending more than $1.4 billion every year on library materials."


• Review of Higher Education, the Journal of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). "The Review of Higher Education provides a forum for discussion of varied issues affecting higher education. The journal advances the study of college- and university-related topics through peer-reviewed articles, essays, reviews and research findings, and by emphasizing systematic inquiry--both quantitative and qualitative--and practical implications. Considered one of the leading research journals in the field, The Review keeps scholars, academic leaders, and public policymakers abreast of critical issues facing higher education today. The official journal of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE)."


• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. "Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center. Improving teaching and learning has always been Carnegie's motivation and heritage. Our current improvement research approach builds on the scholarship of teaching and learning, where we: Learn from each other, Improve on what we know works, Continuously create new knowledge, Take what we learn and make it usable by others."


• Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). "The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is a professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. CASE helps its members build stronger relationships with their alumni and donors, raise funds for campus projects, produce recruitment materials, market their institutions to prospective students, diversify the profession, and foster public support of education. CASE is one of the world's largest nonprofit educational associations in terms of institutional membership Includes more than 3,400 colleges and universities, primary and secondary independent and international schools, and nonprofit organizations in 74 countries Serves more than 64,000 advancement professionals on the staffs of member institutions Led by volunteers with nearly 3,500 advancement professionals serving as board members, speakers, authors, conferences planners and more."


• Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). "A national advocate and institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through a ccreditation, CHEA is an association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities and recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations."


• The Institute for Higher Education Policy. "The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) is an independent, nonprofit organization that is dedicated to access and success in postsecondary education around the world. Based in Washington, D.C., IHEP uses unique research and innovative programs to inform key decision makers who shape public policy and support economic and social development. Co-founded in 1993 by higher education expert and Lumina Foundation for Education President and CEO Jamie P. Merisotis, IHEP offers a nonpartisan perspective through a staff that includes some of the most respected professionals in the fields of public policy and research. It is committed to equality of opportunity for all and helps low-income, minority, and other historically underrepresented populations gain access and achieve success in higher education."
• National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). "Founded more than one hundred years ago as a way to protect student-athletes, the NCAA continues to implement that principle with increased emphasis on both athletics and academic excellence. The NCAA's core purpose is TO govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount."


• National Academies. "Four organizations make up the Academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. Known collectively as the National Academies, our organization produces groundbreaking reports that have helped shape sound policies, inform public opinion, and advance the pursuit of science, engineering, and medicine."


• National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). "NACUBO is the thought leader and authoritative resource for business and financial management of higher education and is recognized a s such by key internal and external stakeholders. It's mission is to advance the economic viability and business practices of higher education institutions in fulfillment of their academic missions."


• National Association of College Auxiliary Services (NACAS). "NACAS was founded in 1969 as the National Association of College Auxiliary Services to be a one stop connection for information, insight and opportunity for auxiliary service professionals. NACAS Members: Approximately 700 U.S. Institutions, Approximately 60 Canadian Institutions, and 7 Overseas Institutions (Jamaica, Lebanon, Ireland, and Australia). NACAS Members represent approximately: 370 Four-Year Public Institutions, 250 Four-Year Private Institutions, 150 Community Colleges/Two-Year Schools, and 30 Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs)."


• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). "The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (A-P-L-U) is a research and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions, and state university systems with member campuses in all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. The association is governed by a Chair and a Board of Directors elected from the member universities and university systems. President Peter McPherson directs a staff of about 45 at the national office in Washington, D.C. The association's membership includes 217 members, consisting of state universities, land-grant universities, state-university systems and related organizations. The total includes 74 U.S. land-grant institutions, of which 18 are the historically black institutions. In addition, A?P?L?U represents the interests of the nation's 33 American Indian land-grant colleges through the membership of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). A?P?L?U institutions enroll more than 3.5 million undergraduate students and 1.1 million graduate students, employ more than 645,000 faculty members, and conduct nearly two-thirds of all federally-funded academic research, totaling more than $34 billion."


• National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). "NASPA is the leading association for the advancement, health, and sustainability of the student affairs profession. We serve a full range of professionals who provide programs, experiences, and services that cultivate student learning and success in concert with the mission of our colleges and universities. Founded in 1919, NASPA comprises more than 12,000 members in all 50 states, 29 countries, and 8 U.S. Territories."


• National Council of University Research Administrators (NACURA). "NCURA serves its members and advances the field of research administration through education and professional development programs, the sharing of knowledge and experience, and by fostering a professional, collegial, and respected community."


• Association of University Technology Managers". "AUTM's global network of members come from more than 350 universities, research institutions, teaching hospitals and government agencies as well as hundreds of companies involved with managing and licensing innovations derived from academic and nonprofit research. The association was founded in 1974 as the Society of University Patent Administrators with the objective of addressing a concern that inventions funded by the U.S. government were not being commercialized effectively. Through the years AUTM has grown beyond this single objective and now provides professional development and networking opportunities for technology transfer professionals at all career levels and from established and newly forming organizations worldwide. AUTM provides numerous resources for members including survey reports, professional development courses, a comprehensive training manual, peer-reviewed journal and a worldwide community of peers with expertise in all areas of intellectual property management."


• National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). "The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector."


• The National Science Foundation. "The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense." With an annual budget of about $6.9 billion (FY 2010), we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing."


• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada--SSHRC. "The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is the federal agency that promotes and supports postsecondary-based research and training in the humanities and social sciences. Through its programs and policies, SSHRC enables the highest levels of research excellence in Canada, and facilitates knowledge-sharing and collaboration across research disciplines, universities and all sectors of society. Created by an act of Canada's Parliament in 1977, SSHRC is governed by a council that reports to Parliament through the Minister of Industry."


• Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). "SREB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works with 16 member states to improve public pre-K-12 and higher education. Founded by the region's governors and legislators in 1948, SREB was America's first interstate compact for education. Today it is the only regional education compact that works directly with state leaders, schools and educators to improve teaching, learning and student achievement at every level of education. "

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Miscellaneous Sites of Interest

• National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). "As one of 13 federal statistical agencies, NCSES designs, supports, and directs periodic national surveys and performs a variety of other data collections and research. The America COMPETES Reauthorization Act codifies the role of NCSES in supporting research using the data that it collects and its role in research methodologies related to its work. The legislation specifies the responsibilities of NCSES in supporting the education and training of researchers who use large-scale data sets, such as the ones NCSES now collects. "


• State to State Migration Data. Published by the Tax Foundation, this site offers an interactive tool to show the in and out migration and in and out transfer of taxable income between states. "Pick a state, a start date and an end date, and this tool will tell you how many people and how much income moved to and from that state, from and to every other state, in the time period you've chosen. We show only state to state migration, and exclude foreign immigration and emigration. "


• The Center for Measuring University Performance. "The Center for Measuring University Performance (MUP) is a research enterprise focused on the competitive national context for major research universities. The MUP work relies heavily on the initiative and insight of its advisory board and draws on the insight and recommendations of many colleagues throughout the country who contribute data, information, and perspective."


• Inside Higher Ed. "The online source for news, opinion and career advice and services for all of higher education." Free access.


• The Chronicle of Higher Education. "The Chronicle of Higher Education is the academic world's No. 1 source of news and information." This is a subscription publication.


• Education Statistics Quarterly. "The Quarterly offers an accessible, convenient overview of all NCES products released in a given quarter. Each issue includes: short publications (those less than 15 pages in length) in their entirety, executive summaries of longer publications, descriptive paragraphs of other NCES products, as well as notices about training and funding opportunities. In addition, each issue includes a featured publication with invited commentary pieces, a note on a current topic from a staff member, and a message from NCES. This issue contains a complete annual index of NCES publications."


• Deliberations on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. "Deliberations is an international website on issues of learning and teaching for the higher education community. It was set up in 1995 with funding from the eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme with staff and project management initially divided between London Guildhall University and Kingston University. "


• All Universities around the World. Lists universities by region and by country.


• HathiTrust. "Contributes to the common good by collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge. Goals are to build a reliable and increasingly comprehensive digital archive of library materials converted from print that is co-owned and managed by a number of academic institutions, improve access to these materials in ways that, first and foremost, meet the needs of the co-owning institutions, and help preserve these important human records by creating reliable and accessible electronic representations."


• EdX. "EdX is a not-for-profit enterprise of its founding partners Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that features learning designed specifically for interactive study via the web. Based on a long history of collaboration and their shared educational missions, the founders are creating a new online-learning experience with online courses that reflect their disciplinary breadth."


• Coursera. "Coursera is a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students."

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