Resources
An excellent first-stop, the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) provides all students, teachers, and citizens of the State of Alabama with online access to essential (and expensive) information resources. AVL is primarily a group of online databases that have magazine, journal, and newspaper articles for research.
For other good sources of information, select one of the topic areas listed below:
Arts & Music
All Music Guide - Up to date and detailed biographies of composers, musicians, & musical acts. Coverage from all time periods, genres and styles--from Hildegard von Bingen and Iannis Xenakis to Cisaria Ivora and Kanye West.
Artists' Biographies - More than 16,000 short biographies of painters, sculptors, photographers, designers, architects, ceramicists, graphic artists and more, including some 15,000 articles from the award-winning Grove Art Dictionary of Art. These articles are teaser length and serve best as a springboard for further research through AVL.
Internet Movie Database - Comprehensive, ever-expanding database of information about films, filmmakers, film actors, and anyone that has had anything to do with films.
PBS Jazz - biographies of nearly 100 premiere artists in the field of Jazz music, entries are excerpted from the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Detailed biographical sketches of all inductees the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Business & Career
Business Information
Business Licensing Requirements for the City of Orange Beach
Alabama Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce
Gulf Coast Business Support Center - Located in Gulf Shores, the Center is open from 8 AM – 5 PM, Monday – Friday. To contact the Center for an appointment, please call 251-968-3118. This is a partnership of the Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce, South Baldwin Chamber and the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance.
U.S. Small Business Administration - This site provides information of particular use to individuals starting or operating a small business, including licensing and tax requirements. Links are provided to sources for training and assistance as well as local government resources. Also useful is the loans and grants search tool. The site is maintained by Business.gov "The official business link to the U.S. Government."
Consumer Information
Alabama Attorney General, Consumer Affairs division
Federal Citizen Information Center - a federally funded Website that provides answers to questions about the Federal Government and everyday consumer issues
Job & Career Resources
Finding a Job
Alabama Job Link - gateway site to Alabama employment information. Excellent list of area networking and support groups as well as job listings by category. Links to area career centers. The site can be translated into thirteen different languages. Although viewing detailed job postings requires the creation of a free account, you may perform a quick job search without logging in.
Foley, AL Career Center - this is the nearest location for free, comprehensive, employment help. The Career Center offers free professional help, public access computers, printers, faxes and other resources. The Career Center is located at 200 West Michigan Avenue; Foley , AL 36535. Additional information is available by phone (251) 943-1575, fax (251) 943-8867, or email: Foley@alcc.alabama.gov (A description of the center is part of the Career One Stop website maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor.)
Alabama Jobs - search either local job listings, national job listings, or post a résumé. Career showcases and job of the week links. This is the online classified ads component of major Alabama newspapers.
Indeed.com - a search engine designed to search job listings. All searches are free and provide direct links to available job postings as well as related employment information. You may also sign up to receive customized job posting alerts.
Craigslist - job listings from the Craigslist Mobile online community, a non-commercial alternative to big media sites. Take the time to read the scam alert notice before continuing to Job Postings. For jobs listed in Craigslist Pensacola, click here.
Jobs Online - job search by keyword or company and zip code. To see more than three job listings or to find more information about those listings, your must create an account with the site.
Government Jobs
City of Orange Beach Department of Human Resources - job opportunities offered by the City of Orange Beach and application information.
Baldwin County Commission - listings from the Baldwin County Commissioner of current county government job openings. Also check the Baldwin County Sheriff's department for additional job postings.
USA Jobs - United States Office of Personnel Management job site. Learn how to apply for jobs with many federal agencies. Search job openings online.
Career Planning and Long-term Job Search Resources
Cypress Resume - Online resume builder, designed for those who have never created a resume. Its easy-to-use format assures you won’t spend hours trying to perfect your document—all the hard work is done for you. Simply type basic information about yourself (as little or as much as you’d like), and leave the difficult task of writing concise, descriptive statements detailing your abilities to the resume builder. This product is a paid library subscription, so you will need to log-in with your library card.
Career Center from Tutor.com provides resume worksheets, samples and tips as well as information about cover letters and job searching. Career Center is part of Homework Alabama. Just click through the Homework Alabama splash page, choose the Career Center button at the top of the page and the Career Center button to access the live tutors and other job search resources.
Career Click - useful to research occupations by job title, training level, and wage range. This site is maintained by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Career Guide to Industries - provides information on occupations, earnings and benefits, employment outlook, working conditions, and training and advancement by industry. This site is maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Jobweb - a good site for career planning and employment information: tips for students, recent graduates, and experienced job seekers. This site is maintained by NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers).
Occupational Outlook Handbook - this is a classic resource (libraries have purchased the print version for decades) from the U.S. Department of Labor, which describes 250 occupations. Information includes education and training requirements, advancement potential, earnings, job outlook, and related occupations.
O*NET: Occupational Information Network - an interactive database describing over 1,100 current occupations. Replaces the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. This site is maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Learning Express
Learning Express Library is a comprehensive, interactive online learning platform of practice tests and tutorial courses designed to help students and adult learners succeed on academic or licensing tests. You must register with the site, but you only need to create a username and password -- no personal information is required. You will get immediate scoring, complete answer explanations, and an individualized analysis of your test results.
Unemployment Compensation in Alabama
The state of Alabama now only accepts unemployment compensation claims online or by telephone (toll-free 1-866-234-5382).
Unemployment claims are handled by the Department of Industrial Relations. The department suggests that anyone needing to file a claim first read their Handbook for Alabama Unemployment Compensation Claimants (This is a 33-page PDF document, so it will take some time to download if you have a slow or dial-up connection to the Internet).
For a general overview of the claims process, the department's Claims and Benefits FAQ is fast-loading and useful.
Consumer Information
Alabama Attorney General, Consumer Affairs division - this site lists current consumer alerts, provides an online complaint form and a toll-free consumer hotline for state residents
Federal Citizen Information Center - a federally funded Website that provides answers to questions about the Federal Government and everyday consumer issues
Industrial Directories
Thomas Net - manufacturers, distributors and service providers, listed by product/service category. Searches may be refined by geographic area. Listings include basic company profile information, contact information and a link to the business' Website.
MacRae's Blue Book - industrial database of manufacturers, distributors and suppliers listed by product. Searches may be conducted by company or product and may be refined by state. Listings include brief product descriptions, company mailing address and telephone number and a link to the business' Website.
General
Bartleby.com - Provides access to a variety of reference materials, including The American Heritage Dictionary (Fourth Edition), Roget's II New Thesaurus, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, and more. These are almost entirely historical editions, long out of copyright.
Infoplease - from Pearson Education, includes free access to the Time Almanac, The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth Edition), The Random House Dictionary, a thesaurus, an atlas, white pages, and more. This site is most interesting for it's featured articles of timely content, but be prepared for prominent advertising and pop-ups.
Almanacs
The Old Farmer's Almanac - from Yankee Publishing Inc., the online version of North America's oldest continuously published periodical. Provides weather forecasts, tides, a calendar of the heavens, recipes, gardening tips, and much more. Be prepared for pop-up advertising.
Time Almanac - from Pearson Education. Not a comprehensive resource, but a quick place to search for historical highlights by date or find listings of common historical information.
Dictionaries
OneLook Dictionaries - from OneLook, search more than 675 general and subject dictionaries from this site, particularly unique is the inclusion of translation dictionaries. This site has no pop-up advertisements, but many of the dictionaries linked do have pop-up ads.
Dictionary.com - from IAC Corp., offers multi-source dictionary, thesaurus & quotation search using resources from Random House and Harper Collins
Merriam-Webster Online - from Merriam-Webster, basic dictionary and/or thesaurus with audio clip pronunciation guides. The site has many ads, some pop-ups, but the dictionary search box is easily accessible at the top of the page.
Specialized Dictionaries
Acronym Finder - from Mountain Data Systems, the world's largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms
Dictionary of Medical Terms - from Merriam-Webster, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health, the dictionary is part of the Medline Plus Website.
Rhyme Zone - from DataMuse, find rhyming words, homophones, synonyms, and more.
WordReference - from Mike Kellogg and WordReference.com, dictionaries in 15 languages, including Asian, Arabic and Cyrillic scripts, also includes English definitions.
Dictionaries
General Dictionaries
OneLook Dictionaries - from OneLook, search more than 675 general and subject dictionaries from this site, particularly unique is the inclusion of translation dictionaries. This site has no pop-up advertisements, but many of the dictionaries linked do have pop-up ads.
Dictionary.com - from IAC Corp., offers multi-source dictionary, thesaurus & quotation search using resources from Random House and Harper Collins
Merriam-Webster Online - from Merriam-Webster, basic dictionary and/or thesaurus with audio clip pronunciation guides. The site has many ads, some pop-ups, but the dictionary search box is easily accessible at the top of the page.
Specialized Dictionaries
Acronym Finder - from Mountain Data Systems, the world's largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms
Dictionary of Medical Terms - from Merriam-Webster, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health, the dictionary is part of the Medline Plus Website.
Rhyme Zone - from DataMuse, find rhyming words, homophones, synonyms, and more.
WordReference - from Mike Kellogg and WordReference.com, dictionaries in 15 languages, including Asian, Arabic and Cyrillic scripts, also includes English definitions.
Directories
General Directories
AnyWho - from AT&T, Area Codes, White and yellow pages, international directories, reverse lookups, and toll-free searches.
Switchboard - from InfoSpace, nationwide residential and business directory
WhoWhere - from Lycos, white and yellow pages
People Search - from Yahoo, search for phone numbers and email addresses.
Specialized
Internet 800 Directory - from DIANCO, search by product or service, company name, or toll-free number.
ZIP Code Lookup - from the United States Postal Service, find the correct ZIP+4 for any address or company or find a list of cities by ZIP code
Government
Local Government
City of Orange Beach - provides announcements and links to emergency information, local regulations and city departments
Baldwin County - links to county offices and departments as well as law enforcement, school and tax information
Revenue Commission - property tax mapping, appraisal information
State
State of Alabama - directory of state services and offices, licensing information, state history time line, descriptions of state symbols
Fishing and Hunting Licenses - fee information and links to buy freshwater and saltwater licenses online
Alabama Student Aid - basic information about a variety of state aid programs for post-high school study in Alabama
Alabama Student Loan Program - a wide variety of information about preparing for college, financial aid, student loan calculators and the Alabama College Loan Program. (This site is maintained by Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority [KHEAA], the designated guarantor of Alabama.)
Federal
US Federal Government - USA.gov is the official portal to information and services provided through the federal government. (The site is administered by the U.S. General Services Administration's Office of Citizen Services and Communications.)
Assistance Programs and Agencies
Social Security - Links to social security, disability, medicare, and retirement information.
Medicare -Links to Medicare billing, prescription plans, long-term care and account information.
FEMA - Find information on hurricane and disaster preparedness, floods and fires.
Tax Information
IRS.gov - the official site of the Internal Revenue Service. Information here includes forms and instructions for the current tax year as well as contact information for local offices.
Also available are forms and instructions for previous years (1980 through present) .
Contact your Federal Representative or Senator
US Congressional Representative - this page allows you to find the name of your representative and physical mailing address. When available, a quick link to the representative's Website is also provided.
US Senate - This page lists Alabama's senators and provides links to their official senate pages as well as a quick contact form.
Health
Medline Plus - authoritative health and drug information from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. The site also includes a medical encyclopedia and dictionary, interactive tutorials, information about clinical trials and a directory of doctors, dentists and hospitals throughout the US.
Evaluating Health Information on the Internet - sometimes it's hard to know if the information you find online is reliable, this short tutorial can help you determine the truth and value of the health-related information you find when you search
Lab Tests Online - a peer-reviewed, non-commercial resource produced by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. This site provides information about clinical lab tests ranging from pre-test preparation to description of procedure and interpreting test results. You may search for tests by keyword or browse an index of texts by name, condition being tested, or target age group.
WebMD - Health, first aid and lifestyle information. This site includes a pill identifier as well as descriptions of medical tests and tools. (Note that this is a commercial site and it does include advertisements. For best results, you should compare information from this site with information from Medline Plus.)
PubMed - a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 18 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to 1948. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources. (This site is better for academic research than daily health questions.)
Maps, Travel & Language
Maps
A to Z Maps provides current and historical political maps of the world, continents, countries and all U.S. states. These maps are appropriate for study and can be printed for inclusion in reports. Specialized maps are also available describing climate, ecology, weather, earthquakes and bathymetric/fishing data.
A to Z: The USA provides more detailed map and geography information for the United States. Maps, flags, photos and facts, as well as state, county and city information about the 50 states (and 5 U.S. Territories) make this an ideal resource for student papers.
These databases are paid for by the Orange Beach Library and require home users to log-in using their Orange Beach Library card number.
Travel
A to Z World Travel is advertisement-free and provides travel and tourism information by city including: a general overview, neighborhood descriptions, food, climate, health and language guides as well as transportation, communication and electrical information.
This database is paid for by the Orange Beach Library and requires home users to log-in using their Orange Beach Library card number.
Language
LiveMocha is the world’s largest online language learning community with free online language courses in 38 languages. It also offers extensive ESL (English as a Second Language) support. Because an important part of Livemocha's offering for adults is access to assistance from native speakers in every language, Livemocha also supports a separate, content-only platform for children.
This database is paid for by the Orange Beach Library and requires first-time users to confirm their Orange Beach Library card number and create an individual account. Account creation requires only an email address; users must create their own password and choose a language to begin.
Science
Science
DOepatents - searchable database of patent information resulting from Department Of Energy-sponsored research and development
RestoreTheGulf.gov - a clearinghouse for information and resources related to the April 20, 2010 incident in the Gulf of Mexico involving the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
Additional information is also available through the Alabama Virtual Library.
Encyclopedia of Earth - a free, fully searchable online resource about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. This is a wiki, with authorship and editing limited to approximately 1,400 scholars, educators and professionals from 60 countries. Information includes articles, books, reports and curriculum resources that are written in non-technical language and available in various media formats, which are accessible and useful to students, educators, professionals, and policy makers as well as the general public. This is a product of the National Council for Science and the Environment. (Some pages contain advertisements in sidebars)
GreenFILE - a bibliographic database of information about environmental concerns provided as a free service by EBSCO. Contents are primarily scholarly titles, as well as government documents and reports. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology. The database contains 295,000 records, of which 4,600 provide links to full-text articles from open access titles. (This resource is designed for searching, not browsing. Enter your search terms in the field at the top of the page.)
National Science Digital Library - primarily for teachers, this site provides resources and tools to support teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics all levels. Funded by the National Science Foundation.
EurekAlert! - an online, global news service focused on all areas of science, medicine and technology. It provides a central place through which universities, medical centers, journals, government agencies, corporations and other organizations engaged in research can bring their news to the media. (Operated by the AAAS, American Association for the Advancement of Science)
Technology Help
New (and not so new) technologies can be great tools or a huge source of frustration. We want to make sure you have the information you need to begin enjoying the possibilities of your new electronic world.
The library offers help in the form of :
* Technology Classes - 1 hour group classes held in the Meeting Room
* Book-a-Librarian - 30 minute individual appointments to answer specific questions
The Internet is also full of helpful tutorials for computer users of all levels. Listed below are some of the sites we've found most helpful:
eHow - short video tutorials on a range of topics. Visual learners will find the quick answers to "how to" questions about Microsoft Office products most helpful.