Research and Reference Resources

Home and Leisure

Food

AllRecipes.com - http://allrecipes.com
Cooks.com -Weights and Measures
Epicurious - http://food.epicurious.com | Food Dictionary
Meals for You - http://www.mealsforyou.com
Recipe Resource - http://www.recipesource.com
An assortment of recipe sites all searchable by keyword and recipe type.  Very easy to use and all of the recipes include nutritional values and ratings by other cooks.
Yahoo Food (recipes) --http://food.yahoo.com/recipes/

Gardening

Gardening - http://www.nbii.gov/disciplines/botany/gardening.html
Gardening links provided by the National Biological Information Infrastructure.

Ortho on-line -  http://www.ortho.com
Ortho gives you all the information about keeping your home and garden safe from pests and insects.

PlantCare.com - http://plantcare.com
A database of indoor and greenhouse plants searchable by plant type and room condition or browsable by common and Latin names. Provides detailed information including description, lighting needs, soil, watering, photo of plant, and more. Information is available on identification and control of common house plant pests. 

WebGarden  - http://webgarden.osu.edu
Includes a searchable database of over 20,000 fact sheets from universities and cooperative extensions, a dictionary of plants with links to images and descriptions, and links to other Internet gardening resources.

The Wisconsin Gardener - http://www.wpt.org/garden/resource/societies.cfm
Now in its eighth season on Wisconsin Public Television, the popular show has a complementary website where gardeners can read full transcripts of the television show, link to an electronic newsletter, or access "The Gardener's Resource", which includes zone maps, information about public gardens in the area, and profiles of local gardening clubs and organizations.

Homes

Home Buying

see also Madison Area Real Estate

ForSaleByOwner.com - http://www.forsalebyowner.com
Database of homes for sale by owner (without a real estate agent) in the United States. Search for a home, or list your property. Also has information on local schools, price comparisons, loans, and tips on home buying.

Realtor.com - http://www.realtor.com
A huge database of homes for sale on the Web, listing more than one million homes in the U.S.  There is a mapping feature if the address of the house is available. From the National Association of Realtors.

Sperling's Best Places - http://www.bestplaces.net
Compare over 3,000 U.S. cities in housing, costs of living, crime, education, economy, health and climate. Choose any two cities and see them displayed side-by-side.

Home Repair

Do it Yourself (home repairs and projects)- http://www.doityourself.com | Cleaning and Stain Removal -- http://www.doityourself.com/scat/cleaningstainremoval
Home Improvement (Better Homes & Gardens)- http://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/
Covers a variety of home repair tasks, from sanding a floor to buying a house.
How to Articles - Hometime's Projects  -http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projectlist.htm

Landlord - Tenant

Landlord-tenant law: an overview - http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/landlord_tenant.html
Landlord / Tenant Law : Wisconsin Law Pages - http://www.wis-law.com/tenant.html
A national and Wisconsin collection of laws and regulations.

Personal Finance and Investing

To research individual companies or industries prior to investing, please refer to the Business section. Receive updates of new Business and Finance books or access the library's subscriptions to Morningstar Investment Research Center or Value Line Investment Survey.

Bank Rate Monitor - http://www.bankrate.com/brm/default.asp
Tracks bank rates for major cities throughout the U.S., including the Madison and Milwaukee areas.

BigCharts - http://www.bigcharts.com
Covers mutual funds and stocks, with quotes as far back as 1985.

CNN/Money - http:/money.cnn.com

Lead Fusion - http://www.leadfusion.com
Calculators for finances - home, auto, budgeting, savings, credit, insurance, investing and retirement.

Financial Education

Financial Education - http://www.wdfi.org/links/fe.htm
InvestorGuide.com's University - http://www.investorguide.com/university.html

DailyStocks - http://www.dailystocks.com

InsWeb - http://www.insweb.com
Lots of life and auto insurance information, including personalized quotes, and a primer on insurance basics.

Quicken Investing Center -http://help.quicken.com/support/help/index.html
Includes tips on investing and personal finance in all areas--banking, home and auto, debt reduction, retirement planning, etc. Includes many applications to help you calculate the best deal or get better rates. Try taking the "financial check up" to see how you're doing.

Pets

American Kennel Club - http://www.akc.org

BirdsnWays Guide to Parrots and Exotic Pet Birds - http://www.birdsnways.com

Care for Animals (American Veterinary Medical Association) - http://www.avma.org/careforanimals/default.asp

Cat Fanciers Web Site - http://www.fanciers.com

Dane County Humane Society - http://giveshelter.org

Healthypet.com - http://www.healthypet.com

Petfinder - http://www.petfinder.org

Petstation's Small Mammal Medley - http://petstation.com/medley.html

Sports

Professional Sports

ESPN - http://espn.go.com |
MajorLeagueBaseball.com - http://www.majorleaguebaseball.com
Milwaukee Brewers - http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com
Milwaukee Bucks - http://www.nba.com/bucks
NBA.com - http://www.nba.com
NFL.com - http://www.nfl.com
Packers - http://www.packers.com/
SI.com (Sports Illustrated)

College Sports

NCAA.Online - http://www.ncaa.org
The official site, with eligibility rules, rankings, links to members.

UW Badgers - http://www.uwbadgers.com

High School  & Youth Sports

Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association   - http://www.wiaawi.org
Standings, playoffs and more about Wisconsin high school sports.

Outdoor Sports & Recreation

GORP - http://www.gorp.com
Great Outdoor recreation Pages, an index on hiking, fishing, biking, canoeing, and just about any outdoor activity.

National Park Service - http://www.nps.gov
Information on National Parks, National Monuments, and Historic Sites in the United States. Unofficial information on parks available at U. S. National Parks Net.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources's Outdoor Recreation - http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/OutdoorActivities.html
Trails, campgrounds, state parks, fishing, hunting, wildlife, and more.

Travel

see also Maps or check LINKcat for maps to take with you

Expedia - http://www.expedia.com
Travelocity   - http://www.travelocity.com
Trip.com  - http://www.trip.com
Three slick travel sites are all highly rated for frequent business travelers. Orbitz claims to provide the most complete list of low airfares on the Internet.

Elderhostel - http://www.elderhostel.org
Thousands of travel and education opportunities for older adults and their families.

International Travel

OANDA.com - http://www.oanda.com/converter/classic (currency converter)
Travlang - http://www.travlang.com (language converter)
World Time Server - http://www.worldtimeserver.com
U.S. Dept of State Travel Warnings - http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html

TourStates - http://www.tourstates.com
Links to Tourism Departments for all 50 states.

Wisconsin Department of Tourism - http://tourism.state.wi.us/

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