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The HEAVY HITTERS!
Sid's selection of links to the best Lists-of-Lists and REFERENCE / RESOURCE PORTALS
 
Sid note:  Here is a must see site - naciente.com -- home of the hartman website     Although I have followed it for years I don't know why I have not prominently featured this link. The guy's website has been on the internet since 1995 and is probably one of the largest and the very best personal,  non-commercial sites on the net. It is extremely well done; superbly organized, and a rich source of useful links.      Pack a lunch - then explore and enjoy.    Don't forget your way back.
CLICK for the Internet Archive
CLICK for the Wayback Machine
The Internet Archives and the Wayback Machine provide avenues for you to browse billions of web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. CLICK THE IMAGES ABOVE

The Internet Archive at the New Library of Alexandria, Egypt, ( http://archive.bibalex.org  ) mirrors the Waybck Machine. Try your search there if you have trouble connecting to the Wayback servers.
FIND GUMMINT STUFF HERE  ---  You're paying for it....   might as well use it.
USA.gov   Information and resources from local, state, and federal government agencies.
FTC.gov    Information and resources on consumer protection issues.
Listing over 1 million free books on the Web The Online Books Page "... hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries ...  (it is) a website that facilitates access to books that are freely readable over the Internet .. aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit and edification of all ... founded  and edited, by John Mark Ockerbloom ..."  onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu
aeon  --- Ideas and culture
"Since September 2012, Aeon has been publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. It asks the biggest questions and finds the freshest, most original answers, provided by world-leading authorities on science, philosophy and society.

Everything on the site is free to enjoy. Aeon Magazine publishes an original essay most weekdays, exploring topics such as the nature of consciousness, the psychology of solitary confinement and the missing chapters in the story of human evolution. Its sister channel, Aeon Video, streams short documentaries about society and nature, many of them exclusive to Aeon. Learn more about Aeon Video.

Aeon Ideas, now in open beta, is an entirely new platform designed for dynamic conversations on the defining questions of our age.

Aeon was founded in London by Paul and Brigid Hains. It now has offices in London, San Francisco and Melbourne. It belongs to Aeon Media Ltd. It is not affiliated with any other organisation or political group. Aeon is committed to big ideas, serious enquiry, a humane worldview and good writing. That’s it."
CLICK for Arts andLettersDaily
Their motto is Veritas odit moras.    A and L Daily says it is from line 850 of Seneca’s version of Oedipus and it means Truth hates delay.
So don't delay -  explore A and L Daily.    It ranks right up there with one of those internet links you really can't (shouldn't) be without.
Obtain VITAL RECORDS from
CLICK for access to Vital Records
Their Mission (their words):     "The mission of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is to provide statistical information that will guide actions and policies to improve the health of the American people. As the Nation's principal health statistics agency, NCHS leads the way with accurate, relevant, and timely data."
Spartacus EducationalWarning: Go to Spartacus and you may never come back.  This is a UK site with excellent subject links, seemingly without number.
Navigating The Military Internet  A very large, well done collection. From the Dudley Knox Library Naval Postgraduate School  Note: Military websites (.mil) are sometimes very slow or have temporary shut-downs.
Military Index to the Internet   From the (USAF) Air War College
CLICK for ANSWERS.com
"Free access to millions of topics from the world's leading publishers"
CLICK for INFOMINE
"INFOMINE is a virtual library of Internet resources relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful Internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of information."
The Millions     Links to excellent book sources and reviews
NASA Earth Observatory  The purpose of NASA’s Earth Observatory is to provide a freely-accessible publication on the Internet where the public can obtain new satellite imagery and scientific information about our home planet. The focus is on Earth’s climate and environmental change.
ENDEAVORS Magazine   is the magazine of research and creative activity at UNC-Chapel Hill.    They are a member of The University Research Magazine Association (URMA) which "promotes excellence and professionalism among those who write, edit, design and publish magazines about the research and scholarly activities of a university, nonprofit research center or institute." 

An extensive listing of URMA members is HERE.  Unfortunately, URMA has recently changed their policy and no longer provides a complete "clickable" (aka hot linked) format listing of online member publications.    However you can access many/most of the pubs by doing a simple copy/paste of their titles into a search engine HERE.  Most are worth the effort.
List Universe   "... the greatest resource online for top 10 lists and more! To view a complete list of all articles, use the navigation tabs at the top of each page, or click here. (They) update the site daily so be sure to check back regularly... Check out the forums (or the) Daily Hotlinks."
The Earth Warming Controversy - Includes long list of reference links
American History - Past, Present, and Future --- A WebRing: hub   ... An extensive listing of American History websites      "Past accounts, present historical or significant happenings, or future major events (that will become history) - 'today will be yesterday come tomorrow.' "
MINERVA Web Preservation Project   The Library of Congress’ mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.     An ever-increasing amount of the world’s cultural and intellectual output is presently created in digital formats and does not exist in any physical form.     The MINERVA Web Preservation Project was established to initiate a broad program to collect and preserve these (digital) primary source materials.

For more see LIBRARY of CONGRESS DIGITAL COLLECTION which includes the MINERVA website collection.
CLICK for Open Directory ProjectAbout DMOZ --- "The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors."
You will be dazzled by this resource zipskinny.com  For example here is data from where I live:  ZIPskinny demographics 13625 - COLTON NY  --  So what is ZIPSKINNY? Here is an edited excerpt from the website:
( ZIPSKINNY) was created as a Web development "hobby" project using Census 2000 data obtained from the (US) Census website. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information, errors and omissions can occur, and visitors are encouraged to use the actual Census site instead of this one for any serious research.

... there are certain important limitations to the data presented (in ZIPSKINNY). Because many of the measurements are based on sample data, certain results may be skewed in some cases, especially when the ZIP code area in question represents a very small sample. Please bear in mind that ZIP codes are not uniform population units. They were invented for mail delivery, not population comparisons.

Thanks to Rontini for passing this link along
I just had to add this one to the Heavy Hitters list. It may be the most useful link on this page.       Click it and you'll see why:  THIS TO THAT    Try their LINKS  ... and they say  "Because people have a need to glue things to other things"
MARTINDALE's REFERENCE DESK  Super-size your resources here
CLICK - ABOUT.com There are many good info portals on the net. ABOUT.com is one of the best. Use their SEARCH feature for topics. Also try the A to Z LISTING - and a highly recommended place to start is the HOMEWORK section.
Bob Drudge's Virtual Reference Desk.
If you were allowed only one bookmark
- this should be it.
Highly recommnded: refdesk.com's SITE OF THE DAY archives
And then there is always the World-Wide Web Virtual Library  For example try their HISTORY INDEX  It's huge!
LibWeb - LIBRARY SERVERS via WWW  A complete listing of all the world's libraries
THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS (FAS)   An extensive collection of information about a lot of stuff you never knew about. All in one place and likely not to be easily found anywhere else. Spend some time here.
LINKS TO THE ARCHIVES OF THE WORLD
The ibiblio.org COLLECTIONS INDEX  Home to one of the largest "collections of collections" on the Internet.  Also hosted by Ibiblio.org is the Special Libraries Association News Division.
    A good place to start is with their Reference Tools section:
    This section contains lists of reference tools for news librarians such as a list of essential books for U.S. news library, links to Web sites, finding expert sources on the Web and newspaper archives on the Web.
Forbes' LIST of LISTS   ---   Includes Forbes' BEST OF THE WEB
The Pinakes   A Subject launchpad
    About The Pinakes:
    In ancient times, the Library of Alexandria was seen as a universal store of human knowledge. As the Library grew in size, however, it became increasingly difficult to locate relevant material. The poet Callimachus solved the problem by compiling a catalogue called The Pinakes. On a far smaller scale, these Web pages hope to provide a similar function for Internet resources, by linking to the major subject gateways.
    Also see THE INTERNET RESOURCES NEWSLETTER
WEB LINKS    from Don Mabry's HISTORICAL TEXT ARCHIVE
You want it ?   He's got it.
CLICK fortheScout Report of The Internet Scout ProjectThe Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators.
In the course of their daily web surfing, looking for new resources for the Scout Reports, they come across many interesting items that for one reason or other don't make it into those publications. The best of those materials are posted to the Internet Scout Weblog, a rolling record of interesting and entertaining web tidbits
Jensen's Web Guides - It is huge
Try the Digital Library Federation. The amount of accessible material is mind boggling. For example do a search for World War Two posters.
    The DLF Collections Registry is a collaboration among the University of Illinois Library, and the Digital Library Federation, a consortium of libraries and related agencies that are pioneering the use of electronic-information technologies to extend collections and services.
LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia   From their website:
"The LoveTo Know Free Online Encyclopedia is based on what many consider to be the best encyclopedia ever written: the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, first published in 1911. While many of the science and health articles are obviously outdated, much of the biographical and historical articles is more complete and in-depth compared to those available elsewhere. At a time when many encyclopedias have capsulated and condensed important knowledge, the 11th edition is generally much more in-depth and thorough on its topics. It is not uncommon for its entries to be 5 to 10 times the length of other encyclopedias. As a research tool, this 11th edition is unparallelled - even today. LoveToKnow is now giving you all these thousands of entries, preserving the treasured entries that make it so unique, and where necessary and possible adding the current point of view. We hope that you enjoy and learn from the LoveToKnow Free Online Encyclopedia and that it becomes one of your favorite places for reference information.

The Eleventh Edition filled 29 volumes and contains over 44 million words. It contains over 40,000 articles written by over 1,500 authors within their various fields of expertise. What was particularly remarkable was that many of the entries were written by the most famous people of the age. As such, it was considered to represent the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th Century.

(The) website and project are not related to the current Encyclopeaedia Britannica, Inc. other than it being based on its 1911 Edition."
CLICK for Library SpotFrom their website:

"Simplifying the Search for the Best Library and Reference Resources on the Web

...LibrarySpot.com, a free virtual library resource center for ...anyone exploring the Web for ...research information.

...bring(s) the best library and reference sites together with insightful editorial in one user-friendly spot. Sites featured on LibrarySpot.com are hand-selected and reviewed... for their exceptional quality, content and utility.

Published by StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc. in the Northwestern University/Evanston Research Park in Evanston, Ill., LibrarySpot.com is the first in a family of vertical information portals designed to make finding the best topical information on the Internet a quick, easy and enjoyable experience."
Atlas Obscura | Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations
(As copied from their website)
About the Atlas Obscura

Welcome to the Atlas Obscura, a compendium of this age's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica. The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative project with the goal of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist. If you're looking for miniature cities, glass flowers, books bound in human skin, gigantic flaming holes in the ground, phallological museums, bone churches, balancing pagodas, or homes built entirely out of paper, the Atlas Obscura is where you'll find them.

The Atlas Obscura is not just about collecting oddities. In an age where everything seems to have been explored and there is nothing new to be found, the Atlas Obscura celebrates a different way of traveling, and a different lens through which to view the world.
Sid Note:      The link to Atlas Obscura was obtained from the website of Marylaine Block... One of my favorite sources of "Neat New Stuff".   In fact - that is the section's name and is prominently displayed a little further up this page.    Always a reliable source of neat-new stuff-on-the-net. Check it out.
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