By Gary Price , January 23, 2003
The Gateway to Associations is a specialized searchable database with links to over 6,500 associations located around the globe. Association web sites are often home to useful background materials as well as links to additional sources and news.
One of the "classic" reference books is Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations. This massive directory is a treasure chest of information because trade and professional associations can often direct you to people and organizations that are able to provide authoritative answers. Most libraries have a copy of the printed version of this directory. Other libraries may be able to provide access to a database version of the encyclopedia.
Does a similar resource exist on the open or free web? The answer is yes.
Although the Encyclopedia of Associations is much larger and offers many search options, the Gateway to Associations is a worthwhile searchable database of trade and professional association web sites. Once you access an organization's site you can not only find contact information but also gain access to background papers, links to useful web sites, industry news, and more.
The Gateway to Associations has links for over 6,500 associations around the world. It's worth mentioning that while I did find links to groups located outside the U.S., the directory is particularly strong with U.S. associations.
Searching the directory is straightforward and simple. You're can search by name, category, city and state. I found several European and Canadian associations by utilizing the name and city search fields.
The directory is also organized into more than 100 categories. Categories range from accounting and agriculture to veterans and women.
Result pages consist of only the associations name and a link to the organizations home page. If your search hits on over 20 results, they're spread across multiple result pages.
The Gateway to Associations is provided by the American Society of Association Executives based in Washington D.C.
Gateway to Associations
http://info.asaenet.org/gateway/OnlineAssocSlist.html
A searchable database with links to over 6,500 associations.
AssociationCentral.Com
http://www.associationcentral.com/
Another searchable and browseable database of association links.
Associations on the Net
http://www.ipl.org/ref/AON/
A service of the Internet Public Library.
Trade Association Forum Directory
http://www.taforum.org/searchgroup.pl?n=500
A searchable database trade associations, guilds and federations located in the United Kingdom
The Scholarly Societies Project
http://www.scholarly-societies.org/
A directory of over 3,100 scholarly organizations from around the World.
NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication's search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.
