The best way that we've found in our shop is just perusing the catalogues. There are tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of tools out there - an all encompassing go-to resource wouldn't be possible. I suppose there are guides out there (I don't know of any specifically), but we've found that nothing replaces good old fashioned homework. In our case we machine primarily plastic, so it's a bit of a specialty, but we've found incredibly drastic improvements in results by finding the right tool for the job, and I don't think we could have found some of the tools that we use every day if we didn't do our own homework.
By all means, if you can find a guide to help get you started, use it. I just wanted to encourage you and others reading this to dig into the various tool catalogues and take a look for yourselves, as every project tends to have it's own needs. Some of the best tools we use are quite new, and likely wouldn't be in any guide. As you gain experience you will get a better idea of what may work, and by looking through the catalogues you may see a tool that you will need in the future - a "eureka" moment - sometimes you won't see the application for a lot of the tools until the application is right in front of you - "that's what that tool is for".
When you find a tool that looks promising, hop on the net and type in the description - many times you will find better details on the applications this way.
If you do find a great guide, be sure to share it here - I for one would definitely be interested. The more I can learn about tooling the better machining jobs I can accomplish.
Good luck, happy chip-making, and Merry Christmas to All!
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