Online Reference Collection
Library Home
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Online Reference Collection |
Library Home |
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Encyclopedias |
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Encyclopedia Britannica -- This should be your first stop for any online research. This high quality site contains the complete Encyclopedia Britannica as well as articles from "leading magazines" and "related books."
Encarta -- Encarta online provides dictionaries, atlases, lesson plans and links to related websites.
Encyclopedia Smithsonian-- Features answers to frequently asked questions the Smithsonian. Each topic is listed alphabetically, or you can just click on the letters of the alphabet to go from Amphibians to Minerals to Zoology.
E-Conflict World Encyclopedia -- The mission of this site is to "E-radicate Conflict by increasing Cultural Awareness". International country data, maps, geography and more. A worthwhile site, but has banners on every page.
The Probert Encyclopedia --An interesting and eclectic mix of information. From heraldry to computer viruses, from plants to mythology, warfare and weapons, you will find authoritative information that is hyperlinked, cross referenced and connected to the other Probert indexes.
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Almanacs and Statistical Information |
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Information Please --All the usual great yearbook information found in Information Please in print, plus a kids almanac, today in history, and breaking news.
Farmer's Almanac -- Still the best source for many daily needs including accurate long range weather predictions, planting advice, phases of the moon, advice of the day.
50 States -- Each state has a folder which contains information such as: capital cities, state symbols, mottos, flags, economic information, border states, constitution, and much more. New additions to the site: biographies of famous people in each state, fun facts and trivia.
The World Factbook 1999 -- The World Factbook (compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency ) shares its intelligence information about the world, including boundary changes (e.g. Kosovo), topography, politics, economy and some spiffy info about the CIA itself.
Statistical Abstracts--This site from the U.S. Census Bureau offers a selection of the most frequently requested tables along with state rankings, profiles, economic indicators.
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Biographical References |
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Lives, the Biography Resource --This site can link you to thousands of biographies, memoirs, diaries, letters and oral histories. Note: This site rarely lists biographies of living people.
Biography.com--From A&E, a very commercial site offering brief biographies of some 25,000 "notable personalities". Best for researching famous figures, but does offer bios of some historical and lesser known folks.
4,000 Years of Women in Science --Superb resource featuring biographies, pictures and photographs of 125 women who have made important contributions to humankind through science.
DISCovering Biography --Click into the Homework Helper's database at the Jamestown Philomenian Library (you can access it from the school library homepage). You'll need to enter your CLAN card number. This excellent resource was created to meet the needs of students who are researching the "most frequently studied individuals from ancient times to the present". Searchable by name, occupation, birth/death dates, places, nationality, gender, ethnicity, awards.
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Language Arts/ Foreign Language Resources |
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Dictionaries and Thesauruses |
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One Look-- 1.6 million word definitions taken from 34 dictionaries. Whew!
Roget's Thesaurus -- What's another word for Resource? Go to the Thesaurus where you will find a synonym by clicking on the alphabetical index. If you know what word you want a synonym for, just enter it in the keyword search box.
Acronym and Abbrievations Server -- Need to know what an acronym is ASAP? WYSIWYG at this site. You can search the database for an acronym or you can search for a word and see what acronyms it is used in.
Casey's Snow Day Reverse Dictionary-- Don't you hate it when you can think of what something means but not the word that describes it? ("whaddaya call it when words are spelled differently but sound the same...?") In this dictionary you don't type in the word, you type in the definition to get the word.
Wordsmyth -- Like a smith, you can create your own word search. A great feature of this site is that you can look up a word by it's exact spelling, but if you enter an incorrect or phonetic spelling Wordsmyth can figure out what word you're trying to find. Thesaurus included.
Rhymezone--Faster than a rhyming dictionary, more powerful than a thesaurus, Rhymezone will help you find the rhyme you seek, or search for its use in Shakespeare, American History, Mother Goose and quotations. Cool tools rule!
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Grammar, Vocabulary, and Writing Tools / Quotations |
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Noodle tools --The final frontier, folks! Noodle Bib "automates" the process of creating a bibliography. It corrects punctuation and format, producing a polished bibliography that just needs to be cut, pasted and printed. Yes, Mrs. Casey does like flowers.
Quotation Sites
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1901) -- Bartlett's is the number one resource for quotations. Although this edition is somewhat dated, you can search over 9,000 classic quotes by author's name, time frame, or keywords from the quotation itself.
Quotations Page--Originally designed as an internet quotation resource, this page has become a large archive featuring many original quotes and interesting "quote" topics.
Quoteland
-- From beautiful literary quotes to hilarious celebrity insults, you will find much to learn and be amused by in Quoteland.
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Foreign Language Dictionaries |
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Travlang's Translating Dictionaries -- This is an incredible site! Travlang's translating dictionaries contain languages inside a "box" showing the country flag. Within each language box you can translate from language to language (for example, the Spain box holds Spanish-English, Spanish-German, Spanish-French, Spanish-Dutch, etc.) There is also a keyword search to look up translations of words. Click on the first link to the Travlang home page or use this page to go to the ...
Travlang English-French On-line Dictionary which links to the French-English On-line Dictionary.
Travlang English-Spanish On-line Dictionary which links to the Spanish-English On-line Dictionary.
Travlang English-Italian On-line Dictionary which links to the Italian-English On-line Dictionary.
Stochastic Language Identifier--What language is that? Use the language identifier to find out.
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Atlases, Maps and Flags |
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OSSHE Historical and Cultural Atlas Resource -- A treasure trove of unusual atlas resources for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America. In Europe, follow Viking trade routes, the Roman expansion, Barbarian migration, the spread of Christianity, the Diaspora. In North America, view the Louisiana Purchase, the Journey of Lewis and Clark, Oregon Country 1843-1848, or follow the history of slavery through 1860. This is only a partial listing of the many rich sources available here. Please explore this wonderful site.
Altapedia Altapedia brings you "full color physical and political maps as wella s key facts and statistics on countries of the world".
Compton's 3D Atlas Online -- Offers you information on countries of the world, a geographic glossary, timely world links and constant updates in a constantly changing world.
Map
Machine -- Get an astronaut's eye view of earth via satellite images, see 39 images captured by the Hubble telescope, use the atlas, view city, country and world maps, get accurate directions, find links to incredible U.S. Government resources at Rand McNally. This site is a little slow loading because it's so packed with information but bear with it, it's worth it.
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