Some Excellent Free General Reference Sites on the Web

Compiled by Marcia Kemble, Director of Library & Media Services, Mid-Pacific Institute, Honolulu, HI

rev. March 2, 2009

 

TIP: Rather than directly clicking on the links below, RIGHT-click with your mouse (Mac users: Cntrl-click)

and from the pop-up menu, choose to "Open Link in New Tab."  Then, to quickly get back to this page, just close

the new tab.

 

ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIAS

Columbia Encyclopedia (from Bartleby)

http://bartleby.com/65/

Columbia Encyclopedia (from Yahoo)

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/

Wikipedia (use with caution: anyone can write/edit the entries, so there are no guarantees of accuracy, and the quality of the articles varies)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

DICTIONARIES AND THESAURI  (Cool feature: many have audible pronunciation of words)

American Heritage Dictionary (from Yahoo)

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/index.html

Merriam-Webster Online

http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm

OneLook Dictionary (multiple dictionaries)

http://www.onelook.com/

OneLook Reverse Dictionary (finds your word/s in the defintion)

http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

 

Dictionary.com (multiple dictionaries)

http://www.dictionary.com/

YourDictionary.com (uses American Heritage)

http://www.yourdictionary.com/

Cambridge Dictionaries Online (simplified for English learners) (note options in the pull-down menu)

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/

The Newbury House Online Dictionary (simplified for English learners)

http://nhd.heinle.com/

SPECIALIZED DICTIONARIES:

The Phrase Finder -- Phrases, Sayings, and Idioms

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/index.html

Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/Default.asp?dict=I

RhymeZone (rhyming dictionary & also finds synonyms, antonyms, homophones, related words, etc.)

http://www.rhymezone.com/

Medical Dictionary (from Medicinenet.com)

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/hp.asp

Encyberpedia (multiple specialized dictionaries)

http://www.encyberpedia.com/glossary.htm

 

COMBINED REFERENCE SOURCES  

Infoplease (Encyc., Dict. & more)

http://www.infoplease.com/

Bartleby.com (Encyc, Dict. & more)

http://bartleby.com/

Yahoo! Reference

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/

Refdesk.com (Facts & reference)

http://refdesk.com/

 

ALMANACS  & QUICK FACTS  (statistics, etc.)

Infoplease Almanac

http://www.infoplease.com/almanacs.html

Fast Facts (from Gary Price)

http://www.freepint.com/gary/handbook.htm

Quick Facts (from Librarian's Index to the Internet)

http://search.lii.org/index.jsp?more=SubTopic10

Official Statistics on the Web (from Univ. of Auckland)  (statistics about countries/regions of the world)

http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/stats/offstats/

 

A TOTALLY COOL WEBSITE            

How Stuff Works

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

 

ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND STYLE GUIDES

Common Errors in English

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/

Guide to Grammar and Writing

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

AskOxford -- Grammar tips

http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/classicerrors/grammartips/

AskOxford -- Commonly Confused Words

http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/classicerrors/confused/

AskOxford -- Spelling Tips

http://www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/classicerrors/spellingtips/

Columbia Guide to Standard American English

http://www.bartleby.com/68/

English Grammar & Style Page (from CLN)

http://www.cln.org/themes/eng_grammar.html

Univ. at Albany Style Guides (guidelines for citing sources in MLA, APA, and Chicago styles)

http://library.albany.edu/usered/cite/index.html

 

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

GENERAL:

Biography.com

http://www.biography.com/

Who2

http://www.who2.com/

Women's biographies

http://www.DistinguishedWomen.com/

Women In American History (from Encyc. Britannica)

http://search.eb.com/women/

Black History--Biographies (from Encyc. Britannica)

http://search.eb.com/blackhistory/

AUTHORS:

Authors (from the Yahoo directory)

http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Authors/

Authors (from Open Directory)

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Authors/

Authors (contemporary)  (from About.com directory)

http://contemporarylit.about.com/cs/authors/

Authors (from Interent Public Library)

http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.10.00/

 

CALCULATIONS & CONVERSIONS

Conversion & Calculation Center

http://www.convertit.com/Go/ConvertIt/

Yahoo -- Weights & Measures

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/weights_and_measures/

Yahoo -- Online converters

http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Measurements_and_Units/Conversion/Online_Converters/

Measure 4 Measure

http://www.wolinskyweb.net/measure.htm

 

MAPS AND ATLASES

Merriam-Webster's Atlas

http://www.m-w.com/maps/moremapsnyt.html

Infoplease Atlas

Infoplease Atlas -- Map Index

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/mapindex.html

Encarta Dynamic Atlas

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/MapCenter/Map.aspx

Lonely Planet Destinations

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/

World Maps from About.com

http://geography.about.com/library/maps/blindex.htm

WorldAtlas.com

WorldAtlas.com -- Quick world facts

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/world.htm

http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/thelist.htm

Microsoft Expedia Maps

http://maps.expedia.com/QuickMaps.asp

Maps.com – Reference (both political and physical maps)

http://www.maps.com/maps.aspx?nav=RM

National Geographic Map Machine

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/index.html

Xpeditions -- Nat'l Geographic's printable maps

http://www.nationalgeographic.org/xpeditions/atlas/

U.S. Gazetteer

http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer

 

HAWAII NEWSPAPERS

HonoluluAdvertiser.com

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com

Honolulu Star-Bulletin Online

http://starbulletin.com/

Honolulu Weekly

http://www.honoluluweekly.com/

 

ONLINE MAGAZINES BY TOPIC

NewsDirectory.com -- Magazines by topic

http://www.newsdirectory.com/listmag.php

Internet Public Library -- Magazines, journals, e-Zines

http://www.ipl.org/div/serials/

 

ONLINE MAGAZINES BY PLACE

NewsDirectory.com (see “Magazines by Region” section in right column)

http://www.newsdirectory.com/index.php

 

ONLINE NEWSPAPERS BY PLACE (all listed below have both English and native language papers)

Kiosken -- World Newspapers

http://www.esperanto.se/kiosk/engindex.html

Internet Public Library -- Online Newspapers

http://www.ipl.org/div/news/

RefDesk.com -- Newspapers 

http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html

NewsDirectory.com -- Newspapers

http://www.newsdirectory.com/listnews.php

Today's Front Pages (shows an image of the front page of each newspaper's print version)

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/

 

CURRENT NEWS & NEWS SEARCH

Google News

http://news.google.com/

Yahoo News

http://news.yahoo.com/

World News Network

http://www.wn.com/

Alta Vista News Search

http://news.altavista.com/

AllTheWeb News Search

http://www.alltheweb.com/?c=news

Ananova

http://www.ananova.com/search/

HeadlineSpot

http://www.headlinespot.com/

 

MAGAZINE ARTICLE SEARCH

EBSCOhost--via Hawaii State Library

(Only for Hawaii residents with a library card.  Scroll down to the EBSCOhost database you'd like to use, click on its title, and enter your HSPLS library card number to gain access.)

http://www.state.hi.us/libraries/hsl/databases.html

FindArticles.com

http://www.findarticles.com/

 

HEALTH INFORMATION

Medline Plus (health info for nonprofessionals from U.S. National Library of Medicine & National Institutes of Health)

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

 

Healthfinder (from U.S. government)

http://www.healthfinder.gov/

U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services

http://hhs.gov/

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

http://www.cdc.gov/

TeensHealth.org

http://kidshealth.org/teen/

4Girls Health (health info for girls)

http://www.4girls.gov/

 

FAMOUS QUOTATIONS

The Quotations Page

http://www.quotationspage.com/

Bartleby.com -- Quotations

http://www.bartleby.com/quotations/

Famous Quotes and Authors

http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/

Quotebilia

http://www.quotebilia.com/

Yahoo! - Reference:Quotations

http://dir.yahoo.com/reference/quotations

About.com -- Quotations

http://quotations.about.com/

Quoteland.com

http://www.quoteland.com/

QuoteWorld.org

http://www.quoteworld.org/

 LitQuote -- Literary Quotations

http://www.litquotes.com/quote_topic.php

 

 

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