Useful Links: Ready Reference
Ready Reference Link Sites
- Ready Reference Center / Thrall Library Collection of websites organized by subjects from Abbreviations to Zoos, created by staff of the Middletown Thrall Library.
- Virtual Reference Shelf Selected online resources for research prepared by the Library of Congress.
Ready Reference online
- Dictionary.com "The world's most popular dictionary and thesaurus with definitions, synonyms, antonyms, idioms, word origins, quotes, audio pronunciations, example sentences and Word of the Day! Look up the meaning of words, slang, phrases, idioms, and abbreviations in our free English Dictionary, Spanish-English Dictionary, Legal Dictionary, Medical Dictionary and more!"
- Farmer's Almanac "Time-tested and generation approved, the Farmers’ Almanac is a compendium of knowledge on weather, gardening, cooking, remedies, managing your household, preserving the earth, and more. Anyone can give you advice -- Farmers’ Almanac goes beyond today’s experts and enlightens you with generations of perception, experience, and common sense."
- Infoplease Here’s what Surfing the Net with Kids had to say: "It's an almanac. It's a dictionary. It's an encyclopedia. It's Information Please: one-stop shopping for all your information needs. . . It can be navigated by the integrated search function, or you can browse the almanacs by navigating topics. . . Highlight any word on any Infoplease page, and then click the Hotwords button for a definition and links to related encyclopedia articles." Be sure to check out the Quizzes, Timelines, Year by Year history, Daily Almanac, and Editor’s Favorites. By the people who bring you Fact Monster for kids at http://www.factmonster.com.
- HowStuffWorks From car engines to search engines, from cell phones to stem cells, and thousands of subjects in between, HowStuffWorks has it covered. No topic is too big or too small for our expert editorial staff to unmask ... or for you to understand. In addition to comprehensive articles, our helpful graphics and informative videos walk you through every topic clearly, simply and objectively. Our premise is simple: Demystify the world and do it in a simple, clear-cut way that anyone can understand.
Quotations
- Bartleby Quotations The Columbia World of Quotations on the Bartleby.com website offers the ability to search 65,000 quotations by author or subject. Search by full text to identify the source of a quote.
- Quotations Page The Quotations Page is a small site, but adds several useful browsing tools, including Random Quotes, Quotes of the Day, and an index for authors and one for subjects.
- Wikiquote Wikiquote is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which operates several other multilingual and free-content projects:
To verify or debunk a quote:
Encyclopedias
- How Products are Made "The 7-volume print set, How Products are Made, published by Thomson Gale from 1994 through 2002, now has an electronic counterpart. The user can search by keyword, browse each volume individually, or browse an alphabetical list of all entries from Accordion to Zirconium. Each entry includes understated advertising links related to the product, a background, perhaps a history, diagrams, the raw materials needed, the manufacturing process, quality control, the future of the product, and a short bibliography titled "Where to Learn More." The last section of each entry is User Contributions where users may submit comments about the article or additional information. This resource should be useful to all age levels needing information and diagrams about how things are made." Source: Best Free Reference Web Sites 2006/American Library Association
- Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Online Resources from A to Z "Encyclopedia Smithsonian helps answer frequently asked questions about the Smithsonian with links to resources on subjects from Art to Zoology." View the online collection of lighthouse postcards or the exhibit "Paint-by-Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s." Learn the Top 10 Misconceptions about Dinosaurs or all about The Most Incredible Insects.
Language: Grammar and Usage
- Grammarphobia Grammar, etymology, usage, and more, brought to you by Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman
- Mignon Fogarty's Quick and Dirty Tips Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of Grammar Girl, which has been named one of Writer's Digest's 101 best websites for writers multiple times. She is also an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame.
Directories
- Get Human Database The Get Human database lists toll free telephone numbers of a growing list of corporations along with instructions on how to navigate through the automation to a real human being. The goal of this free website is "to improve the quality of customer service and phone support in the US."
Reference Tools
- OnlineConversion.com Need to convert square feet into square inches? Miles per hour into kilometers per hour? Gallons into cups? Your weight on Earth into your weight on Jupiter? This website offers conversion tools to change just about any measurement unit into a different equivalent measurement unit. The most popular pages of the site cover conversions of Length, Temperature, Speed, Volume, Weight, Cooking, Area, Fuel Economy, and Currency. In addition, some pages offer other less useful but more entertaining conversions such as How old are you in Dog Years, How fast can you type, How many seconds old are you, and How long until your next birthday? [The site includes understated advertising links.]
Individual Online Reference Works
- Symbols: Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms This online reference work, provided by Symbols.com, contains more than 1,600 articles about 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. Search the Graphic Index or the Word Index. Or come to the library to view the print version in our reference collection, R 704.946 LIU.
Where to go...on the web
- When Wikipedia Won't Cut It: 25 Online Sources for Reliable, Researched Facts As author Jessica Hupp writes, "Although Wikipedia is a great place to find information, it's subject to incomplete citations, biased views, and inaccuracies. And when you absolutely have to have undisputable facts, that's just not good enough. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternatives out there that can deliver with high quality accuracy." Some of the 25 alternatives she offers include the Virtual Reference Shelf at the Library of Congress website, the Internet Public Library, the CIA Factbook, and Martindale's The Reference Desk.