General Ready Reference

These are lists of free websites. For proprietary databases, use Find Articles.

***** E-Ref - Has over 880 free electronic reference titles appropriate for undergraduates.

Best Online Reference Sites - Has over 500 links on biography & history, books & literature, business & finance, countries & government, consumers & household, dictionaries & encyclopedias, directories, entertainment & recreation, facts, health & science, magazines & news, maps & travel, measures, New York State & local, quotations & writing.

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - Can search, browse over 2,300 links to scientific & scholarly journals in 17 categories (health sciences, etc.). Can search over 670 journals at the article level.

Fast Facts: Almanacs/Factbooks/Statistical Reports & Related Reference Tools - Has links in over 140 categories. Focus is U.S. & Canada.

General Reference - Has links to encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographical & geographical sources, statistics, almanacs & yearbooks, museums.

General Reference Resources - Has links in 26 categories (acronyms/abbreviations, almanacs/statistics/factbooks, associations/societies, biographies/awards, calendars/dates/time zones, copyright/fair use, ejournal guides, etext guides, English & foreign language dictionaries/quotations/etc., government (federal/California), grants/foundations, library directories, maps/zip codes/distances/places, money/currencies, newspapers, news sources, nonprofit organizations, publishers/book stores, reference desk collections, telephone/fax/email (people & businesses, travel/weather/roads, universities/colleges, weights & measures, writing/style/grammar).

Lawyers.com - A subsidiary of LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Has a directory of lawyers & basic consumer legal information. Let's you find, ask, contact lawyers.

Martindale's The Reference Desk - Quick, easy to use, access to difficult to find data. Updated weekly. Covers language & translation, cyberinfrastructure & Internet, education, electronic media, entertainment & arts, food & cooking, international (overview, countries, travel, business), science, over 20,000 calculators, astronomy/space, bioscience/biotech, chemistry, geoscience, mathematics, physics, etc.

Reference - Has links in 39 categories (phone numbers & addresses, quotations, libraries, dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, calendars, postal information).

Reference - Has links in 19 categories (almanacs, associations & organizations, biographies, calculations & conversion tools, calendars, census data & demographics, dictionaries, encyclopedias, experts & how-to, geneaology, geography, grammars, news & current events, periodical directories, quotations, style & writing guides, telephone & address, trivia).

Reference - Has links to general reference collections & meta-pages; English dictionaries & thesauruses; foreign language dictionaries; encyclopedias & biographical dictionaries; quotations; scholarly reference resources; guides to evaluating Internet resources; guides to critical thinking & argument; style & grammar guides; phone & e-mail address directories; mail address, street map, & postal information; atlases & geographical resources; calendars & time; currency rates.

Reference Center - Has links to abbreviations & acronyms; calendars, dates & time; government contact information; forms; Freedom of Information & Privacy Act; historical documents; laws & regulations; libraries; maps; news; photos & graphics; government publications; student & teacher resources; etc.

Reference Collection - Has links to 21 academic (meta sites; acronyms & abbreviations; almanacs; associations; biography; books, book reviews; publishers; colleges & universities; countries; dictionaries; thesauri & grammars; encyclopedias; flags & anthems; government information, the Internet, journal directories, local & regional information, maps & map services, quotations, speeches & transcripts, statistical sources, style guides, U.S. facts & locations) & 19 general information (audo prices; awards & prize winners; calculators; career resources; consumer information; currencies; email addresses; films; financial aid & grants; genealogy; medicine & health; news; phone books; recipes; September 11th terrorist attacks; time, date & calendars; travel; weather; weights & measures) sites.

Reference Desk - Has links on acronyms & abbreviations, addresses, almanacs, associations & organizations, biography, calculators & converts, calenders, countries, dictionaries, encyclopedias, geography & maps, grants, holidays, occupations & careers, quotations, statistics, telelphones, time, weather, weights & measures, etc.

Virtual Reference Shelf - Has links in 30 categories (abbreviations, almanacs, associations, awards/prizes, calculators, calendars, clocks/times, consumer information, current events, dictionaries/thesauri, directories, encyclopedias, genealogy, biography & archaeology, government, grant resources, libraries, maps/driving directions, quotations, statistics, etc.).

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