Reference Tools

  • Bartleby.com Columbia Encyclopedia, American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, American Heritage Book of English Usage, Simpson's Contemporary Quotations, other reference works including Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898)
  • xrefer Search several reference sources at once
  • The Exploding Dictionary search several dictionaries at once
  • Hutchinson Dictionary of Difficult Words
  • Periodicals.net Find out whether a periodical is available online
  • CARL Uncover Free searching of gigantic periodicals database; charges for delivery of full text. Check your local library first, similar services may be available free.
  • Yahoo! People Search Look up email addresses, phone numbers, even get a map to an address via a link to MapQuest
  • GTE SuperPages Interactive yellow pages
  • InfoSpace Phone directory for US and Canada
  • International Phone Directory (mostly fax directories)
  • WorldPages
  • Classmates Reconnect with people in your old high school class
  • Alumni.NET International alum searches
  • Zip2 Locates addresses, phone numbers, etc. of businesses.
  • National Atlas of the United States
  • The current time anywhere in the world
  • World Time Server
  • Cost of living calculator Adjusts dollar amounts for inflation for any year since 1913
  • WWWebster Merriam-Webster Online Language Center, featuring dictionary and thesaurus
  • Dictionary.com Links to all kinds of help with language
  • Hypertext Webster Gateway Dictionary
  • Funk and Wagnalls.com Free encyclopedia & dictionary
  • OneLook Search many dictionaries at once
  • Voycabulary Lets you click on any word on a web page and look up its meaning
  • WordLab
  • Roget Form Searchable version of Roget's Thesaurus of the English Language
  • William Strunk: Elements of Style Warning: useful but dated (1918 edition)
  • Bartlett's Familar Quotations
  • The Quotations Page
  • Simpson's Contemporary Quotations
  • Online Etymology Dictionary
  • The Word Detective Not really a reference work, but this collection of columns on language provides answers to many common queries.
  • The Modern Languages Association's official site for its citation style, including Internet citations
  • Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Electronic Sources on the Internet (unofficial)
  • MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources (unofficial)
  • FAQ Finder Locate information all on sorts of subjects
  • Repositories of Primary Sources
  • US Census International Database
  • U.S. Historical Census Data Browser (Harvard)
  • Fedstats Searchable index of U.S. government statistics
  • United Nations InfoNation
  • Festivals Information about various festivals & holidays worldwide
  • Aerial images High-resolution satellite photos of the earth
  • Canadian resources atlas
  • U.S. Naval Observatory Master Clock
  • Nobel Prize Internet Archive
  • Guinness Book of Records
  • Britannica Guide to Nobel Prizes
  • AllExperts.com
  • ATM Finder Find the nearest automatic teller machine. Limited to machines in Visa's database, but may prove useful when traveling.
  • Flowerweb A database about flowers
  • Scholarly Societies Project Index to 1106 scholarly societies
  • WorldTime
  • WorldSkip Quick info on nations
  • Dave Gross's Trolls, Hoaxes, Culture Jamming, Poetic Terrorism, Media Hacks, Frauds, Impostors, Spoofs, Counterfeits, Fakes, Pranks, Scams, Extraordinary Popular Delusions, and the Madness of Crowds
  • Infoplease
  • How Stuff Works
  • Concordances of Great Books
  • Useless Knowledge
  • Cemetery Records Online
  • FamilyTreeMaker.com
  • Online Conversion These links are no longer being continuously updated. Use them at your own risk. If you want to write about any that don't work, please specify the exact page on my site you are talking about and the exact URL that doesn't work: brians@wsu.edu.

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