Smart Searching Made Easy
Keyword, Semantic and Meta Search Engines
Keyword Search Engines
Semantic Search engines try to make sense of results; returning more relevant results
- DuckDuckGo has such a great name. Go ahead. Try it! Less clutter, less spam, less ads.
Multiple sites searched simultaneously
- WebCrawler is the Web's Top Search Engines Spun Together
World Book Encyclopedia Online
Images
- New York Public Library Digital Collections
Out-Of Copyright Materials available as High-Resolution Downloads.
Just click the SEARCH ONLY PUBLIC DOMAIN MATERIALS box
- Google Images Advanced Search
Find Images, then Narrow Your Results
Citation Guidelines
- BibMe.org lets you create citations quickly and easily.
- EasyBib is a free, automatic bibliography composer.
- Citation Machine Fill in the blanks and create a proper citation -- in either MLA,APA, Turabian or Chicago format
- U.S. Copyright Office: Information Circulars, Factsheets offers basic information about many aspects of the copyright process.
- Copyright Guidelines from the University of Chicago Press. Check out the detailed summary.
Dictionaries
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary
- Merrian-Webster Visual Dictionary Online
- Little Explorer's Dictionary A clickable picture dictionary for younger children. Definitions contain links to many carefully chosen related student-safe sites. Includes classroom activities utilizing this dictionary. Available in French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
- Visuwords is an online graphical dictionary and thesaurus; look up words to find their meanings and their association with other words.
- The Library Spot Dictionaries
- One-Look Dictionary Search
- Dictionary.com
Encyclopedias
- World Book Encyclopedia is NOW a resource you can access online, with your GCPS login & password. Check with your teacher or library media specialist.
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- Encyclopedia.com is free and offers lots of information. Some links will take you back to ELibrary, so have your password ready! Remember, ELibrary is for use in school or from home. Be sure to ask your teacher or librarian for the remote password.
- Encyclopedia Mythica An encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legend.
- Encyclopedia Smithsonian allows you to search their collections alphabetically.
- How Stuff Works is a very rich and complete site. Ask it a question, and receive a complete, illustrated, and frequently animated response.
Maps & Atlases
- Atlapedia Atlapedia Online contains full color physical and political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world.
- Maps & Geography from National Geographic.com
- Atlas at Holt Rinehart
- International Flag Database
- Info Please ATLAS
- The Library Spot has Encyclopedias, Maps, Online Libraries, Quotations, Dictionaries, and more.
Almanacs
- Information Please Almanac Browse the Almanac
- The Old Farmer's Almanac This link is to the site index.
- The World Fact Book
Biographies
Library Sites on the Internet
- America's Library from the Library of Congress
- The Library of Congress
- The Library Spot has Encyclopedias, Maps, Online Libraries, Quotations, Dictionaries, and more.
- National Library of Medicine from NIH
Reference Materials
- My Virtual Reference Desk is an extensive listing of general and specific topics with many links to research tools and references.
- Research-It has categorized access to many literary, library, geographic, financial tools, dictionaries, thesaurus, language translators, maps, telephone directories, and stock market prices.
- Quotations at Bartleby could be a useful resource.
- The Reference Desk offers facts, news and resources.
Zip Codes
- Zip Code Look-Up from the United States Postal Service
- Area Code Listing by the numbers