Almanacs, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias

Almanacs & Fact Books

Information Please Almanac: The same category breakdowns as the print version. You can also search the Columbia Encyclopedia, ©1993 and a dictionary here.
Old Farmer's Almanac: Check out the predicted weather for the season and the other usual content.
CIA World Fact Book & Country Guides: Up to date facts about the countries' statistics, current political situation and good color maps. Great homework source.

Merriam Webster's Online Dictionary: Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Word Central for kids.
YourDictionary.com: Great site with many many foreign language dictionaries, English dictionaries, thesaurae, and other fun web sites for word oriented people. Created by Robert Beard at Bucknell University.

Reverse Dictionary: Enter a definition and it will find words that match.
Roget's Thesaurus: Last supplemented July 1991. Search full text as well as the headwords. From the University of Chicago.

World Book Online: Sonoma County Library card required for access from home.
Wikipedia: A popular online-only encyclopedia updated by volunteer editors.
Encarta Online: Based on the Encarta Encyclopedia from Microsoft
Encyclopedia.com: 17,000+ articles from The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Third Edition with links to other sources. (The Fifth edition of the same encyclopedia is available using the Information Please interface here.)
How Stuff Works: Entertaining and varied explanations of everything from how chocolate affects your body to the inner workings of a jet engine. Good explanations of computer and tech-related topics as well. Great for those science projects.
Internet Encyclopedia: This link to the MacroReference targets essays on large areas of knowledge. The MicroReference provides brief entries on specific topics.
These are not real encyclopedia entries from authoritative sources - they are a collection of web sites that are on specific topics and vary widely in accuracy, currency and credibility. But if you were looking for it on the encyclopedia page, here it is.

Yahoo Quotations: is the comprehensive collection of links to quotations sites maintained by Yahoo.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: is an Internet version of the 1901 edition of this standard reference source. Good for references from "classic" literature; not so good for anything said in our lifetimes. From the Bartleby Project.
The Quotations Page: is a collection of quotations sporadically maintained by Michael Moncur, a freelance writer. Good place to look for quotes to add to your after-dinner lecture or conference paper.

Acronym Finder: Search for abbreviations and acroynms with a focus on computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military.
Webopedia.com: Online dictionary and search engine (looks for articles on topics) for computer and Internet topics.
Whatis.com: A technology dictionary that will provide you with an explanation for most of your technology/acronym questions. A great site.

Librarian's Internet Index: Reference: Links to dictionaries and other selected web sites for general reference or quick look-up questions.
University at Albany Reference Collection: Links to dictionaries and other selected web sites for general reference or quick look-up questions.