General Reference Almanacs Biographical Information Calculators Calendars Dictionaries Directories Encyclopedias Geographical Information Quotations Thesaurus

Walnut Grove Media Center       Reference Tools

Many excellent reference resources are available online. Follow the links below to use these "virtual" reference materials.

General Reference

Reference.Bartleby.com

Searches more than twenty references at once.

Research-It

Includes many references, such as dictionaries, biographical and geographical references, and translators.

Almanacs

Information Please

Search for answers in Information Please almanac, encyclopedia, and dictionary.

Fact Monster

Almanac designed for students.

Biographical Information

KidsClick Biography

Twenty biography sites indexed by librarians

Biographical Dictionary

Search by names, birth years, death years, positions held, professions, literary and  artistic works, miscellaneous achievements, and other keywords.

Lives, The Biography Resource

Links to thousands of biographies.

People

Information about more than 30,000 historical and contemporary people.

Calculators

Math.com

Calculators, converters, equation solvers, graphers, math lessons and homework help may all be found here.

Calendars

Calendar Zone

This site includes lots of information that is time and date related, such as yearly and monthly calendars, counters, countdown, and the world clock which shows current time in cities all over the world.

Dictionaries

Dictionaries for Kids

Lookup forms for the major Internet dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauri, as well as, many specialized dictionaries, glossaries and translation utilities.

OneLook Dictionaries

Search 49 dictionaries at one time or select any one of several specialized dictionaries.

RhymeZone Semantic Rhyming Dictionary

Good resource for writing poetry.

WordNet 1.5 Search

Online dictionary to find words with same or opposite meanings or that are more general or more specific.

Directories

BigBook (U.S. Yellow Pages)

Search for a business and see its location on a map.

Switchboard

Free nationwide directory of homes and businesses. Provides address (including 9-digit zipcode) and telephone number.

Encyclopedias

Britannica

Free online encyclopedia.

Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Free online version of this one-volume encyclopedia.

Encarta Free Concise Encyclopedia

This free version contains basic information.

Geographical Information

Embassy World Maps

"All The Worlds Maps" is a compilation of each nation's maps - including cities.

Background Notes

Information about countries.

CIA World Factbook 2001

Information about countries

Map Machine Atlas

Map resource from National Geographic.

Times Around the World

Find out the current time in any of the world's countries.

Quotations

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Search for quotations by key word or by author.

Out2Teach Quotations

A fast growing network of searchable famous quotations websites

Thesaurus

Yahooligans Thesaurus

"Containing 260,000 synonyms and cross-references in an easy-to-use format, this thesaurus features succinct word definitions and an innovative hyperlinked category index"

Kids Online Resources

Many links to specialized thesauri. Click on "reference" in the top menu.

Kids and Teens Reference Tools

Contains links to a mathematical thesaurus that defines mathematical words and concepts. Phrase Finder, Roget's II - The New Thesaurus, Roget's International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, and Wordsmyth - A dictionary and thesaurus in one. WWWebster Thesaurus - Searchable online thesaurus from Merriam-Webster.

ARTFL Project: Roget's Thesaurus Search Form

Easy-to-use form for locating synonyms.