Reference Sources on the Web
Though the Web is not a source of comprehensive reference tools, some of the publications you’d find in your library reference room have been posted and are linked below. There are also many (and more all the time) complete books on the Web—from Edgar Allen Poe stories to Shakespeare’s plays—mostly items for which copyright protection has run out.
Note that search engines and Web directories and other resources like tutorials are not listed here. For those, see the Links for Research section—Web Directories or Search Engines or Other Resources.
Online books and journals Reference books
Online books and journals
- IPL Reading Room—Internet Public Library
- /div/reading/
- The Bookshelves contain links to three large databases of online publications: Books, “all manner of books and other texts that are freely available over the Internet. Browsable and searchable by author, title, or Dewey subject.”— Magazines, “Magazines, journals, E-zines, and more. Searchable and browsable by subject and title.”—Newspapers — Online newspapers from around the world. Searchable and browsable by region and title. There’s also a section of links to other sites on the internet with large collections of online books.
- The On-line Books Page—The University of Pennsylvania
- http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
- A database of links to over 16,000 books available in their entirety online, searchable by author and title, browsable by author, title and subject. Also links to other databases of online books in English and specialty or foreign-language books.
- EServer – The University of Washington
- http://eserver.org/
- Over 31,000 humanities texts, divided into various disciplines. Hard to describe – many of these are items published only online (section on new fiction), while others are actual books, plays or poems previously published and now been posted online (i.e., the 18th century studies section).
Reference books
- Bartleby.com: Great Books Online
- http://www.bartleby.com/100/
- Search dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, familiar quotations, and usage manuals.
- Internet Public Library Reference Center – Standard General Reference Aids
- Resources By Subject > Reference
- Collection of links to almanacs, dictionaries, quotations, phone books, statistics, news, biographies on the internet.
- My Virtual Facts on File
- by Bob Drudge, part of My Virtual Reference Desk
- http://www.refdesk.com/facts.html
- Links to ready reference sources on the Web, like dictionaries and almanacs, atlases, phone books, libraries.
- Research Tools
- http://www.itools.com/research/
- Search dictionaries (including foreign language), thesauri, biographical sources, atlases, e-mail discussion groups, the Bible, stock quotes and ticker symbols.
- The Biographical Dictionary
- http://www.s9.com/
- Searchable biographical dictionary online.
Back to Learning to Research on the Web
 |  |  |  |  |
A+ Research & Writing for high school and college students was created by Kathryn L. Schwartz