General Reference sites of the BigList

has moutains of information available on the Web. They have a list of great Web resources for a variety of subject areas. Their search engine is great. It finds information on your entry in their Web site, gives you a list of related Web sites (with ratings), and gives you a list of articles on the subject at other Web sites. It also has a handy link to the Miriam-Webster Dictionary.

This link to OneLook Dictionary

searchs many dictionaries at once to bring you your definition.

Meriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus

Dictionary - lean and mean.

Hyperdictionary of English - lean and mean.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary - the word is on the top of your tongue but you can't nail it down. Try this. It lets you type in the meaning, and then it gives you associated words.

Roget's Thesaurus is not as handy on the Internet but it is worth a look.

1913 Webster's Unabridged Dictionary has words that may be outdated.

This link to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations includes a search facility. The quotations are rather extensive.

This link to QuoteDB is a database of quotes.

Library Spot

is a reference 'portal' with links to lists of libraries, reference sites, search engines, etc. plus tips and tricks.

Fact Monster

is a reference site for kids.

Martindale's Reference Center

has links to all kinds of reference material. Site is very clean looking without a lot of fluff.

The Lexical Freenet's Connected Thesaurus shows connections between words along with origins and other related characteristics. Great site for curing word block.

Strunk's Elements of Style

Argus Clearinghouse

has links to guides in many subject areas. Includes ratings of guide.

Research Paper

is aimed at helping kids do their homework. Suggests ideas for projects and has tutorial material on cleaning up the writing and presentation

B. J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper

is aimed at helping kids do their homework. Sponsored by Discovery.com. Many links listed in useful subject categories.

Repository of Primary Sources

has hundreds of links to library and museum resources. The only problem is that the site is organized by geographical location rather than by subject matter.

The Internet Public Library, as its name implies, has connections to a multitude of reference works.

The Library Spot

- check out the "Helpful Tips" section.

The Homework Spot

is an all-in-one reference center and is aimed at students.

Awesome Library

has "...14,000 carefully reviewed resources".

Mad Scientist Network

where you can submit a question to the mad scientists who will answer you within 7 to 10 days. This site is for real. Very good questions with very good answers.

Research and Writing for High School and College Students

helps you figure out a topic and then find information on it.

InfoPlease

sports stats, country profiles, theories, and other almanac-like material.

Encyclopedia.Com

lets you search the Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Very readable with a good search engine.

Queen's Library - very nice library site with some basic tutorials on using the Web. Kid-friendly site.

Cambridge History of English and American Literature

Bartleby's Gray's Anatomy

Assorted Encyclopedia on various areas of knowledge like botany, economics, mathematics, etc.

Columbia Encyclopedia - no nonsense, no frills, no pictures.

Oxford English Dictionary requires registration.

Babelfish: Alta Vista's Translator This is an interesting site. You type in a sentence and it will translate it for you. Hard to tell if it works since my Latvian is rusty.

Multilingual Translator translates english into many other languages.

Translate is a multilanguage translator.

Systran will translate a phrase or an entire Web site from a foreign language into English or vice versa.

HandSpeak gives motion videos of sign language.

My Virtual Reference Desk

has many links to various resources including dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedia, quotations, etc.

Brewer's Phrase and Fable by E. Cobham Brewer, from the New and Enlarged Edition of 1894 collection of reference links. Now part of the site.

The CIA World Factbook includes what all decent operatives should know about the local environs. This is also a classic compendium of facts about countries.

The Bartleby Project

is a collection of links to literary resources including reference as well as collections of classic literature.

New York Public Library

EText Archives has links to sites that have text including the complete text of books, religious factions, politics, legal stuff, etc.

Martindale's Calculators has links to all kinds of calculators: calories, loans, investment, etc.

Calculator has calculators for a bunch of subjects including financial, unit conversion, time, etc.

Internet Movie Database

is advertized as a comprehensive database of stuff related to movies.

777-FILM

locates a movie for ya'. (The site name is the same as their phone number.)

Online English Grammar by St. John's Wood School of English.

Online Guide to Grammar and Writing

Encyclopedia Mythica is a great source for mythology, magic folklore, etc.

Myths and Legends is heavy duty resource material.

UCLA's Folklore Archives has folk wisdom, videos, herbal medicine, a searchable video collection index, the Ask the Folklore Expert service, as well as folk art.

Sayings "Minding your Ps and Qs" means "pints and quarts," not "pawns and queens." Phrases like "son of a gun" and "saved by the bell" are also explained although the explanations sound pretty bad.

Starlingtech Quotes has an advanced search which lets you pick from a list of sources.

Doug Turner's Quotation Server is a large, searchable database of quotes.

Quoteland is a large, searchable database of quotes. You can browse categories.

Nolo Lawyer Site has good advice plus nasty lawyer jokes. This is the best of the law sites.

Law Net "The Law.Net concept is to provide valuable and entertaining electronic information regarding law for the everyday user."

Free Advice from lawyers. Question and answer format.

Law Review will search Law Journals for you.

Law Office has advice and info as well as a list of lawyers by state.

LegalZoom has advice and info.

Law Street has city and state laws.

FindLaw - advice, information, etc. There are sections for the public, business, and the professional.

Total Baseball Online has baseball history and lore.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball Almanac

National Geographic Map Machine has pretty detailed topographical maps. Also has a 'Map Machine' that lets you see road-level maps all over the world.

OSHA SIC codes

Standard Industrial Classification Index

WhyFiles sponsored by NSF, has entertaining science, including Cool Images. Also sponsored by the NSF is Ask a Scientist which allows you to present a question which will be answered in a couple of days. The archives contain previous questions and answers.

Music Lyrics

FAQ Finder locates Frequently Asked Question documents on a myriad of topics.

FAQ Archives has Frequently Asked Question documents on a myriad of topics.

Farmer's Almanac

Declassified Documents includes stuff that has been recently declassified including material from WWII.

CyberAtlas has data on Internet usage.

World Atlas has maps of just about every country. State geography is also supplied for the USA.

ShortCourses has a short course on digital photography.

Acronym Finder translates acronyms.

Symbols is an encyclopedia of Western signs and ideograms.

Calendars

The Tech Museum

Microsoft Terraserver is a very large database of pictures of the earth. You can zoom into an incredible amout of detail down to where you can see streets and buildings.

World War II Resources and Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings includes text of political documents related to WWII as well as documents and interviews related to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The site also includes documents covering "Ultra" and pre and post-war policies,

SunSite

HyperHistory is a series of timelines of the last 3000 years of history.

Electronic Journal Miner searchs thousands of web-based publications.

Periodic Table of Elements

How Stuff Works Ever wonder how something works? Search for answers here.

Timeanddate.com shows a year calendar. Also has the time in various zones.

Calendar Zone has links to all kinds of calendars (holiday, religious, celestial, etc.) as well as links to topics related to calendars (software, reform, etc.)

Java Calendar is a Java applet that creates a full year of monthly calendars to display on a Web page.

MarkWorld lets you enter a title and events and then generates a calendar in HTML that you can save.

Time and Date has material related to time and dates: create a calendar, calculate the days between two dates, figure out when the 22nd Tuesday will occur, etc.

Time Zone Information from the US National Observatory.

Graphical Time Zone Map

City Time is a list of cities around the world with the current time.

Official US Time requires Java - very busy site with a lot of hooha for checking the time.

Time Servers has a list of time servers where you can update the precise time for your computer.

The American School Directory has information on every school in America. Go on. You don't believe it, so see if it lists your grade school.

Awesome Library

has links to various types of reference sources in about a dozen categories.

Online Exhibits - a GREAT collection of archives and library exhibitions. The list goes on forever. Check out American Originals (which has pictures of original historical documents like Nixon's letter of resignation) or Mechanical Marvels which describes DaVinci's invention of a robot.

Morman Chruch's Geneology Site allows you to search for ancestors..

Cindi's List of Links has over 50,000 links to sites that contain geneology information.

Geneology Toolbox has links to research sites, news, software, etc.

Vital Records has links to sites with geneology data - birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc.

United Nations Cartographic Maps

World Navies has amazingly detailed info on the modern navies of specific countries.

Bar Code 1 has everything you would want to know about bar codes.

Constants and Equations has everything you would want to know about mathematic constant values and equations.

Food Safety.gov has everything you'd want to know about food safety including current alerts concerning contaminated foods.

Frenzi.com allows members to post questions of any kind (mostly how-to's) and other members get points by answering.

Legends is about King Arthur, the Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, etc.

Means Business is an interesting site that defines business concepts. There are links to related sites and books.

One-for-All Remote customer support. This site has instructions and information on using your One-for-All remote control device. They even have the codes that you lost when you threw away the instructions.

School Bytes is aimed at helping high school and college students. It has sections like 'Plotbytes' (kind of Cliff Notes), 'Mathbytes' (how to solve mathematical problems), and 'Historybytes'.

Bartleby Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English

Interactive Guide to the Symphony is part of the Thinkquest project.

The Library of Congress' Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers has digital impages of Bell's papers.

eHow - a collection of how-to's with links to associated products - how to bike over a curb, how to rappel down a cliff, how to watch olympic diving, etc. - tutorials include video

So You Wanna.com has a lot of little how-to's.

Find Tutorials is a search engine that will find a tutorial on a given subject.

First Gov has links to all kinds of government related or sponsored sites.

International Adoption has info on adopting kids from other countries. Has names of agencies, laws and regulations, travel, and consular information.

International Adoption Resources from the about.com folks, has info on adopting kids from other countries, focusing on the startup process.

Business Profiles has information and news arranged by industry.

Librarian's Index to the Internet has thousands of links to sites in various categories. Great browsing.

Noodle Tools - advises you on which site would be most helpful (for academic research purposes mostly). Useful for term papers.

The Gutenberg Bible has the entire bible online with an actual copy of the Gutenberg bible available.

Complete Planet is a searchable database of databases. Excellent.

Every Rule is a list of sites associated with the rules of various games including TV game shows, card games, sports, etc.

RulesCentral has rules to everything.

Aesop's Fables is a collection of over 600 Aesop's fables.

Kids Konnect is a collection of kid-safe reference sites. Very nicely done.

Ellis Island Records is very popular and busy. You can find out info on ancestors.

New York Times: Civil War Years has copies of the NYT from the year 1860 to 1866.

The Bach Portal has everything you'd want to know about JS Bach.

ebrary has the full text available of over 100 business books.

Best Information on the Web is O'Keefe's Library site of St. Ambrose University. This site has a bunch of links to reference material. Brought to us by Marylaine Block.

LiveManuals has manuals for various products in all kinds of categories.

UserManualGuide - user manuals for a whole bunch of devices and equipment.

Make Stuff is a collection of formulas for making soap, glue, bubble bath, air fresheners, glass cleaner, insecticide, fertilizer, etc. There are also links to crafts and recipes.

The Glossarist gives you a subject dictionary where you can search for words in various categories such as finance, hydrology, archeology, etc.

The Visual Thesaurus displays associated words in a visual way.

dSpace is an MIT project that will archive all of the research originating from that institution and make it available on the Web.

TerraFly unbelievable detail about neighborhoods along with an aerial view. Kind of cumbersome to use but only because of its wealth of data..

The GoogleGuide is a tutorial on how to use Google.

Graph Paper offers up a great variety of pages of graph paper in PDF format.

How to Stay Out of IVR Jail - phone numbers that get you to a human and other tips on how to get through the phone tangle at the help desk of various companies.

Original Sources is a collection of primary sources of reference material such as the Internet Modern History Sourcebook, the Library of Congress, Supreme Court Collection, etc.

BugGuide.net They identify bugs from the pictures that folks send in. Nicely organized.

What's That Bug - you send in a picture of the bug and they identify it. They have a bunch of stuff already identified that you can look through.

The Straight Dope is an archive of questions and answers on a whole bunch of topics. Does sex make your acne worse? Why is the 'missionary position' called that?

Online Educational Database - a lot of 'deep' Web search engines.