Ready+reference

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 * Ready reference is the place to go to get quick answers. Where do you go for quick answers now? Wikipedia? Ask.com? YouTube? Students often rely on these sites and they can be great starting points. But no one monitors these sites to make sure the information on them is correct. If you want ready reference that's authoritative and that you can site in a school project, try these sources.**

Encyclopedias
//Still a great place for answering almost any quick reference question, now made even easier because they are online and link to other resources. WHS has several for you to use://
 * Biography Resource Center [|From WHS][|From Home] Need to know more about a famous person? Look here first.
 * Gale Virtual Reference Library [|From WHS / From Home] Search through many specialized encyclopedias at once. Gale has encyclopedias on almost every topic, from the arts to zoology!
 * [|Grolier Online] Includes encyclopedia articles from //Encyclopedia Americana// and //Grolier//. Provides external links to related journal articles and websites.
 * World Book Online [|From WHS / From Home] A general encyclopedia that includes atlases, a dictionary and a Massachusetts Resource Guide.

General information
//Look here for yearly publications, like almanacs. Almanacs are annual publications offering lists, charts, and tables of information on various topics.//
 * [|Geohive] Global statistics with focus on country profiles and regional profiles. Provides information on population, surface area, urban areas, natural resources, economic data and census data. Also, links to international statistical agencies.
 * [|Guiness World Records] Not really an almanac, but that same yearly publication we all love, filled with weird but wonderful facts and photos.
 * [|Information please!] Provides facts and resources on a variety of subjects. An encyclopedia, almanac, dictionary, thesaurus, and atlas, all in one! Includes the Random House Websters College Dictionary and the Columbia Encyclopedia.

Maps

 * [|Google Earth] Download the newest and coolest version. Fly anywhere on earth.
 * [|Internet Public Library] Visit here for a pathfinder about online maps and atlases.

Dictionaries

 * [|Dictionary.com] The basics. Also good for [|grammar questions] and [|translation help].
 * [|Etymomline] A free, online dictionary showing word origins.
 * [|Rhymezone] Enter a word and generate a list of words with which your word rhymes, along with synonyms, homophones, and other similar or related words.
 * [|Roget's thesaurus]
 * [|Wordia] The dictionary you can help build. Submit a short video of yourself defining a word, or check out the thousands of videos others have already contributed.

Quotations

 * [|The Columbia World of Quotations]
 * [|Brainyquote] Browse quotes by topic.

Statistics

 * [|American FactFinder--U.S. Census Bureau] Provides facts about your community, your economy, and your society. Browse or search for info about states, cities and counties. Find maps or check out the U.S. population clock!
 * [|CIA World Factbook] Statistics and information on every country in the world, updated yearly by the U.S. government.
 * [|FedStats: One Stop Shopping for Federal Statistics] The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this site. Easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by gov't agencies for public use.
 * [|Infonation] An easy-to-use, two-step database that allows you to view and compare the most up-to-date statistical data for member states of the United Nations. You can get statistics on geography, economy, population, and social indicators.
 * [|U.N. environmental statistics] Download PDFs about an individual country's environmental profile.
 * [|University of Michigan Document Center: the Environment] Link to many great sources with statistics on climate change, resources and endangered species.

Translation help

 * [|Babelfish] Translates from one language to another. Warning! Doesn't always do a great job.
 * [|Internet Public Library] Pathfinder to online foreign language resources.

//Thanks to eiratansey for sharing this photograph on Flickr and Creative Commons.//

//Updated, 9-09//