READY REFERENCE

Almanacs

http://www.infoplease.com Information Please Almanac: A reference source that includes almanacs on subjects such as the world, the United States, sports, history, business, and more. There is also an Information Please atlas and encyclopedia available on the same website.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

http://bartleby.com Bartleby: A remarkably thorough site that has links to the following reference works: the Columbia Encyclopedia, the American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, and the World Factbook.

http://www.yourdictionary.com Your Dictionary: This site is great for foreign-language and specialty dictionaries. Their Native American dictionaries include the Siouan, Salishan, Na-Dene, Iroquian, and Algonquian language groups.

Directories

http://www.associationcentral.com Association Central: Associations across the United States in many categories; education association links are among those offered. You can search for a specific association or browse by subject.

http://lii.org Librarians' Index to the Internet: This is a subject directory, which means that they have links to hundreds of sites on countless topics. All the sites have been evaluated by librarians and are of a high quality.

http://ipl.org Internet Public Library: The Internet Public Library has an outstanding reference section. The IPL, like the LII described above, includes sites that are deemed appropriate and worthwhile by qualified information professionals at the University of Michigan.

Government

http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html Thomas Government Guide: This guide by the Library of Congress contains "legislative information on the Internet" in a much more user-friendly design than the official government publishing website. You can also link to judicial, executive, and state/local government sites from this location.

Maps and Atlases

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html Map and Atlas Links: An exhaustive list of online map and atlas resources including those for the United States (from towns to the nation), the world, historical works, and interactive maps. It is based from the University of Texas at Austin.

Medical

http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual/ Merck Manual: This site gives you full access to the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 17th edition. It is an easy-to-use medical reference guide with a clear layout and understandable symptom explanations--no medical jargon!

Miscellaneous

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ Flags of the World: Simply stated, this site has every flag in the world plus a downloadable coloring book for kids. Each flag picture has a short history and an explanation of its symbolic meaning.

http://www.howstuffworks.com How Stuff Works: This fascinating site's "How Stuff Works" categories include Computer and the Internet, Science and Technology, Body and Health, and several more. The articles are written for the layperson, so they are straightforward and do not use technical language. There is ample cross-referencing for the user's browsing ease.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem American Memory Project: The Library of Congress's American Memory Project has a Learning Page that links to classroom activities, technology tips, lesson plans, professional development resources, and detailed descriptions of the different American Memory Project collections. They also have a fun "On This Day In History" report on the main page.