Resources marked with
are only available at Library agencies.
General Reference
- Britannica Internet Guide
- Well-organized links selected and evaluated by Britannica staff.
- The Internet Public Library: Reference
- Sites selected by librarians with a deep subject index in the ready reference area.
- Librarian’s Index to the Internet
- Highly-regarded searchable subject directory compiled by librarians.
- Refdesk.com
- Large mix of reference and popular links with a fact-finding search feature.
Almanacs
- Chinese Farmer’s Almanac
- This site provides access to the Chinese calendar, dates of festivals, lucky days, and links to Chinese culture sites.
- Farmer’s Almanac
- Information on astronomy, the best days for activities, gardening, and weather.
- Infoplease.com
- A quick reference source from the publishers of Information Please Almanac.
- Living Almanac of Disasters
- Find out if any major natural disasters occurred on a particular day.
- Old Farmer’s Almanac
- An online version of the popular almanac.
- RefDesk.com Daily Almanac
- Offers access to a large number of resources including biographies, horoscopes, jokes, news groups, quotes, Today in History, web sites of the day, and more.
Calculators & Converters
- Calculator.com
- Math, scientific, mortgage, currency, time, area, and temperature calculators.
- ConvertIt
- Another good website for online converters and calculators.
- iFigure
- Links to online calculators of all types. Java-driven menu makes selection esay.
Calendars & Holidays
- CalendarZone
- Collection of calendars of all kinds, including religious and cultural.
- Diversity Calendar
- Calendar of major observances of ethnic and religious groups.
- Holidays on the Net
- Background and web links for major holidays.
- Those Were the Days
- Search by date to find out what happened on any particular day in history.
Dictionaries
- Acronym Finder
- A searchable database of over 78,000 acronyms and abbreviations in all subjects with a focus on computers, telecommunications, and government military terms
- The American Sign Language Browser
- Animated images illustrate gestures for thousands of ASL words and phrases (Quicktime required).
- Language Dictionaries
- Comprehensive index of online dictionaries with 800 dictionaries in more than 160 different languages. Intuitive index includes glossaries of specialized terminology and online grammars.
- Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
- The Web version of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition with definitions, abbreviations, foreign words and phrases, biographical and geographical names, word histories, and pronunciations
- OneLook Dictionaries
- Hundreds of general and specialized online dictionaries, which are searchable all at once
- Oxford English Dictionary Online
- This is a searchable full text version of the OED, the undisputed authority on the history and development of the English language over the last millenium. Search options include full text, definitions, etymologies and quotations.
- The Semantic Rhyming Dictionary
- Find perfect rhymes, last sound matches, consonant matches, homophones, synonyms and more
Encyclopedias
- Encyclopædia of the Orient
- Specializes in North Africa and the Middle East. Contains both text and photos can be accessed with both keyword and menu-driven searches.
- Encyclopedia.com
- Offers quick information with links to related web sites and book, including the articles in Electric Library.
- Famous First Facts
- Search thousands of inventions, discoveries, and first events in American history. Can search by subject categories, keywords, personal names, city, state, date, and year.
- Informationsphere.com
- In-depth coverage of over 4,500 terms. Allows users to submit their own articles for inclusion in the database.
- Probert Encyclopaedia
- British encyclopedia of over 100,000 interlinked and illustrated entries.
- Symbols.com
- Covers more than 2,500 western signs and ideograms, including their histories, uses, and meanings.
- World Book Online

- Search the complete World Book Encyclopedia. Locate information through keyword searching or browse the contents by category or the alphabet. Various resources, tools and features for students and teachers are found in The Zone.
Local News
- Cincinnati and the Tristate · Newspapers
- Use this directory for local resources.
- Cincinnati and the Tristate · Television
- Use this directory for local resources.
National & International News
- ABC News
- Cable News Network (CNN)
- CBS News
- Fox News Channel
- MSNBC
- The New York Times
- free registration
- USA Today
Quotations
- Familiar Quotations
- An online version of s standard quotations source.
Statistics
- Adherents.com
- Provides statistical and geographic information for over 4,200 religious organizations
- CIA World Factbook
- Country profiles of over 250 nations; includes maps.
- City-Data.com
- Profiles of thousands of U.S. cities. Profiles include statistics (race, employment, education, crime etc.), geographic data, maps, weather info, and satellite images.
- Crime Statistics, Reports, and Information
- Links to a variety of criminal justice sources, including the FBI and prison directories; searchable.
- Fedstats
- An index to federal statistics compiled by all government agencies.
- National Center for Education Statistics · Search
- Easy-to-search collection of federal statistical publications.
- Statistical Resources on the Web
- Well-organized, up-to-date collection of statistics, many displayed graphically, from the University of Michigan.
- UN Social Indicators
- International statistics by country for population, housing, health, education, employment and other social measures.
- U.S. Census Bureau Subject Index
- Detailed subject listing of census statistics.
- World Factbook of Criminal Justice Statistics
- Descriptions of the political and legal systems plus crime statistics for 42 countries.
Thesauri
- Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus
- This companion to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives synonyms, related words, idioms, contrasted words, and antonyms. Links to the Dictionary and to synonym entries are included.
- Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
- Online version of the traditional subject-oriented approach, with results arranged by shades of meaning and parts of speech
- Wordsmyth Educational Dictionary-Thesaurus (WEDT)
- An online American English dictionary with an integrated thesaurus. WEDT contains 50,000 headwords with defined and hyperlinked synonyms. It has its own search engine.
Time
- Official U.S. Time
- The exact time from the National Institute of Standards and Technology atomic clock - official U.S. standard time.
- Time and date.com
- This website offers the current time of many international cities and provides a calendar and meeting planner for up to six cities.
- Time and Time Zones
- A collection of sites on world time and time zones.
- World Time Server
- Search by country for current time worldwide.
Weather
- Cincinnati and the Tristate · Weather
- Use this directory for local resources.
- National Weather Service
- Weather and climate data, warnings, forecasts, and maps from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- The Weather Channel
- International weather information from The Weather Channel.
- WorldClimate
- This website provides data on what the weather is normally like for thousands of places worldwide.