Clearinghouse - Carrefour d'information professionnelle

Core Collection of E-Reference Tools

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This page is a collection of links to electronic resources that make up a core collection of e-reference tools, as recommended by the EXCEL courses. This list includes databases, offered province-wide to all public libraries in Ontario, which are free or available by subscription from a number of commercial vendors. We also recommend that you consult the Ready Reference Sources of our Clearinghouse for a more complete list of specialized reference websites. You can also consult our page about free E-resources for Ontario Public Libraries.

Multi-volume encyclopedia

• Britannica Online. Limited free use. Subscription service available through COOL
• The Columbia Encyclopedia (Bartleby.com) Containing nearly 51,000 entries (marshalling six and one-half million words on a vast range of topics), and with more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references.
• Encyclopedia.com (Gale) Provides credible answers from published reference works, including 49 encyclopedias and 73 dictionaries and thesauruses. A free online resource, offering millions of articles, pictures, facts and biographies in a large variety of subject areas including the arts, science, sports, medicine, accounting and management.
• Refdesk.com Encyclopedias "Since 1995, refdesk indexes quality, credible and timely resources that are free and family-friendly."  Different sections like: Fast facts.
• Wikipedia Because Wikipedia is an ongoing work to which in principle anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in some very important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, while newer articles may still contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this in order to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation which has been recently added and not yet removed.

Canadian encyclopedia

• The Canadian Encyclopedia The full text of The Canadian Encyclopedia and its related resources has been made available online by the Historica Foundation as a public service since 1999. Since its publication in book form in 1985, The Canadian Encyclopedia has provided the most comprehensive, objective and accurate source of information on Canada for students, readers and scholars across Canada and throughout the world. As a first source for information on all Canadian topics The Canadian Encyclopedia has continued to grow through several iterations in print and on CD-ROM, culminating in this online version

Dictionary

• Dictionary.com
• One Look Dictionary Search 
• Visual Dictionary Online (Merriam-Webster) When you know what something looks like but not what it’s called, or when you know the word but can’t picture the object, The Visual Dictionary has the answer. In a quick look, you can match the word to the image.

Canadian almanac

• Canadian Almanac and Directory. By subscription from Grey House Publishing Canada. Formerly by Micromedia Proquest
• Canadian Information by Subject (Library and Archives Canada)

General almanac

•  InformationPlease Almanach A comprehensive reference source that combines the contents of an encyclopedia, a dictionary, an atlas, and several almanacs loaded with statistics, facts, and historical records. A single search engine allows you to search all these sources at once.
• World Almanac for Kids A print publication with a good website where a sizable amount of reference content is free

Ontario government directories

• Service Ontario INFOGO

General world atlas

• Atlas of Canada
• The CIA Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency, U.S.)
• Countries of the World (Infoplease.com) Each country profile provides information on: Geography, Maps, Flag, History, Current ruler, Area, Population, Capital, Largest cities, Languages, Ethnicity/race, Religion, Literacy rate, Economy, Government
• National Geographic Map Machine  and Atlas with printable maps

Local telephone directories

• Canada 411
• Infobel

Thesaurus

• Le grand dictionnaire terminologique
• Roget's Thesauri at Bartleby.com
• Termium Plus   The data bank has almost four million terms in English, French and Spanish. Users can find translations for general and technical words and expressions in practically all fields of human endeavour: administration, informatics, environment, medicine, agriculture, industry, sports and the arts. TERMIUM Plus^® records are created by language professionals who keep a close eye on trends in language: that makes it a reliable and useful tool for everyone.
• Thesaurus.com   

A book of quotations

• Bartelby.com Quotations
• Yahoo Reference Quotations

E-reference databases

• Access Science Subscription available through COOL
• eLibrary Canada (Proquest). Subscription available through COOL. Try an online Demo
• E-Resources for Ontario Public Libraries (OLS Clearinghouse)
• Resource Ontario (Knowledge Ontario) Free to Ontario public libraries upon registration
• NetLibrary (COOL Collection of E-Books) Subscription service available through COOL