by Amanda May, former head editor, INALJ North Dakota
Free Online Reference Resources for Librarians
When sitting at the reference desk, I try my best to direct patrons to the library’s resources, but sometimes, I find an online resource that may best fulfill their needs. These are some of my favorites.
- Merriam-Webster is one of the most well-known publishers of language-related reference works. This website includes a dictionary and thesaurus as well as many other resources, such as “Quizzes & Games” and “Word of the Day.”
- Visual Dictionary Online connects words with images. Users can browse the 15 major themes to find various words and the corresponding image. The different parts of the image are labeled as well. I find this to be a great resource for English Language Learners.
- The Encyclopedia of Earth is an online resource about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. Patrons can use the Topic Navigator to browse various topics that are expert-reviewed.
- LibriVox’s objective is “to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.” While majority of the audio books are in English, there are various titles in foreign language, such as French and Japanese. If the library doesn’t own a specific public domain title in an audio format, this site provides a viable alternative.
- The STATS website states that “Our goals are to correct scientific misinformation in the media and in public policy resulting from bad science, politics, or a simple lack of information or knowledge; and to act as a resource for journalists and policymakers on major scientific issues and controversies.” This website might be a good resource for high school or college students doing reports on major issues in today’s society.