Dictionaries
Getting started on a research paper or presentation can sometimes be a little intimidating. After all, where do you start? If you need to know the definition of a word an excellent starting place is a dictionary. Some
free
dictionaries online are the
American Heritage Dictionary, the
Hyperdictionary, and the
Merriam Webster Dictionary. If you need a monster dictionary resource with many dictionaries to choose from, try the free dictionary. It has English, Medical, Legal and computer dictionaries available.
Encyclopedias
If you need a little bit more than a defintion, an encyclopedia might be a good place to start; after all, if your professor has asked you to discuss how the Egyptians used art to depict life events and religion, you need an understanding of that area before finding peer reviewed articles. Some free
encyclopedias online include
encyclopedia.com and
MSNencarta.
Search Engines
If you needed to find out what geological history of Florida is all about, a search engine like
Google might give you more information than you could find in a general encyclopedia. If you need more educational links than most,
Lycos might be a better choice. But what if you wanted to use a metasearch engine? Then
dogpile and
Vivisimo are two of the best. Want to know what makes search engines tick, and which ones are highest rated? Go to
searchenginewatch.com. Want a new search engine? Try
Brainboost. Interested in locating academic resources on the Internet? Try
INFOMINE, which indexes 120,641 "academically valuable resources"