Almanacs, Encyclopedias, Fact Files

Updated 11/4/10

Almanacs

Farmer's Almanac     http://www.almanac.com/

Chock full of information, just like its print version.

Guinness World Records     http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/default.aspx

Search for world records as posted in the annual Guinness Book of World Records.  A fact may only become a Guinness World Record™ when it’s tested, verified and elevated above all suspicion.

Information Please     http://www.infoplease.com/

Includes the Information Please Almanac, their Entertainment Almanac and Sports Almanac, the Columbia Encyclopedia, and the Random House College Dictionary, searchable together or separately and by subject or full text keyword. 

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Encyclopedias

Bartleby.com     http://www.bartleby.com/65/

Bartleby.com provides access to the full text 6th edition of the Columbia Encyclopedia.

Britannica.com     http://www.britannica.com/

The articles from the Concise encyclopedia are available free, but more content requires a subscription. 

Wikipedia       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Thousands of free articles and available in lots of languages. One caveat: This is an open source encyclopedia, meaning that anyone can add articles or edit and correct existing ones. That means there is no way of verifying the authenticity of the articles. You can see the editing history by clicking on the History tab for each article.  Best used as a starting point for further research.

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Fact files 

Fact Monster     http://www.factmonster.com/index.html

This searchable site includes an on-line dictionary and encyclopedia and lots of homework help for science, math, social studies, history, English, and sports. There are also games, izzes, and daily features. From Information Please.   

 
Fugitive Fact File        http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/fff_public.cfm
From Hennepin County Library (MN), contains hard-to-find answers in thousands of topics -- browsable or searchable. Results include answer, source, date, and web site, if pertinent.  

Santa Cruz Public Library's database of Tricky-to-Find Information, searchable or browsable, great for elusive California information, including a list of all the state librarians. Links to pertinent Web sites, when available.

This Day in History      http://www.dmarie.com/timecap/

Create a time capsule for any date, including headlines, top books and songs, birthdays and prices.

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