Research
General Web Reference Sources for Students
These sites provide links especially useful for K-12 students.
- KidsClick! Reference is a web search site designed for kids by librarians - with kid-friendly results!.
- HomeworkSpot is a free homework information portal that features the very best K-12 homework-related sites together in one place.
- LibrarySpot is a a free virtual library resource center that bring the best library and reference sites together in one place.
- Your Dictionary offers links to over 260 different foreign language dictionaries as well as a quick look up tool in English on the main page. A translation tool for French, Spanish, Italian, German and Portuguese is also provided along with a word of the day (in foreign languages also) and word puzzles.
- Merriam Webster’s Word Central presents a site appealing to elementary students. Its student dictionary also includes definitions, while there are a variety of other fun spots to explore within this site.
- Merriam Webster also presents a site for older students. This also includes a thesaurus.
The following sites provide research tips and help.
- Google Search Basics has basic search tips for the Google search engine.
- Google Scholar Search Tips has tips for searching the Google Scholar search engine, which is a better option for school work since it focuses on scholarly literature.
- How Search Works is an interactive infographic from Google explaining how their searching works from the algorithms to answers.
- Tips to Effective Internet Searching from Southern Oregon University has tips for searching the internet in a way that makes the most of the search tools capabilities. It also provides detailed explanations of how to implement each tip.
- Web Searching Workshops from UC Berkeley has a lot of different links to help you improve your searching. It addresses the development of a search strategy, the different types of search tools, how to evaluate Web pages. It also has links to handouts and PowerPoints of the information.
- Copyright Crash Course from the University of Texas discusses the role of copyright, and various other aspects of copyright, including explaining Creative Commons Licenses and fair use.