Free Vetted Reference Sites

E-Library(Proquest) - for beginning and intermediate research: This is a great resource to use to begin research. It provides scaffolds for helping students find, evaluate, and use information appropriately.  It provides access to Proquest Platform that houses scholarly journals, dissertations, books, videos, and audio files, and more

Proquest Central Student: This is a multidisciplinary resource that brings together many of ProQuest's most important, complete databases in science, technology, education, social sciences, humanities, and news. This database gives students access problem college level resources.   

American National Biography: This online reference collection contains portraits of over 19,000 Americans. It is searchable by name or research topics such as Women's History or Hispanic American Heritage, for which subdirectories are available within the database. Teachers, this is also a teacher's guide for ideas on how to integrate the database into your curriculum and how to align lessons to the CCSS.

Cavendish Square Digital: This database offers online reference collections in a variety of topics that are more specific than other databases, i.e. Colonial America, Dinosaurs, World War II, Elements, and Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology.  Once a collection is selected, users may browse through an index of topics or do a simple search.  Within the articles, tools for citations, sharing, and Google Drive integration are available. Assistive tools such as listening and translation are also available.

Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online: A geographic encyclopedia searchable by type of place, state or province, country, continent, population or geographic coordinates. Data includes information about both physical places and political entities and includes both current and historical information (i.e. name and border changes for countries). Includes citation information for accurate and quick citation in papers.

CultureGrams (ProQuest): This site provides insight into the culture of a country.  It was started as pamphlets to train missionaries, but is great for anyone curious about the customs of places around the world or preparing for a trip.   A great compliment to the Gazetteer and Facts on File.

Encyclopedia Britannica                                                                             

• excellent starting points for research

• give you an overview of your topic and to fill in gaps of background knowledge needed to clearly write about your topic

• are updated nightly, so contain the most current information

• written by researchers who gather and consolidate verified information (unlike Wikipedia) so you can be sure that the information here is accurate and up-to-date; here is an great article about the importance of encyclopedias and insight into how they are created.

• provides information at three reading levels: elementary, middle, and high school

• Spanish version available in World Book (see buttons on bottom of the home page).

• Britannica has a teacher/CCSS resource section.

Gale Databases: This is a directory organized by subject or topic, including biography, literature, and science.  Directories are designed more for browsing than advanced searching. In addition to the topical collections (Biography in Context, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, Science in Context, Student Resoruces in Context) there is also a Virtual Reference Library of reference ebooks (including more current versions of collections in our print reference section) .  The General Reference Center provides access to magazines, newspapers, and reference books through a more advanced search interface and offers the latest content covering current events, popular culture, the arts and sciences, sports, hobbies, and more.

Granger's World of Poetry: All things about poetry and poets organized by subject, biographies, commentaries, history & criticism, and sources (books or journals) where you find the poems you are seeking. Includes full poems for some titles. You can also look up poetic terms in the glossary and listen to the poems read in the listening room. Provides citation information for reference lists.

Grove Art Online: The foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, updated regularly and covering global art and architecture from prehistory to present day. 

Oxford (Grove) University Press: This is a reference collection online.  You may browse through sources by subject or reference type.

Salem Press: Contains reference collections sorted by discipline and concepts.  This is like a specialized encyclopedia, so it is not aggregating journal articles, but just providing access to researched information from this press. There are limited advanced search functions.

Digital Public Library of America: This platform is a collaborative effort that provides a single point access to libraries, museums, and archives across the United States.    

Getty Museum: This museum houses European paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, decorative art, and photography. 

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA):  LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States with a collection of more than 140,000 artifacts that span over 6000 years.  LACMA exhibits and interprets various art from various points of view while honoring the cultural heritage from diverse populations. 

Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL): The LAPL can be accessed with a student's success card number and PIN. Both of these codes are found in Schoology under the MyMail PIN link on the left side of the screen. Students can not access the information, however, teachers have access to their student's information. So, students will need to get the information from a teacher they have a class with.  In addition to accessing the location of in-house books, students can also access ebooks, audiobooks, tutoring, homework assistance, music, and much more.  

Metropolitan Museum of Art:  This is one of the world's largest art museums and the largest art museum in the United States.  It's permanent collections contain over 2 million artifacts.  

Online Archive of California: This site provides free public access to primary resource collections.  It contains over 250,000 digital images and documents. 

Open Library: This site is an open online catalog whose goal is to make avaaible every book that was ever published for free.  

Smithsonian Institution:  The Smithsonian Institute has the largest combination of museums, educational resources, and research complexes. This site houses featured collections.  It houses approximately 155 million artifacts, works of art, and natural science specimens.

Library of Congress: The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, and serves as the research library for the U.S. Congress.  It also administers copyright law through the United States Copyright Office.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the U.S.[4

Mythweb: a website that provides information about most characters of Greek myths. 

Bulfinch's Mythology: this guide provides mythical stories of gods and heroes. 

Theoi Greek Mythology:  a site exploring Greek mythology and the gods in classical literature and art. The aim of this site is to provide a comprehensive, free reference guide to the gods (theoi), spirits (daimones), fabulous creatures (theres) and heroes of ancient Greek mythology and religion.

Grove Music Online: The authoritative resource for music research with over 52,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history, theory and cultures of music around the globe. 

Lyrics.com: A collection of song lyrics, album information, and video clips about music artists. 

Music Dictionary Online ( Dolmetsch):  This site provides translations and explanations of musical terms that might be found in musical scores, libretti, books on music, websites, CD notes, and concert programs.  

Astronomy Picture of the Day: This site provides a different image or photo daily of our universe with an explanation from a professional astronomer.  

Chandra X-ray Observatory: This is a space-based telescope launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia by NASA.  

Jet Propulsion Laboratory: This is a research and development lab that is managed by Caltech and funded by NASA. 

NASA: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is America's civil space program. NASA studies Earth, including its climate, sun, and solar system.  

Periodic Tables (various): 

• Los Alamos Periodic Table of Elements

• Chemical Elements

• Tabla Periodica 

• Tabla Periodica (Spanish version)

• Web Elements Periodic Table

Phet Interactive Chemistry Simulations:  This site offers free interactive math and science simulations.  It's game like environment allows students to learn through exploration and discovery. 

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: This museum has the world's largest collection of aviation and space artifacts. 

CIA World Leaders: The CIA publishes an online directory of world leaders and cabinet members. 

Congress.gov: This is the official website for U.S. federal legislative information.  This includes legislative information for Members of Congress, legislative agencies, and the public. 

Current Value of Old Money: This site details the history of money and various aspects of the value of money throughout history. 

Election Guide: This site tracks elections all over the world and highlights the number of people that actually vote in a given election. 

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: This site provides scholarly information about philosophers and key topics related to philosophy. 

Law Shelf: A comprehensive site of short lessons and videos about various aspects of law, both civil and criminal. 

Legal Information Institute: A small editorial and research group housed at Cornell Law School in an effort to promote open access to law. 

Nation Master: This is a statistical website that uses data to geographically compare countries by using a vast array of compiled data.   

U.S. Department of Labor Statistics: This federal agency is responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.  Inflation calculator: link

U.S. Department of State: This is the official website of the United States Government

U.S. Census Bureau: The largest statistical agency for the federal government provides current facts and data about America's people, places, and economy.  

Yale Law School Major Document Collections:  Entitled the Avalon Project, this site contains a collection of digital documents in law, history, diplomacy, and government. The project is part of the Yale Law School Lillian Law Library.