Free, Useful Websites

Some of these I use as a Reference Librarian. Others I just think are worth knowing about:

General Reference Center Gold (library card and PIN required) – Here you can access the full text of Consumer Reports and many other magazines and newspapers.

Internet Archive – An indispensable site, especially for its Wayback Machine. Just type in any Web address, and you can view archived copies of that website from the past. In other words, if one of your favorite websites no longer exists, or if important content has been removed from it, chances are that the Internet Archive made a copy of it that you can still view. Lots of free music, too.

Librarians’ Internet Index (LII) – “Websites You Can Trust.” It’s a searchable directory of websites that have been selected for their quality content and reliable information.

KidsClick! – Same concept as LII but for kids

Wikipedia – The open encyclopedia’s articles vary in quality, but I’ve usually found the external links listed at the bottom of most articles to be very useful. I also think the volunteer contributors do a good job with real news. If you’re writing a paper or report, consult our Homework Help databases.

IMDb – The Internet Movie Database is “the biggest, best, most award-winning movie and TV site on the planet.”

Google Book Search – Google has digitized many books from library collections and made them searchable.

Librivox – Free audiobooks in the public domain, narrated by volunteers

Project Gutenberg and The Online Books Page – online books in the public domain

Babel Fish and Google Translate – With either service, you can have any Web page translated from English into another language or vice versa.

Free Rice – Build your vocabulary and feed hungry people. “For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger.” It may sound like a strange concept, but the United Nations’ World Food Programme is thankful for the donations that come from people playing the vocabulary game.

Peter’s Online Typing Course – “Here you’ll find a set of free online typing lessons and typing exercises for beginning typists and frustrated hunt-and-peckers who want to move from four-finger typing to full-blown touch typing.”

Posted by Charles