General Encyclopedias & Almanacs

  • Bartleby.com - Columbia Encyclopedia 6th edition, dictionary, thesaurus, quotations, and English usage
  • Britannica - 32-volume Encyclopedia Britannica, student and concise encyclopedias, multimedia, magazines and more, including Merriam-Webster Dictionary, World Atlas, and Britannica's heritage
  • MSN Learning & Research - Multimedia encyclopedia, dictionaries and world atlas, including colleges, graduate schools, "planning for colleges" and A-Z tests (e.g. GRE, GMAT, LSAT, MCAT), by Encarta.com
  • Encyclopedia.com - Reference desk powered by eLibrary, including dictionaries, thesaurus, almanacs, and additional encyclopedias
  • infoplease.com - Almanacs, atlas, dictionary, encyclopedia covering biographies, sports, history and governemnt, business, society & culture, health & science, and arts and entertainment
  • Wikipedia - Free content encyclopedia that is being written collaboratively by people from around the world about any topic areas

Encyclopedias of the Sciences

  • Dictionary of Substances & their Effects (DOSE) - Offers this dictionary of data on chemicals with environmental impact, by the Royal Society of Chemistry
  • Encyclopedia Astronautica - Features the only complete single reference source on or off the web for all launches to orbit; all spacecraft orbited; all astronauts and cosmonauts that flew in space or entered training; all launch vehicles used for orbital flights; and data on many projects, spacecraft and launch vehicle designs that were proposed or canceled before development was complete
  • Encyclopedia of Earth - Offers reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society, with a free, fully searchable collection of articles written, in non-technical language, by scholars, professionals, educators, and experts who collaborate and review each other's work
  • Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia - Contains information on research into planets outside our solar system
  • The Mathematical Atlas - A searchable site that provides a collection of articles about the many subfields of math

Encyclopedias of the Social Sciences

  • Africana - A gateway to the black world, providing essays, reviews, books, movies & music, "amazing black facts", and "this day in history", and resource centers
  • British Library Reference - Listing of general reference sources which have particular reference to the United Kingdom, selected by British Library staff (Most of the resources included are freely available on the web)
  • Canadian Encyclopedia Online - Authoritative encyclopedia about Canada.
  • Encyclopedia of the Orient - Background information about people, countries and political or religious issues of North Africa and the Middle East
  • Nolo's Legal Encyclopedia - Provides legal information in non-legal language on the many aspects of law such as small business, and employment

Encyclopedias of the Humanities