This is a listing of general reference sources available on the world wide web, selected by British Library staff. The focus is primarily on sources in English which have particular reference to the United Kingdom; an indication is given if the source has worldwide coverage. Most of the resources included are freely available on the web; any subscription based sources included carry the information 'Onsite access only'.
Dictionaries/thesauri | Encyclopedias | Government | Images | Internet access | Libraries | Maps/gazetteers | Museums
Dictionaries/thesauri
- American heritage dictionary of the English language
- Fourth edition
- Anglo-Norman dictionary
- Revision of the Anglo-Norman dictionary, first published between 1977 and 1992.
- AskOxford.com
- The official Oxford site is an excellent resource; better writing, world of words, global English and foreign languages
- Bilingual dictionaries online
- 25 bilingual dictionaries including Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Italian, Hindi, Japanese, Polish and Russian etc.
- Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable
- Cambridge dictionaries online
- To search for English words, idioms or phrases
- Dictionary.com
- The easiest URL to remember and among the simplest sites to use, translations, thesaurus and language resources etc.
- Dictionary of slang
- English slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom
- Dictionary of the Scots language
- Comprises electronic editions of the two major historical dictionaries of the Scots language:
- Dictionary of the older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and the
- Scottish National Dictionary (SND).
- Comprises electronic editions of the two major historical dictionaries of the Scots language:
- Digital Dictionaries of South Asia
- Freesearch
- UK based search destination, offering the best web search, picture search, and an online dictionary
- Lewis and Short Latin dictionary
- Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek lexicon
- Merriam-Webster Online
- Smart, excellent site has one-click away definitions and free-audio pronunciations.
- OneLook dictionaries
- Links to a range of dictionaries by subject
- Online etymological dictionary
- Oxford English dictionary
- Onsite access only
- Oxford Reference Online
- 100 specialist and general reference dictionaries covering a wide range of subjects from social sciences, business and the sciences to language, the arts and history.
- Onsite access only.
- Phobia list
- RhymeZone
- For finding rhymes, synonyms, definitions, etc
- Roget's Thesaurus
- Urban Slang
- Urban dictionary- street slang defined
- Webster's dictionary
- Wordsmyth Educational dictionary-thesaurus
- For American-English
- xreferplus see Credo Reference
Encyclopedias
- Answers.com
- Super-encyclopedia which gives quick facts
- Britannica online
- Onsite access only
- Columbia encyclopedia
- Sixth edition
- Country studies
- Online version of the Library of Congress' country studies and area handbooks
- Encyclopaedia philatelica
- Multilingual scientific encyclopedia in four sections: personages, Fauna, Flora & Geographia
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- 1911 edition
- Encyclopedie de Diderot et d' Alembert
- Onsite access only
- Freealty online encyclopedias
- Macmillan encyclopedia
- onsite access only
Government
- Constituencies
- To identify constituencies and MPs
- European Governments on-line
- UK Parliament
- Worldwide Governments
Images
- British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies
- Google image search
- Heritage Image Parnership
- A selection of images from the collections of British museums and institutions
- Image Library
- This site brings together images and viewpoints to create insights into science and culture
- Image resources
- Images online
- Picsearch
- An image search service with more than 1,700,000,000 pictures
- An image search service with more than 1,700,000,000 pictures
Internet access
- CafeIndex
- For UK internet cafes
- Checkdomain.com
- For checking web addresses
- Internet Cafe Guide
- For internet cafes worldwide
- UK online centres
Libraries
- European public libraries
- The European Library
- For links to European national libraries
- Irish libraries and related sites
- Libraries of Asia Pacific Directory (LAP)
- Access point for retrieval of information about functions, services
- and collections of libraries in the Asia Pacific region
- Library and Archives -Canada
- London Library
- M25 consortium of higher education libraries
- For higher education libraries in the London area
- MASC25
- Mapping access to special collections in the London region
(M25 Consortium)
- Mapping access to special collections in the London region
- Microforms- A Guide to Microforms, aperture cards, microfilm, microfiche and more..
- National Art Library
- Online Resources in London Public Libraries
- Research libraries
- Worldwide but with a US bias
- School libraries on the web
- UK public libraries
- World directory of parliamentary libraries
- Worldwide libraries
Maps/gazetteers
- Columbia gazetteer of the world online
- Onsite access only
- Gazetteer of British place names
- Getty thesaurus of geographic names on line
- Google Maps
- Getting from A to B made easier, Google Maps shows you where you want to go- and tells you what you will find when you get there.
- How far is it
- To calculate distances between places
- Orbis Latinus online
- Periodical historical atlas of Europe
- For maps of Europe to 1700
- Streetmap
- For London and UK street maps
- UK Ordnance Survey Get-a-map
- To search for locations by placename, postcode or grid reference
- World of maps
- World maps
