You know those black and white speckled composition notebooks that show up in the seasonal aisles a month before school starts? The annual supply I picked up holds a sweet little surprise. A list of reference and resource websites is printed on the inside front cover. The sight of which makes my inner research writer tremble with delight. And compelled me to create my top ten favorites among the original 17.
10. Encyclopedia Britannica. Not because the site’s all that wonderful, but because the 1960s school girl in me says it’s sick and wrong not to include an encyclopedia in the list.
9. Gallup Organization. Since kids are always going to pester parents with unanswerable questions, they might as well learn how to ask biased, skewed and politically loaded ones.
8. National Archives. This made the list because it has a shopping section. Imagine the possibilities here. You can pay good money for documents that look like the boxes of papers from your parents’ attic that now clutter your attic.
7. Information Please Almanac. For the wannabe Jeopardy contestant in all of us.
6. Hoover Business Research. This site will be of particular interest to those who grant Alex Keaton of Family Ties superhero status.
5. Library of Congress. I’ve been to the Library of Congress twice. In 1976, I walked right in and used the card catalog. In 1997, I had to show two forms of ID and wait to be issued a Library of Congress pass which granted limited access. No doubt, post 9-11 security is even tighter. Which makes typing in www.loc.gov sound very simple.
4. Smithsonian Institution. Think of it. The Hope Diamond and Mr. Roger’s cardigan sweater at your fingertips at all times. Heady stuff!
3. Fact Monster. Whoever came up with the name of this site knows how to capture kids’ attention. So it makes the list.
2. Conversion Tables. Math haters love sites like this. And the web address makes evangelists wish they’d thought of it first: www.convert-me.com.
1. Central Intelligence Agency. Can any self-respecting Mrs. Pollifax devotee not not make this site the #1 pick? Know what makes it even better? The address listed in the front of the composition book (www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook) is part of a vast governmental cover up because it doesn’t work. Don’t ask what it took to get the correct address. Just be glad I did it for you. All to keep America safe for democracy.
What are your favorite research sites on the web? Leave a link in the comment box!
