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The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance
Great Research and Reference Sources for Tweens and Teens
Students are often asked to write essays, reports, and papers. The greatest research and reference source for tweens (ten to twelve years old) and teens is your neighborhood public library. And, reference and research librarians beat out any online search engines in helping your kids to find the right information they need. Because school libraries across our nation are under-funded and understaffed, your teen may go through your local school system without ever learning basic research techniques. If you find this to be the case, do not hesitate to speak to the reference librarian at your neighborhood library and ask them if they can show your teen how to find information using library resources. You may also want to inform your teen’s teachers of the situation so they can help your teen acquire the research skills he or she needs.
When the library is closed, information can also be obtained through computer Internet sources. Information and references found in a library have been chosen with care by educated professionals and a standard of accuracy is insured. Teens using the Internet should be made aware that there is no guarantee that information gathered from online sources is accurate or timely and should be digested with a good dose of healthy skepticism.
Plagiarism is increasing amongst our nation’s young people, made easier by the cut and paste ability of word processor editing. Make sure your teens know that stealing other people’s words is unethical and dishonest, and that their actions will have serious consequences.
Here are a few online sources to help your teens research and write papers:
General Information on Writing and Research
Teen Space/Internet Public Library
http://www.ipl.org/div/teen
IPL is a great web source for teens. The section "Learning to Research" has a step-by-step guide to researching and writing papers, an "Info Search" to help them find information in cyberspace and in the library, and it also provides links to other great online sources for research and writing.
Reference Book Sources Online
Bartleby.com
http://www.bartleby.com/100/
Search dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, familiar quotations, and usage manuals.
Internet Public Library/Reference
http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref00.00.00
Includes standard general reference aids and a collection of links to almanacs, dictionaries, quotations, phone books, statistics, news, and biographies on the internet.
refdesk
http://www.refdesk.com/facts.html
Links to reference sources on the Web, like dictionaries, almanacs, atlases, phone books, libraries.
ITools
http://www.itools.com/research/
Search dictionaries (including foreign language), thesauri, biographical sources, atlases, e-mail discussion groups, the Bible, stock quotes, and ticker symbols.
The Biographical Dictionary
http://www.s9.com/biography/
Searchable biographical dictionary online.
Book and Magazine Sources Online
Internet Public Library/Reading Room
http://www.ipl.org/div/reading/
Databases contain books and texts that are available over the Internet as well as magazines, E-zines, journals, and worldwide online newspapers. Links to sites with large collections of online books are also provided.
The On-line Books Page
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
A database of links to over 16,000 books available in their entirety, searchable by author, title and subject. Also links to other databases of online books in English and specialty or foreign-language books.
EServer
http://eserver.org/
Over 31,000 humanities texts, divided into various disciplines. Many of these are items published only online (section on new fiction), while others are actual books, plays, or poems previously published and have now been posted online (i.e., the 18th century studies section).
Search Engines
SuperPages.com
http://www.superpages.com
Verizon’s SuperPages.com is the Internet's online directory information resource. Find Yellow and White Page listings fast online.
AllTheWeb
http://www.alltheweb.com/
Search help - http://www.alltheweb.com/help/basic.html
Advanced search help - http://www.alltheweb.com/help/advanced.html
Alta Vista
http://www.altavista.com/
Search help - http://www.altavista.com/sites/help/search/default
Advanced search help - http://www.altavista.com/sites/help/search/help_adv
Ask Jeeves
http://www.askjeeves.com
Search help - http://static.wc.ask.com/docs/help/help_searchtips.html
Google
http://www.google.com/
Search help - http://www.google.com/help/index.html
Advanced search help - http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
Hotbot
http://www.hotbot.lycos.com/
Yahoo!
http://www.yahoo.com/
Search help - http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/
© 2005 by Mary Brigid Barrett