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Media Center – Three Oaks Middle School |
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Research Resources for Middle School Students |
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Contents: |
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Web Search Tools | Almanacs | Atlases |Biographical Dictionaries | Calendars and Time | Countries |
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Conversion Tools | Dictionaries | Homework Help | Magazine & Newspaper Indexes | Quotations |
Web Search Tools: The Internet has many different kinds of search tools. Learn to recognize some of these.
Search Engines: Individual search engines each have specific designs and features that allow you to enhance your search, such as advanced searching or Boolean searching.
Google analyzes hyperlinks or sites linking to a particular site. They can rely on the collective expertise of other sites to help determine the value of a site.
All the Web
This is a relatively new search engine that searches over 300 million sites. It produces many useful and relevant documents. Address is www.alltheweb.com
Metasearch Tools: Metasearch tools search multiple search engines simultaneously. Metasearchers don’t have the specific designs and features of the individual search tools.
Searches 14 search engines. Results are ranked by relevancy, with search tool information included.
Searches various other search engines, then organizes the results into groups based on titles, URLs, and descriptions.
Subject Directories: These tools differ from the other other tools because individuals maintain them, such as librarians who report satisfaction from people in libraries. You can benefit from what other people have found useful.
Organizes, selects, and evaluates information resources on the Internet. Use “Search the Site” or browse subject headings.
Almanacs: Almanacs are good for statistical data, and basic information about places and events.
This is information from the online version of the print almanac. Not as thorough as the print version.
Atlases & Geography: Picturing the earth’s surface in a variety of ways, atlases also provide key facts and statistics about areas of the world.
Get atlas maps of the world and United States. Pinpoint exactly where something is with their “map machine”.
Enter an address and get a map of the location with driving directions.
Outline maps, with and without labels, which can be copied.
Biographical Dictionaries: These dictionaries provide brief information about famous persons, living or dead.
Covers more than 28,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day.
Helps keep track of which famous people have died and which are still alive.
Calendars and Time: Time Lines and other resources for time measurement
What time is it anyplace in the world.
In this 10,000 year calendar, you can enter a date, find out what day of the week it was, and what happened on that day.
Navigates through 3,000 years of World History with links to important persons of world historical importance.
Country Information: Political, historical and geographical information about countries of the world.
Information about countries of the world. Selected data and maps are updated periodically.
Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries.
Information about the Chiefs of State of various countries.
Conversion Tools: A directory of resources that will calculate a variety of weights and measures.
How much is money from different nations worth in American dollars today?
Internet Public Library Conversion Tools
Provides links to lots of conversions you might want to make: weights and measures, cost of living, inflation, currency, relocation salaries, roman numeral dates, time zones, etc.
Dictionaries: Dictionaries provide meanings of words, concepts, and ideas.
Brief definitions of words.
American English dictionary as well as other useful dictionaries.
Homework Help Sites: Many libraries and others offer homework help to assist students with common curriculum questions.
Free online interactive learning center for students in grades 5-8. It features educational games, puzzles, and quizzes.
Multnomah Library Homework Help page
Organized by homework topics, this service also provides free chat with a librarian to help you with homework.
Indexes quality Internet sites and assists visitors in navigating these sites.
Great web sites for students up to age 14
DeskRef: Best Source for Quick Answers
DeskRef is maintained by the Ramapo Catskill Library System and contains selected “best resources for quick answers”.
Magazine and newspaper indexes: These provide a search tool to locate a particular article in a magazine or newspaper.
Tennessee Electric Library is free to all residents of Tennessee. It is a resource brought to you by the Tennessee Dept. of State, the State Library and Archives, and is paid for by Library Services and Technology Act federal funds. It includes the National Newspaper Index, several magazine indexes, including a Spanish language version, an index to literary criticisms, and the online version of the reference book, Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. When you log onto this site the password is Elvis.
Quotations: Who said memorable things?
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Quotations from famous individuals. Search by full text, author, keyword or time period.
Quotations from famous individuals. Allows full text, category or author search.
Thesaurus: These tools provide synonyms for words, with the goal of making your writing more interesting.
Synonyms for words
Synonyms for words
Style Guides for Writing & Research: Style guides provide assistance to carefully research and document your sources.
MLA Style Sheet (SHS)
Shows various ways to cite different resource formats in a research paper.
Enter your resource information and voila – the correct format is made for you. Books, encyclopedia articles, magazine articles (online & print), newspaper articles (online & print), web sites, both professional and personal, email, online discussions, cd-rom, interviews, etc.
Step by step help on research papers from Internet Public Library
Ask the Expersts: When all else fails and you haven’t found the answer to your question in the above sources, you can ask a real live person to help you.
A list of experts is organized for you by the subject area of their expertise.