Wikipedia is perhaps the most popular reference site online, with millions of high quality articles available on virtually any topic. However, there are limits to what Wikipedia can offer. Here are 47 Wikipedia alternatives you can use to find information, research a paper, get quick answers, and much more.
1. The American Presidency Project
The American Presidency Project is a project out of the University of California Santa Barbara. If you want to know something about American presidents, it's here: over 87,000 documents all free available to the public. More »
2. Wolfram Library Archive
Wolfram Alpha, a computational search engine, also has a pretty impressive library archive where you can find thousands of downloadable resources from Wolfram research. More »
3. The Old Farmer's Almanac
The Farmer's Almanac has been around in different forms since 1792, and today's online version is even more useful. You can use the Almanac to look up tide tables, planting charts, recipes, forecasts, moon rises, and everyday advice. More »
4. Martindale's Reference Desk
The Martindale Reference Desk is divided into multiple sections: Language, Science, Business, Mathematics, etc. Simply choose the subject area you're interested in and browse the references available. More »
5. Bibliomania
Bibliomania offers more than 2000 classic texts online for you to peruse, as well as study guides and a searchable index.More »
6. Encyclopedia Smithsonian
This is the definitive collection of everything the Smithsonian Museum has to offer. Search over 2 million records with images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries. More »
7. The Open Directory Project
The Open Directory Project is a humanly compiled Web directory of a variety of topics, anything from Arts to Health to Sports. Each link has been scrutinized for quality here by at least one pair of eyes, so you know it's going to be good. More »
8. Open Library
Open Library is an Internet Archive project aimed at compiling one Web page for every book ever published. To date, they have amassed over 20 million records, all of which are freely accessible. More »
9. FactBites
FactBites offers searchers the ability to get comprehensive search results that actually address the context of their search queries, rather than just the keywords. For example, searching for "history of tornadoes" retrieves statistics, state by state information, and scientific background on some of the worst tornadoes documented. More »
10. NOLO Legal Dictionary
Stumped on a legal term? You can find the definition in plain English at the NOLO Legal Dictionary, a free resource that provides easy to understand information on hundreds of commonly used legal words and phrases. More »
11. Government Documents Center
Put together by the University of Michigan library, the Government Documents Center is an exhaustive database of U.S. government statistics and factual documents. More »
12. HyperHistory
3000 years of world history presented interactively via timelines, graphics, and maps. Click on the time period you're interested in, and then use the menus on the left and the right to manipulate your data. More »
13. Merck Medical Library
Search through comprehensive medical database at the Merck Medical Library, an exhaustive index of medical information culled from the Merck series of health resources for both medical professionals and laymen. More »
14. Library Spot
Library Spot is a reference utopia. You can browse a list of libraries online, newspapers, poetry, archives, maps, current events, dictionaries...you name it, you can probably find it at Library Spot.More »
15. Historical Text Archive
Thousands of historical articles, links, and ebooks on historical topics ranging from Africa to World War II. More »
16. Medline Plus
From the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health; searchable indexes of searches pre-forumulated with information, drug resources, medical encyclopedias, interactive tutorials, and current medical news. More »
17. Library of Congress Online Catalog
The Library of Congress, one of the largest American cultural repositories, has placed their incredible collection of records online via the Library of Congress Online Catalog. According to the Library records, there are over 14 million documents here, including books, serials, computer files, manuscripts, cartographic materials, music, sound recordings, and visual materials. More »
18. Encyclopedia Mythica
Over 7000 articles related to anything mythology: Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic, Native American, and more. The mythology sections are divided into geographical regions, so you can search via country, plus, there are special gallery sections: heroes, genealogical information, and more. More »
19. OneLook
OneLook is a meta search dictionary engine, indexing over 1000 different dictionaries at the time of this writing. You can use OneLook not only for simple definitions, but also for related words, related concepts, phrases that contain a certain word, translations, and more. More »
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