Webupon

When I was starting out as a freelance writer, research meant going to the library and spending hours wandering through the stacks looking for books or articles. It was time-consuming, because you almost needed a degree in Library Science to be able to find things easily. I used to get overwhelmed and distracted, and end up spending twice as much time as I had allotted.
Now, it’s much easier. The Internet has put billions of words at our fingertips, and unless you want to hold a book or magazine in your hands, or you just like the atmosphere in a library, online research is the way to go.

I do online research every day, and I even write a newsletter about it. I am constantly amazed by the number of Web sites out there with good, reliable research information. Whatever subject you’re interested in, you’ll find plenty of resources for it online. Here’s a sampling of sites that I recommend to anyone doing research. They’re not the only good sites out there, but they have a track record of providing information you can depend on.

1. The WWW Virtual Library. This one’s been around for a long time in Net years, and it’s still going strong. It has portals (Agriculture, Engineering, Law, Sports, etc.) to broad categories of information, and within each there are sub-categories where you can fine-tune your search. These “virtual libraries” can be started by anyone who has an interest in a subject and wants to create a portal with links to that subject. Some of the categories of information have not been kept up to date, but you can still find nuggets of useful information – and the ones that are actively updated are terrific.

2. Biographical Dictionary.  The s9.com Biographical Dictionary has been around since 1997 and has profiles of more than 33,000 men and women who have shaped our world, from ancient times to the present. You can search it by birth and death dates, positions held, professions, literary and artistic works, achievements, and other
keywords.

3. Public Records. There are more and more public records coming online every day, and these provide a great way to research individuals and companies. You can learn so much by looking at these records, and they’re all available with the click of a mouse. Some databases charge a fee for access, but this article has a list of free or low-cost databases that you can search.

4. Martindale’s “The Reference Center”.  Martindale’s has been around since I first started my newsletter in the mid-1990s, and it’s only gotten better. Scroll down the page and you’ll find links to resources on every subject imaginable. One really useful part of Martindale’s is the Calculators Online Center,  which has calculators and conversion tools for hundreds of subjects.

5. VIBES stands for Virtual International Business & Economic Sources, and this site has some excellent links to first-rate business information. It’s maintained by a librarian at the University of North Carolina, Jeanie Welch, and she updates it regularly. It has 3,500 links, and all of them are free, accurate, and information-rich. If you do business research, especially international business research, this is the place to start.

There you have it – a collection of sites that I recommend for starting any type of research project. There are plenty of others, but these are a few of the best.