Homework Help

Need help finding a newspaper or magazine article for a report or project? Now you can use InfoTrac from home, if you have a Pasadena Public Library card. InfoTrac OneFile has full text on many articles, and what you need to look them up on the rest.

The Library also offers a diverse set of databases for research and a homeschool collection.

Writing Reports

These sites have information that will help you with the hows and whys of writing a report.

• A Plus (Internet Public Library's site about writing papers)
• Citation Machine (Landmarks Citation Machine helps you make your bibliography look good and be correct)
• Citing Sources (the rules and methods, along with a simpler citation machine and other report help)
• Elements of Style (the classic book about grammar and writing is now on-line)
• Nuts and Bolts Guide (online guide to writing)
• OWL (Online Writing Lab, help with how and why to do things for reports and essays, among other things)
• Paradigm (Another writer's helper, with lessons and aids)
• Starting Your Report (helps you to outline and organize your report, from middle school to grad school)

General homework assistance

Sites to help you with day-to-day stuff, not just big reports

• ABC Clio Suite (History, geography, and government information)
• Exhibits from CPB (fun way of getting useful information about everything from history to the physics of a roller coaster)
• High School Ace (links organized by subject, along with reference and news sources)
• Information Please (almanacs and other date-based information, plus fun quizzes)
• Photo Collection (see who or what you're studying...from the Library of Congress)
• Quoteland (quotations from famous and infamous people)
• Virtual Reference Desk (an online bookshelf to help you look things up)

Biography sites

Information about famous people just about everywhere.

• Biography.com (this is the site for the TV show on A&E--lots of good stuff)
• Biographical dictionary (thousands of short biographies)
• Hyperhistory biographies (biographies and timelines--who, what and when)

Language Sites

Learn languages on your own, or get help with your language classes.

• I Love Languages (links to dictionaries, lessons and other info for many, many languages)
• Mango (an online language-learning system)
• Your Dictionary (dictionaries in many languages)

Literature sites

Literature, authors, on-line text sources...

• Bartleby (full text of older works, especially poetry)
• Classic Literature (text of older literature, with lots of links)
• Literature Resource Center (Find criticism, articles and reviews on books, essays and poetry; also literary history or terms and information about the author. Search by author name; title of work; and keywords. Covers historical and modern writers and authors.
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet (filled with information and links about the plays and poetry)
• Project Gutenberg (classic literature available to read or download)
• Shakespeare's Works (complete text of plays and poems)

Science and math sites

Help for science projects as well as homework

• Algebra homework assistance (word problems, too)
• Algebra Help (tutorials and explanations)
• Ask Dr. Math (questions and answers about math at all levels)
• Ask Numbers (convert units of measurement)
• Becoming Human (about early humans, primates, etc.)
• DNA (from crime scenes to plant science)
• How Stuff Works (just what it says)
• Human Anatomy (with charts and help in finding out what goes where and what it does)
• Laws of Physics (with good explanations)
• MadSci.org (for answers to odd science questions)
• Math2.org (tables, formulas and help with the tricky parts of math)
• Periodic Table of the Elements (with some visual cues to help you remember important information)
• PurpleMath (algebra lessons and tutorials)
• The Why Files (science news and other related things)

Test Preparation

Help with standardized tests

• ACT (test information)
• College Boards (SAT and other info about how to get in)
• Learning Express Library (practice tests and study aids) 

U.S. History sites

Includes sites to show you what things looked like

• California Historical Society (links, history and pictures)
• California History (with an emphasis on the missions and that period of history)
• Civil War, 1861-1865 (general historical site, archives and links)
• Civil War and American West pictures (see what people, places and things looked like)
• Famous speeches database (with text and some recordings.)
• Historical Maps (from the Library of Congress collection)
• Historical Society of Southern California (lots of links related to the history of the area)
• Lewis & Clark Expedition (site for the PBS TV series)
• Map Muse (interactive map of historical sites)
• National Parks Service (lots of U.S. history stuff)
• New York Public Library database of pictures & photos
• Salem Witch Trials (National Geographic Magazine's site)
• U.S. Presidents (biographies, links to archives, links to their homes...)
• U.S. Presidents (brief histories of their campaigns and time in office)
• Women of the West Museum (lots of short biographies and information about women who settled the west)

World History and Events

Facts and figures

• ABC Clio Suite A research resource for students in junior high, high school and first year college
• Atlapedia (combination atlas/encyclopedia, good for finding information about countries)
• CIA Online Factbook (current world information, facts and figures)
• Hyperhistory (links and timelines)

Specific world history links

• Ancient Egypt (pharaohs, mummies and more)
• Mostly Medieval (things about the middle ages)
• Best History (huge list of good sites for history)
• Mythology (ancient beliefs and religions)
• Religion and Ethics (ancient and modern)
• Timeline of Art History (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Basic reference works on-line, including many language-to-language dictionaries

• Dictionary.com (reference books online)
• Encarta (online encyclopedia with other aids)
• Encyclopedia Britannica (Not the full text of the encyclopedia, but lots of good information and fun stuff as well)
• Farmer's Almanac (weather, eclipses, holidays, and stuff about history and culture)
• The Free Dictionary (a dictionary and encyclopedia arranged by subject--good for finding related terms)
• Glossarist (a collection of links for glossaries arranged by subject. Need sailing terminology, or words to describe Afro-pop styles? You’ll find them here.)
• One Look (a LOT of on-line dictionaries)
• World Book Encyclopedia 
• Year You Were Born (from InfoPlease almanac)

How to Search the Web

Tutorials and instructions on how to find things we don't list here.

• Bare Bones 101 (a great tutorial on how to use search engines to find things on the web)
• Diigo ("dii" is pronounced like "wii"...a good site if you're working on a group project...you can share web pages and even mark them, as if you could put post-it notes on the web)
• Evaluacion critica de una pagina web [pdf]
• Furl (another site for marking web pages while doing research, so that you can find the links later)
• Learn the Net (web tutorial, in English and Spanish)