Encyclopedias and Dictionaries
Artcyclopedia
A first class encyclopedia of fine art. Includes a search facility for artist's names, the names of specific artworks and worldwide art galleries and museums.
Columbia Encyclopedia
Excellent encyclopedia but has a noticeable U.S. bias
Cambridge Dictionaries
Martindale's Reference Desk
Probably the largest and most comprehensive reference book available on the Internet. Contains a huge collection of calculators, tables and language translators; current affairs, weather, computer virus alert, science centre, health pages, art, sport, environment...the list is endless. Check it out!
Visual Thesaurus
A unique thesaurus. Instead of simply listing words with similar meanings the opening page shows a diagram of related words and the links between them; clicking on a word then allows you to follow a thread of meanings.
News and Weather
BBC News Online
The weather channel
Maps and Travel
Yahoo! maps
An excellent resource for the U.K. traveller. Type in your starting address and the address of your destination and you will be shown an incredibly detailed route along with maps of your starting and finishing points.Google Maps
Street maps
Another useful resource for the traveller. Search here by street name, post code, place name or O.S. grid reference for an excellent online map.Get-a-map
Forget wrestling with printed maps, just log on and zoom in on the area of your choice.Traveline
Excellent journey planner for anyone travelling by public transport in the the U.K. Covers buses, trains, trams and ferries.British Rail
Train timetables, cheap fare finder and online booking.Multimap
A multimedia atlas with maps, aerial photographs and weather forecasts with links to other travel sites.Miscellaneous Reference Services
The British Library
The British Library holds over 13 million books, 920,000 journal and newspaper titles, 57 million patents, 3 million sound recordings, and so much more. Start exploring here.Project Gutenberg
The entire text of thousands of books whose copyright is now in the public domain available online.Directgov
The U.K. Government website is also useful and contains information relevant to many College courses.U.K. Telephone Directories
All of the U.K.s telephone directories available online, just type in the name of the person or business that you are looking for.UCAS
The University and Colleges Admissions Service; lots of advice on how to complete your application form. Also contains an online form which is available after you have completed a simple registration procedure.U.K. National Statistics
The official U.K. statistics site drawn exclusively from government sources.Issues Online
The UK's first comprehensive reference source addressing contemporary social issues. Sixty main topics with articles, news, key facts, statistics and much more. Some of the many subjects covered are: Abortion, Bullying, Cloning, Euthanasia, Homeslessness, Refugees and Vegetarianism.
Student Lifestyle
Virtual Greater Manchester
(Papillon Graphics’ Virtual Encycolpaedia of Greater Manchester.)An excellent site devoted to Manchester, including history, industry, attractions, education, and much, much more. Includes numerous photographs, maps and virtual tours. A site of exceptional quality, which applies ethical practices and which aims to raise the standard of material on the Internet.