the reference desk
 

every academy needs a library, and the core of every library is the reference section.

link up indespensible reference sites here. annotation and citations with your links will make the entries more useful to the search function.

might this be a sticky thread?

Project Gutenberg
 

http://www.gutenberg.net/index.shtml

Project Gutenberg is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books (eBooks or etexts). More than 10,000 ebooks are available for free downloading.

there's a thread here with some.

take a look through there, is that the kind of stuff you have in mind?

ibiblio
 

http://www.ibiblio.org/

The public's library and digital archive

that's the idea, SiN. but more than quick... i'm looking for indespensible and deep wells of information. a thread that is a library of digital libraries. is this a good idea? maybe this thread should be renamed... mods?

i think the quick references thread should be sticky. it would make it quick and easy to find, i would come back to it all the time to look stuff up.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, which applies an "open source" type philosophy. It is all built up out of various submissions. You can edit the articles that are there, and they even have requests for various topics to be written about.
there is loads of knowledge to be had from this site...all for free!

www.reference.com features a Google-like dictionary and thesaurus, and links to major online atlases, almanacs, encyclopedias.

A very good idea gibingus. Thanks for coming up with this.