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Research: A Step-by-Step Guide

Electronic Reference Shelf

Looking For a Quick Online Resource?

The following links provide quick access to several online Reference Tools:

Google Search Tools

Google Book Search
Google Scholar Search

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Available ONLY to StFX Faculty, Students and Staff:

Open Access:

  • Dictionary.com
  • The largest and most trusted free thesaurus on the web.
  • an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The Encyclopedia is a free, fully searchable collection of content contributed by scholars, professionals, educators, practitioners and other experts who collaborate and review each other's work. The content is presented in a style intended to be useful to students, educators, scholars, professionals, as well as to the general public.

General Reference Tools

  • The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 266 world entities. Our Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, and a Standard Time Zone of the World map.
  • The largest and most trusted free thesaurus on the web.
  • The WordReference Dictionaries are free online translation dictionaries.
  • Convert just about anything to anything else. Over 5,000 units and 50,000 conversions.
  • A free, authoritative, and respected reference for Internet users; provides a comprehensive encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, dictionary, and more.
  • Government of Canada website

*** For more discipline-specific online resources please visit our Subject Guides

Writing, Research and Citation

Data and Statistics

Available only to StFX Faculty, Students and Staff:

Open Access: