General Resources

Websites

Click the links below to discover websites on General topics:

Reference

RefSeek: Search engine for students and researchers-  academic information that is often lost in a muddle of sponsored links and commercial results.

Infoplease: Concise answers to general who, what, where, which, why, when, and how questions.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac: Information on a range of subjects: weather, gardening, astronomy, cooking, birding and fishing, rural estate, etc.

Reference.com: Question answering service and general information reference.

Convert-me: A conversion table for weight, time, length, area, speed, pressure, and other things.

Online Learning

The Khan Academy: Educational content for Years 1-13 math , science, finance, history and the humanities. 10-minute videos, exercises and assessments.

Open Culture:  Links to online courses, certificate courses like MOOCs, movies, audio books, language learning tools, ebooks, and educational resources.

IBDP Webliography: Free, high-quality digital resources contributed and curated by IB and IB Educators.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design): Videos to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks.

ThoughtCo: Articles, images, and videos on a range of subjects (Science, Tech, & Math; Humanities; Arts & Recreation).

SparkNotes: Study guides in literature, arts and sciences. Includes literary classics, health, nutrition, computer science, biography, & test preparation.

Digital Collections

New York Public Library Digital Collection: Thousands of prints, photographs, maps, videos, and more. Updated daily.

National Archives UK: Iconic documents, dating back more than 1,000 years. Culture, Media and Sport.

Europeana: EU digital platform for cultural heritage. Explore 51,970,762 artworks, artefacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe.

World Digital Library: Free access to  worldwide manuscripts, rare books, maps, photographs, and other cultural documents. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Digital Bodleian: Digital collections of maps, manuscripts, historical documents, art, books, etc.

Library of Congress: The largest library in the world and the main research arm of the US Congress. Search and access digital materials.

Fact Checking

FactCheck: Use this site to check up on political claims. Monitors factual accuracy of politicians’ statements.

Politifact: Pulitzer Prize-winning website that researches the claims of politicians and checks their accuracy. 6 ratings from “true” to “pants on fire.”

Snopes: Fact-checking site for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation. Submit a claim & researchers will investigate. Ratings: true, mostly true, false, or legend.

Opensources: A list of news sources categorized by type (fake, satire, bias, junk science, political, credible, etc.). Curated by professional librarians.

AllSides:  Trending topics are presented by 3 stories from various political perspectives. Bias ratings for 600 media outlets & writers. Ratings: left, lean-left, center, lean-right, right.

Full Fact: Fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose, and counter the harm it does.

Current Issues & Events

The Day: St. George’s subscription to news and current issues for students.

Gale Schools: St. George’s subscription to Gale News database (among others).

Strategic Intelligence: Strategic insights and contextual intelligence from the World Economic Forum.

The Conversation: Articles written by academics on a wide variety of issues: Arts, Economy, Environment, Health, Politics, Science, etc.

Big Think: Articles on science, culture, politics, technology, relationships, etc. Written and led by experts.

Pro Con: Pro and Con arguments for controversial issues.

World Public Opinion: Public opinions on international issues in specific nations & global patterns of world public opinion.

OUP Blog: Oxford University “academic insights.” Articles on a wide range of topics.

1 Jour 1 Actu: Site quotidien d’infos pour les enfants à partir de 8 ans.

Open Secrets: Tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. Information about contributions to political parties, and to US congressional and presidential campaigns.

AllSides: Provides news articles and an assessment of their political bias, from left to right.

Fair Observer: Crowdsourced multimedia journal, with strong editorial processes, provides a 360° view to help you make sense of the world.

CQ Researcher: Extensive overviews of hot topics.

Pulitzer Center Reporting: Free access to quality international journalism on critical global issues.

Wellness & Safety

Health for Teens: Sponsored by UK National Health Service.

Teen health: Sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine.

Teen sexual health: Sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine.

Teen mental health: Sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine.

Drugs and young people: Sponsored by the US National Library of Medicine.

Drug abuse: Sponsored by the UK National Health Service.

Web MD: Reliable general health information.

Docteur: Find a doctor or dentist in Switzerland by area of specialty and region.

Profa: Offers advice and counseling in sex education, sexual health, family planning, sexology and couple counseling.

Fact-checking Browser Extensions

Click the links below to add fact-checking extensions to your browser:

Extension Compatible Browsers Rating System/ Method
NewsGuard
  • Chrome
  • Green or Red “nutrition label” for websites
  • News sites are evaluated based on 9 standards of credibility & transparency
Media Bias Fact Check Icon
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Indicates level of political bias for current web page
  • Extreme, left, left-center, least biased, right-center, right, extreme
Media Bias Facebook
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Indicates level of political bias for news sources in Facebook feed
Surfsafe
  • Chrome
  • Firefox
  • Opera
  • Evaluates authenticity of images
  • Yellow icon appears as a warning
  • Request a fact-check for a suspicious image

Magazines

Check the library for the latest issues of these magazines on General topics:

Subscription Databases

Follow the links to access these valuable resources:

Encyclopaedia Britannica School: 3 levels (login details required)

The Day: St. George’s subscription to news and current issues for students.

Gale Schools: St. George’s subscription to Gale General Onefile, Gale High School Edition, Gale News, and Gale Ebooks databases.

London Library: JSTOR + (login details required)

BCU Lausanne: Search university catalog (membership required; on-site access only)

Destiny Discover

Use this integrated search tool to find results from multiple sources simultaneously (our library catalog, websites, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and more):

Open Access Databases