Ask An Expert Best Sites
I've found About.com to be an absolutely invaluable help with anything from diabetes to dog care. About Guides are all experts in their subjects, and will answer your question or get you started in the right direction. You can also post a question in any About forum, and it usually will be answered in a very short amount of time.
Another useful service is Reference Desk's Ask An Expert Locator. This is a extremely useful site, and while the Reference Desk does not personally answer questions, you have an excellent chance of finding someone who will by using their searchable subject directory.
Answers.com is a free reference search service. Its results are particulary useful, since Answers.com weeds out extraneous or superficial sites and gets their results straight from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference tools.
Scientific American's Ask An Expertis a great resource. You can browse the list of general questions, or use the form to send in your own.
NASA's Ask An Expert is NASA's own source for space and science research help. Search the Archives to see if your question has already been answered, or use the drop down menus to browse through missions, topics, etc.
The Shakespeare Homework Helperis a great resource for Shakespeare research topics, and you can even ask a question of the owner and maintainer of the site.
FirstGov.gov is probably the best place to start when looking for specific government information. Make sure you check the FAQ page before you get too far in this exhaustive resource.
Ask an Expert On or Off the Web
I think that the biggest take away I'd like to give you with this article is that you have many, many choices available to you for help with your research topic. Don't get boxed into only using the Web, or only using the library. Broaden your horizons a bit, and make use of all the valuable research help that's freely available to you, both on and off the Web. Here's a few more helpful articles for research topics:- Find Information on the Web with Research and Reference Sites:Whether you're looking for the average rainfall in the Amazon rainforest, researching Roman history, or just having fun learning to find information, you'll get some great help using my list of the best research and reference sites on the Web.
- FindArticles, an Article Search Engine:FindArticles, a property of LookSmart, is a search engine dedicated to finding articles "from leading academic, industry and general interest publications." It's an invaluable tool for the casual and advanced Web searcher.
- MagPortal.com, a Magazine Search Engine:MagPortal is a great research tool that enables the user to find magazine articles on the Web from a variety of different publications.
