Reference Desk
Links to the sites listed here do not indicate endorsement of content or work program.
Bookstores
- Amazon.com
- Barnes & Noble
- Development Bookshop Online - ITDG Publishing
- DirectTextbook.com
- Fatbrain.com
- ISBN - Comparative pricing for any in-print and many out-of-print books
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- The Price Search - book prices from multiple vendors
- National Academy Press - 2,000+ reports from the National Academies available free online
- NHBS.com - The Natural History, Environment and Science Bookstore
- World Bank InfoShop
Dictionaries & Thesauri
- Acronym Finder
- AGROVOC - Multilingual Agricultural Thesaurus
- American Heritage Dictionary
- Diccionario Anaya de la Lengua Española
- Dictionary.net
- e-Thesaurus - Thesaurus of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
- FAO Terminology
- German:English Dictionary
- LEO -- German:English Dictionary
- Life Science Dictionary
- LookWAYup Dictionary/Thesaurus and Translation
- Majstro - Translation Dictionary
- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
- NetLingo - Internet Language Dictionary
- OECD Macrothesaurus - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Plant Dictionary
- Roget's II: The New Thesaurus
- Trav-Lang - Translation Dictionaries
- UNBIS Thesaurus - United Nations
- Yahoo's Reference Dictionaries
- YourDictionary.Com
- Wordsmyth - The Educational Dictionary/Thesaurus
- The WorldWideWeb Acronym and Abbreviation Server
Directories
- Directory of Development Organizations
- Directory of Electronic Journals and Newsletters
- EDIRC --Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World
- Rationalexpectations.com - Economics & Finance Gateway
- International Directory of African Studies Scholars - from Columbia University Libraries
- World of Learning

For access, please contact IFPRI-library@cgiar.org - World Wide Web Virtual Library - Electronic Journals
Encyclopedias
- Britannica
- CIA World Factbook
- E-Conflict World Encyclopedia
- Encarta Concise Encyclopedia
- Free Internet Encyclopedia
- The Farmers' Almanac
Newspapers
- Online Newspapers
Access to virtually every online newspapers by country, state or region
Maps and Atlases
Photos
- World Bank photo Library
- FAO Image Library -- search by topic
- Africa-photo.com
- USAID Africa photo Library
- IFAD
- ELDIS -- list of image repositories.
General Reference
Other Reference Tools
- Accuweather
- Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
- Currency Converter
- Diplomatic List
- Espacenet - Europe's Network of Patent Databases
- IAN Symbol Libraries
- International White and Yellow Pages
- Mapquest
- Marketleap
- Metric Conversions
- News Library
- Open Access (Free) Internet Resources - contains electronic journals and other freely available Internet resources that may be useful for study and research purposes.
- Phrase Finder
- PROTAbase Database (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa)
PROTAbase, an online database maintained by the international not-for-profit foundation, PROTA, contains information about 7,000 useful plants of Tropical Africa. It aims to provide published information to decisionmakers in government, private sector, research, education and rural development, and end-users in the region. To access this database, visit http://database.prota.org/search.htm. - Public Integrity Index - The Center for Global Integrity produces this index which assesses government practices and rates them according to the extent to which the government is accountable to its citizens. The index gives information about freedom of the press, support for human rights, policy decision-making, and enforcement of the rule of law in more than two dozen decocracies.
- Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA) Agricultural Intellectual Property (IP) Database
An initiative by a group of 27 high-ranking universities, foundations, and nonprofit research institutions, this online database (beta version) makes research on agricultural technologies available to the public sector. The PIPRA database contains information on 6,600 patents and patent applications from about 39 countries and monitors PIPRA member institutions’ agricultural biotechnology intellectual properties. To access this database, visit http://pipra.m-cam.com. - Sigma XI - Scientific Research Society's research- and education-related links for scientists and engineers. Unless noted, all Web sites listed are free access and in English.
- SHERPA - Publisher copyright policies & self-archiving.
- UN Exchange Rates
- Weather Channel (International)
- WebGrammar
- Web-based Word Frequency Counter Utility
- World Clock
- World Phone Books
- World Bank Operational Manual
- World Bank Group Data and Statistics
- Writing for the Web
Search Engines
Please send comments and questions to: IFPRI-Library@cgiar.org