Blacks Law Dictionary is a great place to find definitions for terms that are not in standard dictionaries. Many military, or governmental terms cannot be found in dictionaries such as Websters becasue more often than not these terms consist of more than one word. Blacks Law not only allows the user to define the term correctly, but it is also well respected among the educational and law communities.

Blacks Law can be found in the BEHS library in the Resources Section.

Dictionary.com is a website that combines many different dicionary entries into one easy to read page. This is very helpful to debaters becasue many of the resolutions being debated require the debater to be original in their definition of the terms. A word like "just" can have many different interpretations. It can be based on laws, morality, equality, etc. Finding a definition that goes with the current form of the word can be difficult without a source like this. However, because this is just a reference page, if you decide to use a definition from this page make sure to site the dictionary it came from and not the site itself.

Link: http://www.dictonary.com

Lexis Nexus is an information database. It collects many research articles for use in academic papers and research assignments. Nexis Nexus mainly works with college students, links can be found in almost any college website. However, much like Pro Quest and Ebsco Host, you must have an account to access the information. The best way to access this source would be to talk to the high school librarian to see if BEHS has an account or to try to acquire one. One tip when using this program, if you decide to use one of the articles in this database, make sure to copy the Author's name, the title of the article, and the media it was published under i.e. New York Times, Seattle P.I, etc.

Lexis Nexus may be accessible through the BEHS Library.

Pro Quest is another information database. Pro Quest gathers articles from major news outlets such as Newsweek, USA Today, The Economist, and others for use by students in academic research projects or clubs such as FBLA, DECA, and Debate. The only issue with Pro Quest is that to access it, one must first have an account. Only schools and libraries are given accounts to ensure quicker downloads and availability to everyone a part of it.

Link: http://www.proquest.com

Ebsco Host is much like Pro Quest in that it gathers information from many different reliable sources and make it available for students to use in many different fields of study. One of the nice features of Ebsco Host is that students are able to narrow down their relm of study to specific categories like economy, literature, governmental policies, and other area frequently used for study. It is one of the best, along with Lexis Nexus and Pro Quest, resources to use to gather initial information about a specific topic.

Link: http://www.ebscohost.com

This is the ideal area for people that are interested in Lincoln Douglas debate. This site is an encyclopedia of ethical, epistimological, and metaphysical philosophies by all major philosophers. The site is created and opperated by Stanford University's Philosophy department therefore it is a very reliable source for information gathering. The students post summaries of what the philosophers outline in their works, and explain modern application of those philosophies. This should be an initial source to familiarize students with philosophy, but to best understand, students should read the actual philosophies.

Link: http://www.stanford.edu

Microsoft Encarta is an online encyclopedia used to gather information on the history of almost any importnat isuue such as major Wars, history of technology, and biographies on important people. This is an ideal reference for people to get an initial idea on the history and significance of a topic. Encarta is updated almost anually, however downloading the new version is necessary.

Link: htpp://www.encarta.com

Many governmental websites are created solely for sharing information about foreign policy, stances on the economy, and other governmental issues. There are dozens of these sites, however some are more useful than others. The Governmental Accountabilities Office was created to check into the actions of the Government and to supply reports to Congress, the President, and the citizenry on important issues, and current policies. These area include, Foreign Aid, Econmoical Actions, Greenhouse Gasses, and many other important areas. Other sites allow students to see the Constitution, jobs of the branches of Government amonst other things.

Links: http:www.gao.gov;

These search engines are great starting points to begin gathering information for any assignment. But, as much of the item on the Internet can be posted freely without validity checks, one must be very careful in finding if the info is real before using. Policy debaters will use search engines much less than LD'ers because Policy is card based, but LD can use these engines to introduce themselves to many differnet philosophies.

Links: http://www.google.com <-> http://www.dogpile.com

The final source documented here should only be used as an initial information gathering resource. Much like search engines, Wikipedia can have information posted by anyone. Because the validity of this information can always be challenged, the information found on Wikipedia should not be used, but rather the reference tags at the end of an article should be looked at. When a entry is recorded, Wikipedia has an option to cite youtr sources. All of these cites are found at the bottom of the page, as well as the little blue hyperlinks after certain passages. These will take you to the source of that article and serves as a much better way to gather info from credible sources.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page