You've probably visited your public library's Web site to see whether it has a particular book in stock, but you may not realize that library Web sites offer free and easy access to an incredible array of online reference materials that would otherwise be too expensive or otherwise inaccessible to most of us.

 You can track down a biography of Ludwik Lazar Zamenhof, see the great paintings of Paul Klee, research businesses, or take practice tests to see whether you're ready for the big exam—all from the comfort of your home PC. While many of these references have a decidedly academic feel to them, they provide more and better information than the free Web resources we're used to, such as Google, InfoSpace, and KartOO.

The databases are collections of carefully selected material, thereby reducing the clutter of irrelevant results being included because they share some of the same keywords. And since the databases are supplied by services dedicated to their upkeep, you can expect the information in those databases to be more accurate.