Ask a Librarian!

If you need help finding something for your homework, you can contact the River Forest Public Library staff several ways.
By email at reference(@)riverforestlibrary.org
By phone at 708-366-5205 x 316
Need help now and the Library is closed?
You may also use AskAway!- an online chat service which connects you to librarians all over the country.

You can use our Premium Resources at home for research any time, day or night. All you need is your library card! Access our complete list of premium online resources here.

Helpful Websites for Research

Library Catalog
Access the SWAN Catalog here or through the link in the sidebar. Search by subject and location to find materials located at the River Forest Public Library.

Search Engines

Google
Unique features include Google News, Google Earth and Google Maps. Searchers can us double quotes ” ” for phrases, +(pluses before words to make sure they are seached especially common words) and -(minuses to get rid of annoying words)

Yahoo!Search
An extensive search engine, which responds to quotes, pluses and minuses. Also responds to the Boolean terms AND, OR, NOT (must be capitalized.)

Metacrawlers

Dogpile
Searches Google, Yahoo, LiveSearch, and Ask.com simultaneously.

Clusty
Takes the results of several well known search engines and clusters the sites for more effective results.

Surfwax
Searches several search engines and news sites and puts them in a handy list that can be sorted in several ways.

Subject Directories

About.com
Millions of websites, selected and grouped together by 750 expert “guides.”

Academic Info: Educational Subject Directory
25,000 handpicked resources for high school and college students, grouped together in handy subject guides.

Infomine Scholarly Internet Resource Collections
Developed by the University of California, this site lists over 125,000 well annotated sites for academic research.

Librarians’ Internet Index
Sites on all topics, chosen and vetted by professional librarians .

Other Helpful Sites

Thinkfinity Browse for different subjects or find homework help, activities, and booklists.

Shmoop Free online guides to literature, history, poetry, plays and more.