On-Line Encyclopedias  
In this section I've provided links to a variety of on-line encyclopedias since I believe that such sites potentially represent another valuable source of research material for A-level students. As you might expect, most of the listed sites are not Sociology-specific (in the sense of only offering access to sociological information), but each does contain some explicitly sociological material as well as material of a more-general nature. Some of this information can be used for sociological purposes (such as finding resource material that could be used in project research). Given the nature of such sites you will need to do some form of search when you arrive at their Home Page (but this is rarely more complicated than typing "sociology" into a text box).
Encyclopedia.com   Encyclopedia Britannica   
This site takes articles from a range of different sources "Over 100!) and the information available is, to be charitable, rather terse - but probably sufficient for most A-level reference purposes. The main drawback (or advantage, depending on your bank balance) is that to get more information you have to purchase articles from the Electric Library ("A leading premium research service on the Internet"). An encyclopedia whose depth and quality is well-established (although the overtly-sociological material can be a bit dry and staid). Since October '99, the site has become a free one, although you have to put-up with constant adverts (there's a non-advert option for which you have to pay a small fee). Whichever you choose, Britannica should probably be high on your list of research tools.
British History    Freepedia  
This is part of the Spartacus educational web site and although, strictly speaking, it's got little to do with Sociology A-level material (Spartacus specialise in History publications), it's a well-presented site containing a wealth of historical material that could be usefully mined by students engaged in project work (there's stuff on the feminist movement, child labour in Victorian Britain and the like). The site is worth a visit just to see what's available... This part of the Spartacus site provides a "series of free encyclopaedias" - the first of which is aimed at A-level History students, although Sociology students will find materials on areas like ethnicity (the Civil Rights Movement for example), child labour and the emancipation of women that feature in some areas of the Specification. The site has a simple, clean, interface that leads students, via a series of hyperlinks and occasional simulations, to a huge range of text and graphical information on each featured topic in the Freepedia.
 My Virtual Encyclopedia   Itools!  
An interesting example of a slightly different form of reference site (you'll need to check it out for yourself to see what I mean), this contains a number of pre-defined search categories (a number of which might prove useful for sociological purposes). It also provides general web search functions (using the Meta Crawler search engine). The site forms part of what its creator calls a "virtual reference desk" and is worth checking-out to see the kinds of things on offer... A multiple-purpose site that's basically a Gateway (or Front-End) to various sites providing dictionary, thesaurus and translation services (amongst other things). As such, it's similar to a search engine, although the advantage of using this type of site is the clear and simple access it gives you to the power of more-complicated search engines / sites. Not really an encyclopaedia site, as such, but it's included here because it allows easy key-word searching of Email discussion groups.
 WWW Virtual Library     On-Line Dictionaries  
Although the Virtual Library doesn't offer any information of its own, it's potentially a useful resource for Sociologists because of the way it helpfully categorises a range of Social Science / Sociology sites. In basic terms, therefore, the Library is a massive, searchable. links database that brings together many of the major sociology sites on the Web. As the name suggests, if you need a dictionary this is probably the site for you. A simple search form can be used to find the meaning of words using, as the site claims "...more than 800 dictionaries in 150 different languages". There's more here than just basic dictionaries however, so if you're into linguistic fun I suggest you pop along to this site (either that or consult a doctor to see if there's a cure...).
 Sociosite    ipl2  
Advertising itself as "The Web's definitive reference for researching any subject in society", this is a massive links site that focuses on authors ("Adorno to Willis") and subjects (just about anything you can think of). Given the nature of Web Sociology most of the sites it lists consist of fairly high-powered material (well beyond A-level in the majority of cases) so it's probably going to be most useful, in this context, for the leads it can generate when you follow a set of links. This used to be the Internet Public Library until it merged with the Librarian's Internet Index to form a huge web-based collection of texts and links covering a wide range of different topics. Of most interest here, perhaps, is the "Resources by Subject" option that contains a Sociology section with links to various sites on the Web.
NFER    Thesaurus.com  
This is a database of (relatively recent) educational research from which you can download publications (in pdf format). Probably not a site for students, but for teachers looking to update their knowledge in this area it could prove to be a valuable resource. As the name suggests, this site allows you to search for alternates to any word you type into it's search engine. The site also contains a range of other services (such as a dictionary, translation software and a variety of study-skills tools).
 Grolier    Infoplease  
A subscription site whose articles are taken from the Academic American Encyclopedia. There are other bits-and-pieces available on-site (a digital magazine and links to other sites, for example), but while this is a well-respected encyclopedia the fact you have to pay to use it probably means there are better web-based options available... A very useful source of sociological material, mainly based around traditional themes and presentation formats (the section on the family, for example, presents information in a standard "article-type" format with links leading to more specific pages). The site includes a large number of different predefined search categories to explore, including Family, Education, Race/ Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, Culture and Crime.