Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
- The Logic of Scientific Disco
- Wakka
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 9:36 pm
- Location: Cambridge, MA
Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
Since discussion about tournaments has died down for the moment and a lot of packet-writing seems to be either on the horizon or happening right now (Penn Bowl, Cardinal Classic, ACF Winter and Regionals, etc.), I thought now would be a good time to post a thread about neat places to find material both relevant to question-writing and good for studying or reading. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a few canonical places to find question material that have gained traction (Masterplots, Grove, and Britannica spring to mind), and I thought it would be cool to expand that list.
So: here is your opportunity to share places you love to find interesting stuff to put in questions, or interesting stuff to remember for tournaments. Hopefully, given the diversity of interests of people on the board, we can cover lots of subject areas.
I'll start off by saying that my favorite source for information about composers is Harold Schonberg's Lives of the Great Composers, which I've read cover-to-cover maybe three times. It's that good. It doesn't go into the depth you'd like for specific works, but as a jumping-off point for music studying and for question ideas, it's awesome. For more detail, check out Michael Steinberg's The Symphony and The Concerto, or for something you can find sans library, check out Famous Composers and their Works on Google Books.
I'm also a fan of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which has long, detailed entries on lots of important philosophers. I'm just starting to read it in any depth, but I like what I see so far.
So: here is your opportunity to share places you love to find interesting stuff to put in questions, or interesting stuff to remember for tournaments. Hopefully, given the diversity of interests of people on the board, we can cover lots of subject areas.
I'll start off by saying that my favorite source for information about composers is Harold Schonberg's Lives of the Great Composers, which I've read cover-to-cover maybe three times. It's that good. It doesn't go into the depth you'd like for specific works, but as a jumping-off point for music studying and for question ideas, it's awesome. For more detail, check out Michael Steinberg's The Symphony and The Concerto, or for something you can find sans library, check out Famous Composers and their Works on Google Books.
I'm also a fan of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which has long, detailed entries on lots of important philosophers. I'm just starting to read it in any depth, but I like what I see so far.
Chris Kennedy, MIT
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6465
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
For history topics, you can usually find pretty in-depth stuff on the subjects you need by searching Google Books. There's a lot of public domain history stuff which is decent, and even better is previews of recent accounts/biographies which are often accessible.
Artstor is a good resource when writing painting tossups, especially if you're looking to write common link art tossups. Plus, it's neat to see some of the lesser known works of various artists in pretty high quality.
Artstor is a good resource when writing painting tossups, especially if you're looking to write common link art tossups. Plus, it's neat to see some of the lesser known works of various artists in pretty high quality.
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
- Important Bird Area
- Forums Staff: Administrator
- Posts: 6136
- Joined: Thu Aug 28, 2003 3:33 pm
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
Good idea for a thread. I like the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription required, but most large university libraries will subscribe) and Strayer's Dictionary of the Middle Ages.
Jeff Hoppes
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
President, Northern California Quiz Bowl Alliance
former HSQB Chief Admin (2012-13)
VP for Communication and history subject editor, NAQT
Editor emeritus, ACF
"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I've found Luminarium (http://www.luminarium.org/), the psychology wiki (http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page), Schools of Thought (http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/thought.htm), and the Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics (http://www.constitution.org/liberlib.htm) to be fine sources.
Don't forget the Thomas Love Peacock society (http://www.thomaslovepeacock.net/), either.
Don't forget the Thomas Love Peacock society (http://www.thomaslovepeacock.net/), either.
Jonathan Magin
Montgomery Blair HS '04, University of Maryland '08
Editor: ACF
"noted difficulty controller"
Montgomery Blair HS '04, University of Maryland '08
Editor: ACF
"noted difficulty controller"
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
Mathworld and the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive?
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/
Colin McNamara, Boise State University
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
Member, PACE
Idaho Quiz & Academic Teams
- Theory Of The Leisure Flask
- Yuna
- Posts: 761
- Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2003 11:04 am
- Location: Brooklyn
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
You need an educational license to access the full encyclopedia, but if your school has one, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (formerly known as the Grove Music Encyclopedia) is THE source for everything music.
They have a companion volume for visual art that I have yet to explore, but seems very promising.
Also, I usually go to http://plato.stanford.edu/ for most of my philosophy needs. (EDIT: not sure how I missed Chris already mention this above. Well, I'll second its usefulness...)
They have a companion volume for visual art that I have yet to explore, but seems very promising.
Also, I usually go to http://plato.stanford.edu/ for most of my philosophy needs. (EDIT: not sure how I missed Chris already mention this above. Well, I'll second its usefulness...)
Last edited by Theory Of The Leisure Flask on Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Chris White
Bloomfield HS (New Jersey) '01, Swarthmore College '05, University of Pennsylvania '10. Still writes questions occasionally.
Bloomfield HS (New Jersey) '01, Swarthmore College '05, University of Pennsylvania '10. Still writes questions occasionally.
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I like Google Books. I've also gotten into the habit of writing stuff based on the monographs I'm reading in class (obviously works better for history questions and if you're using quality monographs instead of just general survey textbooks).
Mike Cheyne
Formerly U of Minnesota
"You killed HSAPQ"--Matt Bollinger
Formerly U of Minnesota
"You killed HSAPQ"--Matt Bollinger
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I only have access to it through the University, but Magill OnLiterature is the primary resource I use for literature questions.
- millionwaves
- Auron
- Posts: 1360
- Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 12:35 pm
- Location: Urbana, Illinois
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
When writing philosophy and social science questions on people, I often find it helpful to check and see if there's a profile on the thinker in this directory:
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/
The ones that I've used have been great: there's plenty of contextual biographical information, full bibliographies, and often links to primary resources which you can use to write questions from.
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/
The ones that I've used have been great: there's plenty of contextual biographical information, full bibliographies, and often links to primary resources which you can use to write questions from.
- pray for elves
- Auron
- Posts: 1061
- Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:58 pm
- Location: 20001
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
If you actually want to appreciate a piece as you write about classical music, most schools have subscriptions to Naxos, which has streaming recordings of almost any piece of classical music you can imagine.
EDIT: For reference you can find a complete listing of recordings in their catalog here (warning: pdf link).
EDIT: For reference you can find a complete listing of recordings in their catalog here (warning: pdf link).
Evan
Georgetown Law Alum, Brandeis Alum, Oak Ridge High Alum
Ex-PACE, Ex-ACF
Georgetown Law Alum, Brandeis Alum, Oak Ridge High Alum
Ex-PACE, Ex-ACF
- grapesmoker
- Sin
- Posts: 6345
- Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 5:23 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
For mythology and religion, the Berkeley Sacred Texts archive contains lots of primary material from various religious traditions.
Jerry Vinokurov
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
- No Rules Westbrook
- Auron
- Posts: 1238
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:04 pm
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
These are all fine sources, I'll add marxists.org as a readily available site for lots of primary works.
If all else fails and you seek to write a question from online sources, I suggest just doing a Google search where you search for not only the subject you're writing on but also add a handful of clues you know to be good. That way, you increase your chances of finding a comprehensive and trustworthy page, though you'll want to cross-reference of course. You can also restrict your search to a .edu domain, and sometimes that yields decent results.
If all else fails and you seek to write a question from online sources, I suggest just doing a Google search where you search for not only the subject you're writing on but also add a handful of clues you know to be good. That way, you increase your chances of finding a comprehensive and trustworthy page, though you'll want to cross-reference of course. You can also restrict your search to a .edu domain, and sometimes that yields decent results.
Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.
I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!
Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!
I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!
Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!
- at your pleasure
- Auron
- Posts: 1723
- Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 7:56 pm
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
For fine arts, I like the Web Gallery of Art. It has good profiles of pretty much anyone you would want to write a question on and a lot of quality reproductions.
Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough
http://avorticistking.wordpress.com/
"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough
http://avorticistking.wordpress.com/
- SnookerUSF
- Rikku
- Posts: 310
- Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2004 2:55 am
- Location: USF-Tampa, FL
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
This is a fantastic idea for a thread, could it be made a sticky post thing somewhere, so people have it at their disposal?
Also, I was wondering if people had good places to go for SCIENCE! topics, I mean I always find myself drawing from very disparate sources, either obscure papers on ScienceDirect or IngentaConnect or basic encyclopedia sources, which make for awkwardly disjointed tossups.
Also, I was wondering if people had good places to go for SCIENCE! topics, I mean I always find myself drawing from very disparate sources, either obscure papers on ScienceDirect or IngentaConnect or basic encyclopedia sources, which make for awkwardly disjointed tossups.
Ahmad Ragab, itinerant moderator at the New School for Social Research
ACF Nationals 2011:"Too real for the streets"
-Auroni Gupta
"Can 40,000 redacted topic Tossups be wrong?"
"With my gnomes I'm highlighting the danger of political opportunism and right-wing ideology. I get the feeling that this gnome has reopened an old wound."
-Ottomar Hoerl
ACF Nationals 2011:"Too real for the streets"
-Auroni Gupta
"Can 40,000 redacted topic Tossups be wrong?"
"With my gnomes I'm highlighting the danger of political opportunism and right-wing ideology. I get the feeling that this gnome has reopened an old wound."
-Ottomar Hoerl
- Mechanical Beasts
- Banned Cheater
- Posts: 5673
- Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:50 pm
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I think Westbrook's advice is pretty good here. While you might not get the most in-depth treatment of a science topic if you just google it, you'll get something deeper if you google a common middle clue for it. (In all likelihood, you'll find a specialized encyclopedia-type resource or maybe some lecture notes.) Also, JACS (at least; probably many other science journals) seems to require authors to contain enough background information that you don't have to jump from an obscure result about the genes that code for apoptosis-related proteins in newts straight to "buzz when I say Bax, guys." You'll have a smooth transition; though it'll still be framed a little bit in the context of that specific result, and you'll need to check out a few more sources to get a more complete picture.SnookerUSF wrote:This is a fantastic idea for a thread, could it be made a sticky post thing somewhere, so people have it at their disposal?
Also, I was wondering if people had good places to go for SCIENCE! topics, I mean I always find myself drawing from very disparate sources, either obscure papers on ScienceDirect or IngentaConnect or basic encyclopedia sources, which make for awkwardly disjointed tossups.
That said, the best source is external knowledge. Give me a perfect music resource (I've used that Oxford, and I love it to death) and I'll still write a pretty crappy music tossup, since I don't have a handle on clue order or notability or what the words I use mean (at least not in the deep way actual music people do). That's the real utility of an extremely available resource like Wikipedia: if you know nothing at all about quicksort, you'll learn something about quicksort and you'll get the bonus of a few sweet GIFs.
Andrew Watkins
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
For organic, I find www.organic-chemistry.org pretty helpful. It is searchable and has recent literature on most important reactions.SnookerUSF wrote:This is a fantastic idea for a thread, could it be made a sticky post thing somewhere, so people have it at their disposal?
Also, I was wondering if people had good places to go for SCIENCE! topics, I mean I always find myself drawing from very disparate sources, either obscure papers on ScienceDirect or IngentaConnect or basic encyclopedia sources, which make for awkwardly disjointed tossups.
Mehdi Razvi
Maggie Walker Gov. School '07
University of Pennsylvania '11
"A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid."
-James D. Watson (1928-)
Maggie Walker Gov. School '07
University of Pennsylvania '11
"A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid."
-James D. Watson (1928-)
- No Rules Westbrook
- Auron
- Posts: 1238
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 1:04 pm
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
And, a big part of running a successful general Google search is being able to escape the morass of Wikipedia clone sites out there. If you can add enough info to your search to do that, you can probably get what you want.
Ryan Westbrook, no affiliation whatsoever.
I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!
Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!
I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!
Left here since birth...forgotten in the river of time...I've had an eternity to...ponder the meaning of things...and now I have an answer!
- Mechanical Beasts
- Banned Cheater
- Posts: 5673
- Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:50 pm
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
This is especially frustrating, and valuable, when Wikipedia actually contains a fact that, if sourced (which it of course isn't) could make for a clue that's never come up before. Trying to find it in another source is part of the long haul that usually leads you to "it's something the editor made up" but occasionally it'll bring you to a very, very good legitimate source.No Rules Westbrook wrote:And, a big part of running a successful general Google search is being able to escape the morass of Wikipedia clone sites out there. If you can add enough info to your search to do that, you can probably get what you want.
Andrew Watkins
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I also like JSTOR:
http://www.jstor.org
(most unis have subscriptions)
And just doing google searches of the form "stuff site:edu", which often turns up course notes and whatnot.
http://www.jstor.org
(most unis have subscriptions)
And just doing google searches of the form "stuff site:edu", which often turns up course notes and whatnot.
Jordan Boyd-Graber
UMD (College Park, MD), Faculty Advisor 2018-present
UC Boulder, Founder / Faculty Advisor 2014-2017
UMD (College Park, MD), Faculty Advisor 2010-2014
Princeton, Player 2004-2009
Caltech (Pasadena, CA), Player / President 2000-2004
Ark Math & Science (Hot Springs, AR), Player 1998-2000
Monticello High School, Player 1997-1998
Human-Computer Question Answering:
http://qanta.org/
UMD (College Park, MD), Faculty Advisor 2018-present
UC Boulder, Founder / Faculty Advisor 2014-2017
UMD (College Park, MD), Faculty Advisor 2010-2014
Princeton, Player 2004-2009
Caltech (Pasadena, CA), Player / President 2000-2004
Ark Math & Science (Hot Springs, AR), Player 1998-2000
Monticello High School, Player 1997-1998
Human-Computer Question Answering:
http://qanta.org/
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I usually like to find overviews of stuff on Britannica, or yes, even Wikipedia, and note what seems to be important and interesting. Then I take that and try to corroborate with legitimate primary-source information, scholarly articles, etc. This is a great way to find out even better details about the stuff that's important. I think that a lot of times, people are so worried about writing from Wiki or such sources that they write questions from the top down; that is, they read one study on PubMed and think that they can use stuff from it as a clue. I think that clues should come from the bottom up. Put another way, clues should be drawn from the pool of things that people are could possibly know. A good way to try to adhere to this is to draw from a condensed overview of your question topic (even if it is Wikipedia) and build up from that.
Andrew Hart
Minnesota alum
Minnesota alum
- First Chairman
- Auron
- Posts: 3651
- Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2003 8:21 pm
- Location: Fairfax VA
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
Making this post stick.
Emil Thomas Chuck, Ph.D.
Founder, PACE
Facebook junkie and unofficial advisor to aspiring health professionals in quiz bowl
---
Pimping Green Tea Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)
Founder, PACE
Facebook junkie and unofficial advisor to aspiring health professionals in quiz bowl
---
Pimping Green Tea Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
I'm surprised that so few have mentioned textbooks as a source of quality material, especially for science. I ended up using a fair number of textbooks in our libraries to get good clues for a large portion of the science at Minnesota Open.
The best thing I like about textbooks is that there are so many of them; if you find one to be too dense, there will always be another one at your disposal which will be easier to read. Furthermore, a lot of them are written so that if you have a good understanding of the basic concepts in the field, you can pretty much understand the concepts in a more specific sub-field.
EDIT: clarity
The best thing I like about textbooks is that there are so many of them; if you find one to be too dense, there will always be another one at your disposal which will be easier to read. Furthermore, a lot of them are written so that if you have a good understanding of the basic concepts in the field, you can pretty much understand the concepts in a more specific sub-field.
EDIT: clarity
Gautam - ACF
Currently tending to the 'quizbowl hobo' persuasion.
Currently tending to the 'quizbowl hobo' persuasion.
- grapesmoker
- Sin
- Posts: 6345
- Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2003 5:23 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
Sites like MIT's OpenCourseWare are also useful for science. Also, often times, professors will post their notes online and that's a good place to get some interesting clues.
Jerry Vinokurov
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
ex-LJHS, ex-Berkeley, ex-Brown, sorta-ex-CMU
presently: John Jay College Economics
code ape, loud voice, general nuissance
- BuzzerZen
- Auron
- Posts: 1517
- Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2004 11:01 pm
- Location: Arlington, VA/Hampshire College
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
There is a reference work called simply Encyclopedia of Religion that I have found extremely useful for myth and religion questions that you may have access to electronically via your library. It's quite excellent.
Evan Silberman
Hampshire College 07F
How are you actually reading one of my posts?
Hampshire College 07F
How are you actually reading one of my posts?
- Mike Bentley
- Sin
- Posts: 6465
- Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
- Location: Bellevue, WA
- Contact:
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
Speaking of religion, the Catholic Encyclopedia is a pretty good source for Christian related topics. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
- Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
- Chairman of Anti-Music Mafia Committee
- Posts: 5647
- Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 11:46 pm
Re: Alternatives to Wikipedia: where to find good material
The only problem is that some of the things like sacrament names (extreme unction in particular) are from the early 1900s and have changed since then, but overall yeah its a good site.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs
"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs
"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White