Encyclopedias, etc. - ENG 230 - Professor Huff - LibGuides at Ball State University

What are reference resources?

"Reference resources" are information resources that are intended to be read a portion at a time, as needed. Encyclopedias and dictionaries are great examples. When you want to find an explanation of an unfamiliar concept, you can look it up in an encyclopedia or dictionary, read the part that is about the concept, and then set the encyclopedia or dictionary aside until you need it again.

Reference resources exist in print and electronic formats. When they are electronic, they are often gathered into reference resource databases - online collections of encyclopedias and similar materials.

Demonstrated in class

Literature Resource Center
Contains "topic and work overviews" that offer background information about authors, novels, and stories. Also incorporates other kinds of content, including literary criticism and recent news.

Description: Literature Resource Center is a great source for background information on major authors and their works. It includes biographies and basic literary criticism of the works of novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of the most-studied authors. Consider using in conjunction with Literature Criticism Online.
Time Period: 1973 to present
Sources: Indexes or contains the full text of more than 480 magazines or journals and 42 reference titles.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials:
Information Included: Full Text
MultiLink: No
Print Equivalent: Contemporary Authors
Publisher: Gale Group
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Gale eBooks
A database of content from a variety of encyclopedias. Useful for background information about authors and stories, as well as about history, culture, and social conditions.

Description: Gale EBOOKS is a collection of searchable subject encyclopedias and reference books from Gale Publishing and many other publishers.
Time Period: Current
Sources: Searches across nearly 500 reference sources.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Philosophy & Religion, Science, Social Sciences, Technology (Reference books)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
MultiLink: No
Print Equivalent:
Publisher: Gale Group
Updates: Yearly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited

Not demonstrated in class

Literature Criticism Online
Similar to Literature Resource Center but with more scholarly literary criticism. Does contain "topic and work overviews" of authors, novels, stories, etc.

Description: Literature Criticism Online provides access to scholarly and popular commentary from books and periodicals, broadsheets, pamphlets, and encyclopedias published in Gale literary criticism titles. Content is delivered in an online format that matches the print originals.
Time Period: 19th century to present
Sources: Contains articles and reviews from more than 1,100 volumes of literary criticism.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Magazine Articles, Reference Resources
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
MultiLink: No
Print Equivalent: Contemporary Literary Criticism
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism
Poetry Criticism
Short Story Criticism
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Publisher: Gale
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Oxford Reference Online
An online collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference materials. Similar to Gale Virtual Library, but with different and often shorter content.

Description: Searchable and browsable collection of highly trusted reference books. Dictionaries and encyclopedias in Oxford Reference Online include general works, foreign-language works, and specialized subject works in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
Time Period: Current
Sources: over 200 dictionaries and encyclopedias
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, English & Linguistics, General, History, Humanities, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology (General)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials:
Information Included:
MultiLink: No
Print Equivalent: many Oxford titles, including: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Oxford Companion to the Bible, Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
MagillOnLiterature Plus
Contains biographical information about authors and overviews their bodies of work, and information about novels and stories including plot summaries and overviews of their themes.

Description: MagillOnLiterature Plus contains information about 8,500 authors of fiction, poetry, and drama. It has biographical essays covering the 2,500 most studied authors. These entries include up-to-date lists of each author's principal works and current secondary bibliographies. The database also has more than 400 comprehensive essays on specific literary genres, themes and settings.
Time Period:
Sources: More than 36,000 analyses of literary works, 16,000 biographical entries, 150 volumes of reference works, and 8,200 book reviews.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Information Included: Abstracts,Full Text,Citations
MultiLink:
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: EBSCO
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited