LibGuides: ENG 601: Research in English Studies (Huff): Encyclopedias, etc.

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 term or 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 databases

These databases contain reference materials of various sorts, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, and "topic overviews."

Gale eBooks
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)
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Oxford Reference Online
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)
Oxford Bibliographies Online
Description: Oxford Bibliographies Online contains annotated bibliographies on more than 750 subjects related to communication, media studies, cinema, British and American literature, ecology, environmental science, and evolutionary biology. Some annotations are for online sources and provide links to those sources. Where the full text is not available, click on "Find this resource."
Time Period: 20th century to present
Sources: Annotates thousands of resources.
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities, Science, Social Sciences
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Literature Criticism Online
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
Primary Materials: Books/e-books, Magazine Articles, Reference Resources

Selected reference resources

Below are specific dictionaries and biographical resources that might be useful to you in your research.

Oxford English Dictionary
Description: Online version of the classic etymological dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary gives detailed definitions, histories, and origins for most words in the English language.
Time Period: 1150 to present
Sources: over 600,000 words
Subject Headings: English & Linguistics, Humanities (Etymology)
Primary Materials: Reference Resources, Definitions and etymology
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Description: Online version of a the 2004 edition of the highly-acclaimed 30-volume Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Includes 50,000 biographies of deceased people who were British or who were important to Great Britain. Many biographies also include illustrations.
Time Period: 4th century BC to 2000
Sources: 1
Subject Headings: General, History (Biography)
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Number of Simultaneous Users: 1

American National Biography by John A. Garraty (Editor); Mark C. Carnes (Editor) American National Biography is the first new comprehensive biographical dicionary focused on American history to be published in seventy years. Produced under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, the ANB contains over 17,500 profiles on historical figures written by anexpert in the field and completed with a bibliography. The scope of the work is enormous--from the earlest recorded European explorations to the very recent past.
Call Number: General Collection CT213 .A68 1999 (24 volumes plus a supplement)

ISBN: 0195206355

Publication Date: 1999

Finding more reference material in OneSearch

You can use OneSearch, on the University Libraries' homepage, to find additional reference resources in both print and electronic formats. Choose some search terms relevant to your topic or research question and enter them into the OneSearch box.

On the left side of the results page, find the "Content Type" filter. If you see the option "Reference" in the filter, check its box. If "Reference" does not appear among the top four or five options within the filter, type "reference" in the text box above the filter, then check "Reference."

Electronic items on your list of results will be marked with a "Full Text Online" button. These results are individual articles/entries in encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. You can link to the full text of these articles/entries from OneSearch.

Printed items on your lists of results will be accompanied by location information: One of the campus' four libraries, a collection (or area) within that library, and the item's call number. These results are whole encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc. You can locate them on shelf and look up your topics within them.