Encyclopedias & Reference Books
Why use reference books?
• get an overview of your subject to clarify the issues & scope of your project
• find and confirm facts & definitions
• identify key authors, terms, concepts, & the vocabulary of the discipline - use those terms to search the catalog & databases
• find journal articles & books mentioned in the text or bibliography for further reading
The following is a selected list of links to web-based reference resources. Use the library's catalog to locate additional encyclopedia sets, dictionaries, thesauri, and quotation resources.
Major Reference works
Biography Resource Center
This database contains biographies from reference sources as well as full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals. Search for people based on one or more personal facts such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender.
The Columbia Gazetteer of North America
The most comprehensive encyclopedia of geographical places and features covering the entire U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Grove Art Online
A comprehensive encyclopedia covering all aspects of the visual arts from prehistory to the present
Grove Music Online
Searchable, full-text, online versions of Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians II, Grove Dictionary of Jazz, and The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, with links to related sites, sound archives, and illustrations.
Handbook of Latin American Studies
Bibliography of social sciences and humanities works from 1936 to the present about Latin America.
Knovel
Knovel is a collection of over 800 essential reference books and databases from the world's leading publishers and professional societies in science and engineering.
Literature Resource Center
Literature reference database rich with biographical, bibliographical, and critical content about authors from all time periods and genres.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Entries include a wide variety of subject matter including Anglo-American, ethical and political, cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, continental and contemporary philosophy.
Statistical Abstract
Authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States
Reference collections
Netlibrary Reference Center
Searchable collection of online reference resources including encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, handbooks, thesauri, and more
Credo Reference
Search the full-text of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and other full-text reference books. Access to individual reference titles is also available from the Bertrand Library catalog.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
An online collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference sources Business, environment, history, library science, medicine, multicultural studies, religion, sciences and social science.
