Reference sources are a way to quickly look-up information and are a great way to get to know a topic before conducting more in-depth research. Types of reference sources include:
Almanacs (Facts & Statistics)
Dictionaries (Definitions)
Encyclopedias (Concise info on a variety of subjects. Can also cover a single subject/topic in more detail)
Offers original articles on current events and public affairs.
Your complete source on the most current and controversial issues of the day with complete summaries, all the pros and cons, bibliographies and more.
Credo Reference is an ideal starting point for beginning researchers. The collection contains over 700 online reference titles from 100+ and offers curated, authoritative reference sources that provide a firm foundation for understanding a topic. Users can start with Credo, gather background information, find key terms and concepts, and then seamlessly travel to the library’s journal databases for more specialized information and peer-reviewed articles.
Contains contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. Drawing on the acclaimed Greenhaven Press series, the database features continuously updated viewpoints, topic overviews, full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites.
Offers an online collection of premier reference eBooks including encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. You can search a single eBook or across an entire eBook collection.
The collection contains the following subjects: art, biography, business, education, environment, history, information and publishing, law, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, nation and world, religion, science, social science, and technology.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.
It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. The OED covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. Updated quarterly with at least 1000 new and revised entries.
Offers an online collection of premier reference eBooks including quotation, language dictionaries, encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
Ulrich's is an authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher information on more than 30,000 periodicals of all types academic and scholarly journals, Open Access publications, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters and more from around the world. It covers all subjects, and includes publications that are published regularly or irregularly and that are circulated free of charge or by paid subscription.
