What is a Reference Resource?
Reference resources provide brief summaries and overviews of topics and often include handbooks, dictionaries and encyclopedias. They are good places to look for quick facts and statistics before engaging in more in depth research.
Google It
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowProvides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research. Learn how to connect Google Scholar to the F&M Library here.
General Reference Databases
- Sage Knowledge This link opens in a new windowIncludes an expansive range of Sage eBook and eReference content for students, researchers, and faculty. This collection includes scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, encyclopedias, textbooks and more.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowFeatures thousands of entries published in Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias. Individual Oxford titles to which we subscribe may be found on the Databases - By Subject pages.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowFeatures content from reference book formats such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and books of quotations, plus subject-specific titles in subjects ranging from agriculture to philosophy to technology.
- Oxford Language Dictionaries Online (Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish) This link opens in a new windowThis multi-language resource offers completely comprehensive bilingual dictionaries, as well as unique study materials that provide extra help with learning and using an expanding range of languages.
Specific Reference Resources
- Oxford Guide to Countries of the WorldEach entry gives a brief history and outlines contemporary social, economic, political and religious issues. In addition, for each country there is a clear map and a quick-reference fact box containing data and statistics including languages, population, GDP, capital city, life expectancy, and more.
- Penguin Encyclopedia of PlacesA comprehensive guide to the geography and history places scattered throughout the world. Articles range from detailed accounts of individual countries, to snapshot views of small communities, to descriptions of rivers and mountains, and they contain a wealth of background information - political facts, economic analysis, social and cultural framework.
- Encyclopedia of the European UnionProvides in-depth, authoritative discussions of the key concepts, developments, institutions, policies, negotitations, treaties, national interests, personalities, etc., related to European integration.