LibGuides: Online Students: Reference Sources

Using Background Readings

Reference sources such as specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks are good places to begin research on a topic. Articles and entries in these publications often are written by scholars in the field.

Reference sources can provide:

• background information

• topic overviews

• basic facts about a topic

• definitions of related terms

• lists of additional sources and recommended readings

Best Bets for Research Ideas

Best Bets are the librarian's top picks
to help you get started with your research!

Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Dates vary. Multi-discipline. Full text articles from over 2,700 publications, including many peer-reviewed. Gale in Context
Points of View Reference Source This link opens in a new window
Essays presenting multiple sides of current issues, along with articles from political magazines, radio and television transcripts, and primary source documents. Full-text. EBSCO

Specialized Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online reference library containing the full text of hundreds of reference titles, including dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles, featuring in-depth articles, images, sound files, animations, and videos. Full-text.
eBooks (Gale- previously GVRL) This link opens in a new window
GVRL contains articles from hundreds of subject specific encyclopedias.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Provides the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past, traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from international English language sources. Full-text.