Research Guides: Reference Sources: Reference Databases

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, & Reference

Britannica Academic Edition
Britannica Academic Edition provides full-text access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus. Britannica Academic includes additional relevant content, including websites, a world atlas, photos, articles, and news feeds.
Credo Reference
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Credo Reference contains content from major reference works, including multi-volume subject encyclopedias, field guides, scholarly handbooks, animation, and countless other award-winning sources. Also included are short reference videos, high-resolution art images, photographs, and maps across all subject areas. Other helpful features include topic pages that offer background information and pathways for further research and mind maps that show the relationship between topics and keywords.
Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia (EBSCO)
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The Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia database provides brief encyclopedic entries covering a large variety of subject areas. General encyclopedias, such as this one, can provide background information to explore a topic, but are not considered appropriate sources in a college level paper.
Gale eBooks
Gale eBooks provides the full-text of subject-specific reference sources published by Gale. Entire books may be browsed or individual entries discovered using the search interface. All e-books are searchable in the Library Catalog and Discovery Search.
Merriam Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
This subscription expired 10/31/2020. See also Oxford English Dictionary or Credo Reference.
Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press)
The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. 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 Online provides searching and browsing access to the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Reference Shelf (Salem Press)
A collection of Ebooks covering topics in Literature, History, Science and Health.

What is a Reference Source?

Reference Sources include sources of quick factual information and basic and specialized encyclopedias. While you would not cite these sources in a college level paper (unless a subject/specialized encyclopedia is requested by the instructor), you can use these sources to generate topic ideas, become more informed or obtain background information on your topic.

Tutorials

Britannica Academic/Britannica Digital Learning [tutorial]