Starting Points: Reference Resources

Credo Reference provides a complete reference collection including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, quotation books, bilingual dictionaries, measurement conversions, and more.

The OED 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. Use this online source for the latest information as we are no longer updating our print copies.

Each topic features a Guide to Critical Analysis which helps the reader evaluate the controversy and enhances students’ ability to read critically, develop their own perspective on the issues, and write or debate an effective argument on the topic.

Contains text and liner notes that offer the first comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.

Features thousands of cross-referenced entries, covering the entire spectrum of African-American history over the past 500 years.

The term American Studies encompasses a vast range of disciplines, all of which describe the cultures of the United States. In recent years comparative studies of Canada and Latin America have been incorporated.

Spans more than 500 years of political, military, social, and cultural history, highlighting the important people and events of the American experience. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, timelines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.

A “GIS tool for non-GIS experts” for those who need to visualize large amounts of data quickly and easily, often down to the census tract or block group level. It is used in the social sciences, urban studies and regional planning, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration and policy, public health, political science, education, environmental studies, business and finance, economics, statistics and geography, among other areas. Includes an extensive data collection, with indicators used to understand communities, organized into general categories including demographics, income and spending, housing, lending activity, quality of life, economy, education, health, federal guidelines, and other analysis. In addition, students and faculty can easily upload and incorporate their data into and leverage it against the thousands of indicators already available in PolicyMap.

Topics range from the arrival of Vikings in North America to the first stirrings of the American Revolution, the Civil Rights movement, 9/11, and the War on Terror.

Parents, teachers, and librarians can also find tools to teach with books and engage young readers.

Provides comprehensive online access to all volumes of Gale's Something About the Author series, which examines the lives and works of authors and illustrators for children and young adults.

An online encyclopedia and learning resource providing access to critical and regularly updated engineering reference information. Includes instructional videos, interactive tables and charts, and personalization tools allowing users to organize crucial project information as they work.

Collection of industry-leading standards and technical engineering information. The Library covers a broad range of engineering disciplines, including aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, environmental, geological, health and safety, industrial, materials science, mechanical, nuclear, petroleum, soil science, and solar engineering.

Please note that you will be asked to agree to the license the first time your computer’s IP address connects. Once you have agreed to the terms of the license, you should not see this message again.

Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology contains current articles on chemical substances, including properties, manufacturing, and uses. This e-book focuses on industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering, as well as fundamentals and scientific subjects related to the field.

Knovel offers physical/chemical/materials properties data, analytical tools, and full text handbooks and reference books for civil, mechanical, chemical, and electrical engineering applications.

Includes access to content from Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, and a variety of other online sources of literary criticism and biography.

Examines great writers, important works, memorable characters, and influential movements and events in world literature.

Provides quick access to reviews of books, periodicals, books on tape and electronic media representing a wide range of popular, academic and professional interests.

The OED 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. Use this online source for the latest information as we are no longer updating our print copies.

Provides comprehensive online access to all volumes of Gale's Something About the Author series, which examines the lives and works of authors and illustrators for children and young adults.

The site has also recently added interactive cases files in modalities and pharmacology that can be used for self-directed learning or classroom discussions.

Features thousands of cross-referenced entries, covering the entire spectrum of African-American history over the past 500 years.

Spans more than 500 years of political, military, social, and cultural history, highlighting the important people and events of the American experience. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, timelines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.

Offers access to more than 600 Native American groups and over 15,000 years of American Indian culture and history.

Covers the important people, events, legislation, and issues relevant to the study of women's history in the United States. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, time-lines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.

Focuses on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Islamic Empire from prehistory through the 1500s.

Includes the most searched and studied contemporary and historical figures. Reference content is offered alongside videos, audio selections, images, primary sources, and magazine and journal articles from hundreds of major periodicals and newspapers.

Covers the people, places, and events in the broad expanse of history from the mid-15th century to the present.

Topics range from the arrival of Vikings in North America to the first stirrings of the American Revolution, the Civil Rights movement, 9/11, and the War on Terror.

Contains resources on American government, current affairs, history, politics, public policy, and data analysis for the social sciences. Individual resources available in the Library include the following: CQ Almanac; CQ Researcher Plus Archives; CQ Weekly; Political Handbook of the World; Politics in America; and the Supreme Court Yearbook.

An invaluable resource for research and study of the U.S. Congress, with coverage from 1945 to 2008.

The Supreme Court Yearbook provides in-depth coverage and analysis of every decision from the nation's highest court since the 1989-1990 term.

Acomprehensive compendium of music scholarship offering a continuously updated cross search of the full texts of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 2nd edition (2002), The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2013), the Oxford Dictionary of Music, and the Oxford Companion of Music.

This is a continuously updated online version of the former historically significant print references: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, and The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Articles include biographies, bibliographies, composers’ works lists, and illustrations. It includes numerous “tools and resources,” or indexes, for accessing the textual and musical content as well as links to related sites, sound archives, illustrations.

Contains text and liner notes that offer the first comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.

Comprehensive online resource devoted to music research of all the world's peoples.

An invaluable resource for research and study of the U.S. Congress, with coverage from 1945 to 2008.

Contains resources on American government, current affairs, history, politics, public policy, and data analysis for the social sciences. Individual resources available in the Library include the following: CQ Almanac; CQ Researcher Plus Archives; CQ Weekly; Political Handbook of the World; Politics in America; and the Supreme Court Yearbook.

A “GIS tool for non-GIS experts” for those who need to visualize large amounts of data quickly and easily, often down to the census tract or block group level. It is used in the social sciences, urban studies and regional planning, real estate and housing analysis, community and economic development, public administration and policy, public health, political science, education, environmental studies, business and finance, economics, statistics and geography, among other areas. Includes an extensive data collection, with indicators used to understand communities, organized into general categories including demographics, income and spending, housing, lending activity, quality of life, economy, education, health, federal guidelines, and other analysis. In addition, students and faculty can easily upload and incorporate their data into and leverage it against the thousands of indicators already available in PolicyMap.

Provides timely, thorough, and accurate political information coverage of current political controversies.

The Supreme Court Yearbook provides in-depth coverage and analysis of every decision from the nation's highest court since the 1989-1990 term.

Includes access to content from Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, and a variety of other online sources of literary criticism and biography.

Includes essential reference works that catalog historic performances from the Broadway stage, archival playbills that document the major players of the day, original set designs that allow you to re-imagine the set, and decades worth of periodicals that provide contemporary reactions to performances.

Covers the important people, events, legislation, and issues relevant to the study of women's history in the United States. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, time-lines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.