Databases/Indexes by Subject:
Reference Sources

1. What are Reference Sources - Reference works are designed to give you quick answers, overviews of a topic, or a fact.  As such, they are good at providing background, but should be cited as a paper source only on the rarest of occasions.  Yes, that includes Wikipedia.

2. Finding Print Reference Books in the Library - To find print reference books in the Hiram College Library, you will need to search the Library's Catalog.  You can focus your search by doing a word search using your subject term(s) and a word to represent the type of reference work you are seeking.  For example, history AND encyclopedias will retrieve encyclopedias on some aspect of history.  You could be even more specific, such as United States AND history AND encyclopedias.  You may also do a broader search by using your topic and then limiting your results to the location "Reference."

3. About this list - This list provides access to online reference works by type of reference work (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.).  A complete, alphabetical listing is available in the Quick Facts section of the Databases by Type page.

4. Dictionaries - Dictionaries generally give you a brief definition of a word, plus the correct spelling and pronunciation.  The Oxford English Dictionary also gives you a brief history of the word.  Dictionaries that are specific to a discipline or topic may be found in the Collections of Reference Books listed below.
 

Database Name	Link to access from on-campus	Link to access from off-campus if available	Info about the database
American Heritage Dictionary
Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

5. Encyclopedias - Encyclopedias are designed to give you an overview of a subject.  Some encyclopedias  are general in nature, while others (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) are specific to a discipline or subject.  Additional subject encyclopedias may be found in the Collections of Reference Books listed below.
 

Database Name	Link to access from on-campus	Link to access from off-campus if available	Info about the database
Columbia Encyclopedia
Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

6. Collections of Reference Books - These databases bring together a number of reference works on a variety of subjects.  The main advantage is the ability to do one search across a number of reference books.  More precise divisions of these collections may be found in the Quick Facts section of the Databases by Type listing.
 

Database Name	Link to access from on-campus	Link to access from off-campus if available	Info about the database
Electronic Reference Books Collection
Oxford Reference Online

7. Other Reference Books - These works tend to be specialized, from providing indexing to dissertations to providing statistical information to a thesaurus.  All, however, are designed to give you quick answers.

 

Database Name	Link to access from on-campus	Link to access from off-campus if available	Info about the database
Books in Print		No
Dissertation Abstracts (ProQuest Dissertations and Theses)
Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center
English Short Title Catalog
Roget's II
Stat-USA
World Almanac