Guides & Tutorials: Find Reference Works: Overview

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What are Reference Works & Why do they matter

Reference Works generally refer to handbooks, encyclopedias, and dictionaries. They provide a broad overview and background information of a topic. They help you understand the key issues, history, and sometimes, latest debates on a topic without going through dozens of books, journal articles, and other materials. They can also help you develop a mind map on a topic and learn keywords and terminologies for further research.

Where to Find Reference Works

Besides Wikipedia, a free source, you can also explore several reference work databases subscribed by the library. These databases provide short articles from authoritative reference works and allow you to search and refine by subjects or topics.

Not sure where to get started? Navigate to side pages to browse some latest reference works in your subject.

Wikipedia
a free online encyclopedia created and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.
OneSearch
Library's discovery tool to help you find different types of resources available through library including articles from reference works.
Credo Reference
an online reference collection with full-text content from hundreds of reference books covering a broad range of subjects.
Oxford Reference
It provides access to 100 key Oxford dictionaries and reference works in various subjects.
SAGE Knowledge
covers an extensive range of eBooks, videos and reference works in various subject disciplines.

Check the full list of databases for dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks.