General Research and Reference

This guide provides links to general reference databases available through the library as well as general information websites for such things as style guides, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, newspapers, etc.

Articles and books not held by Torreyson Library may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. For research and reference help, e-mail the Cybrarian. If you need immediate help, contact the Reference desk at 450-5224.

Databases	Quotations	Encyclopedias
Dictionaries & Thesauri	General Reference	Search Engines

DATABASES

Academic Search Elite

A multi-disciplinary database offering full text for more than 2,050 scholarly journals. Covering virtually every area of academic study, it offers full text information for many of it's journals dating as far back as 1985.

NEW! Books In Print   

Find books, movies, and audio books in this user-friendly database of over 5 million titles.

Britannica Online

Includes the Encyclopedia Britannica,Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Collegiate Thesaurus

NetLibrary

Provides access to 10,912 eBooks and 3,407 publicly accessible eBooks. Ebooks are searchable and accessible from off campus.

Newspaper Source

Provides selected full text for 25 national (U.S.) and international newspapers, as well as full text television & radio news transcripts, and selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers.

ProQuest Research Library

Covers a broad range of subjects including arts, business, children, education, general interest, health, humanities, international, law, military, multicultural, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and women's interests.

Sage Journals Online

Provides full-text and abstracts for journals in a variety of subject areas including Education, Geography, Health/Nursing, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Writing. Full-text available for subscribed journals only.

Statistical Abstracts of the US

Provides a collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States, as well as selected international data.

Wilson Web

Provides a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts articles of at least one column in length from English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere plus the full text of selected periodicals. Includes the following indexes: Applied Science and Technology, Art, Biological and Agricultural, Business, Education, General Science, Humanities, Legal, Readers’ Guide, and Social Science

World Data Analyst Online

Offers detailed comparisons around the world, using both the most recent statistics and historical figures. Users can create tables and charts and export data to a spreadsheet for printing. Highlights inlcude: country snapshots, comparative statistics, historical statistics, and ranked statistics.

WEB RESOURCES

Quotations

Bartlett's Quotations

Provides a collection of quotations, passages, phrases, and proverbs traced to their original sources.

AskOxford.com

Includes language and writing resources, including a quotations feature.

Encyclopedias

Britannica Online

Online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Includes Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Webster's Thesaurus.

Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia

Provides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries covering a variety of subject areas.

Encyclopedia Smithsonian

Provides links to Smithsonian resources on subjects from Art to Zoology.

Dictionaries and Thesauri

Dictionary of American Regional English

This dictionary aims to provide information about the varieties of English that are not found everywhere in the United States--words, pronunciations, and phrases that vary by region; that are learned at home rather than at school.

AskOxford.com"

Includes a language and writing resources, including searchable access to the Compact Oxford English Dictionary.

YourDictionary.com

Offers more than 2500 dictionaries and grammars in over 300 languages, games that build language skills, and a forum (The Agora) for discussing language issues with the logophile community.

Miriam-Webster Online

Online versions of Meriam-Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus.

TravLang Translating Dictionaries

Offers translation dictionaries for many languages including Dutch, German, Spanish,Polish, Russian, Swahili, and more.

General Reference

Internet Public Library

An annotated guide of resources found on the internet. There are many subject categories including Reference (dictionaries, thesari, alamanacs), Business, Humanities, Education, Social Science, and Health.

Librarian's Index to the Internet

Offers an index to websites on the Internet, in many different subject categories. All sites are reviewed by librarians before being included in the index to ensure quality.

New York Public Library Digital Collections - Performing Arts

A searchable database presenting tens of thousands of digital images from The Library's collections including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, rare prints and photographs, and more. Subject areas include the Black Culture & Experience, History & Literature, Maps, Atlases, & Charts, Performing Arts, Prints & Photographs, and Science & Technology.

Nobel Prize.org

Web site for the Nobel Prize, an international award given yearly since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for peace.

RefDesk.com

Offers links to a variety of news sources, dictionaries, Internet tutorials, a subject guide, links to writing resources, Thought of the Day, Site of the Day, and more.

Rutger's University Subject Research Guides

Offers web resources for a variety of subjects and topics.

The Virtual Library

The oldest catalog of the web. While not among the largest of the web indexes, it is recognized as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the web. Includes a variety of headings from Argiculture to Law, Engineering, Education, Information and Libraries, and more.