What is a Reference Source?
What is a Reference Resource?
A Reference Source is usually a physical or digital document that you would refer to for more information about a topic. Examples include dictionaries (refer to for definitions of words) and encyclopedias (refer to for broad summaries about a topic). These documents are referred to, rather than read cover-to-cover.
When doing academic research, it is sometimes much better to consult a reference resource than to type your question into google. Reference resources are usually curated around specific topics, making them more credible and informative than the advertisement suggestion that will pop up at the top of your google search!
Recommended Reference Sources for English
Digital Reference Resources
These are accessible online to search in at any time!
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books on all subjects, published by Oxford University Press.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Encyclopaedia Britannica Public Library Edition.
- Oxford Reference Books: Literature This link opens in a new window
Literature encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books, published by Oxford University Press. Some books limited to 5 users at one time. Please close the website when you are done.
- OED: Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Considered the authoritative dictionary of the English language.
Physical Reference Resources
These resources are available in the Dinand library reading room or the Science Library as physical resources. You may use them for up to three hours within the library walls. If you'd like to use them please feel free to take them from the shelves! Please just be sure to put them on a cart or return them to the library front desk for proper re-shelving when you are done.
- Cyclopedia of World AuthorsProvides biographical sketches of, and bibliographical references for, more than two thousand writers and lists their principal works. 1997 Edition.
- The Princeton Handbook of Poetic TermsThe entries illuminate crucial critical concepts, genres, forms, movements, and poetic elements, adding up to a resource that is authoritative and broad in scope, yet convenient for use in literature and writing courses. 1983 Edition
- The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and PoeticsEvaluates 106 national poetries, with updated and new entries, including "Afro-American poetry" and "Feminist poetics". 1993 Edition
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary TermsContaining over 1,000 of the most troublesome literary terms encountered by students and general readers, this gem of a book gives clear and often witty explanations to terms such as hypertext, multi-accentuality, and postmodernism. 2004 2nd Edition.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees by ISBN: 0881925209Publication Date: 2002-12-01This book has been more than 12 years in the making, beginning with two years of research and planning followed by 10 years of on-site, meticulous painting of individual living trees as well as their detailed parts by painter David More. More is a supremely gifted botanical artist who managed in 10 years of his life to paint each of the more than 2000 individual color illustrations beautifully presented in this handsome new book.
