Reference Sources for Research: General Reference Books
Biographical Resources
- Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
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Discover biographical information for over 500,000 people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images. Includes original profiles, articles, interviews, obituaries and more. - Contemporary Black Biography This link opens in a new windowProvides biographical profiles of the important and influential persons of African American and/or black heritage. Covers persons of various nationalities in a wide variety of fields, including art, business, education, fashion, film, journalism, law, literature, medicine, music, politics, science, sports, and more.
- Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyContains biographies of over 57,000 people related to the history of Great Britain.
Career Resources
- Occupational Outlook HandbookProvides information about occupations (educational requirements, salary, work environment, etc.).
- Vocational and Career Collection This link opens in a new windowRead full-text articles pertaining to trade and industry-related vocations and careers.
What are reference sources?
Reference sources provide background information on a variety of topics and are a great place to start your research. Users generally consult reference materials on a certain topic and read entries related to that topic. These sources are rarely read cover to cover.
The sources list on this page are general reference sources. You can find subject specific reference books under Selected Reference by Subject in the upper left-hand side of the page.
Perhaps the most important reference source is our professional staff, available all hours the library is open and ready to help you with your research while guiding you through our print and electronic resources.
General Reference
- Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
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This database indexes over 25,000 records, covering an array of topics. The database contains various images, offers brief biographies as well as information in a variety of subject areas. - Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new windowA collection of full text online reference books. Includes works in all disciplines.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Contains entries from over 100 major discipline-related dictionaries and other publications from Oxford University Press. Coverage includes the sciences, foreign languages, art and architecture, politics, business, literature and more.
Dictionaries & Thesauri
- Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus This link opens in a new windowAccess available to Kent, Salem, and Stark Campuses only.Defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries (C.E. 600-1150) of the English language and provides a searchable web corpus comprised of each text surviving in Old English.
- Funk & Wagnalls New World EncyclopediaProvides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries, searchable by subject or keywords within the entry.
- OED: Oxford English DictionaryOhioLINK resource: lists all English words (about 1 million) from Middles Ages to the present and defines their meanings at specific times in history.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Contains entries from over 100 major discipline-related dictionaries and other publications from Oxford University Press. Coverage includes the sciences, foreign languages, art and architecture, politics, business, literature and more.
Almanacs
- CQ Almanac This link opens in a new windowCongressional coverage from Congressional Quarterly (CQ) for a 70-year period (1945 to 2020). Browse by subject, decade, or by a particular year's table of contents, or use the policy tracker feature to explore a specific policy topic. Includes access tables, graphs, and charts that help explain the issues.
- Old Farmer's AlmanacSince 1792, the Old Farmer's Almanac has published useful information for people in all walks of life.
- This Day in HistoryFrom The History Channel, Provides historical reference to events occurring on a specific day of the year.
- World Factbook (CIA)Provides fundamental and factual reference material on countries and issues.
General Statistics
- Census BureauFrom the U.S. Department of Commerce, a source for social, demographic, and economic information.
- Encyclopedia of Statistical SciencesCovers topics such as statistics, probability theory, biostatistics, quality control, and economics with emphasis in applications of statistical methods in sociology, engineering, computer science, biomedicine, psychology, survey methodology, and other client disciplines.
- FEDSTATSProvides easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by more than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government.
- Historical Statistics of the United States Millennial Edition Online This link opens in a new windowSource for quantitative facts of American history. HSUS provides data on social, behavioral, humanistic, and natural sciences including history, economics, government, finance, sociology, demography, education, law, natural resources, climate, religion, international migration, and trade. The fully searchable and downloadable electronic edition permits users to graph individual tables.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowExplore this mapping tool with over 500,000 data indicators for the United States from present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys, and many other datasets.
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Ask a Librarian
For additional reference help, please contact a librarian through the Ask a Librarian page.
Directories
- National Faculty Directory This link opens in a new windowProvides names, departmental affiliations and institutional addresses of professionals at thousands of American colleges and universities, as well as at approximately 200 Canadian institutions that use instructional materials primarily in English
Speeches & Quotations
- Bartlett's Familiar QuotationsPhrases and passages from ancient and current literature.
- Quotations PageA catalog of Quotation resources on the Internet.