Using Reference Sources
Reference sources provide summaries of topics by distilling primary and secondary sources for the general reader. For this reason they are excellent starting points for a research project because they can provide a lay of the land for someone new to a topic. Additionally, reference sources provide useful bibliographies curated by experts in the field. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks are all useful reference sources.
Print Reference Sources
Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies by Call Number: Tisch Library Reference GN495.6 .C37 2004ISBN: 0415286743Publication Date: 2003Developed from the critically acclaimed and commercially successful Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations, now in its fourth edition, Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies has been assembled by a world-class team of international scholars led by Ellis Cashmore to provide an authoritative, single-volume reference work on all aspects of race and ethnic studies.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights by Call Number: Tisch Library Reference E185.61.E54 2003ISBN: 9780313321719Publication Date: 2003This encyclopedia explores the struggle's successes and setbacks, from emancipation to the beginning of the 21st century.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature by Call Number: Tisch Library Reference PS21 .E537 2004ISBN: 9780195156539Publication Date: 2004This set treats the whole of American literature, from the European discovery of America to the present, with entries in alphabetical order. Each of the 350 substantive essays is a major interpretive contribution. Well-known critics and scholars provide clear and vividly written essays that reflect the latest scholarship on a given topic, as well as original thinking on the part of the critic.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature by Call Number: Tisch Library Reference PR19.O95 2006ISBN: 9780195169218Publication Date: 2006From folk ballads to film scripts, this new five-volume encyclopedia covers the entire history of British literature from the seventh century to the present, focusing on the writers and the major texts of what are now the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Online Reference Sources
- Black PerspectivesHighly regarded home of public scholarship on global Black thought, history, and culture.
- Critical Terms for Literary StudyEach essay in this collection provides a concise history of a literary term, critically explores the issues and questions the term raises, and then puts theory into practice by showing the reading strategies the term permits.
- A Dictionary of Critical TheoryThis is the most wide-ranging and up-to-date dictionary of critical theory available, covering the whole range of critical theory, including the Frankfurt school, cultural materialism, gender studies, literary theory, hermeneutics, historical materialism, and sociopolitical critical theory. Entries clearly explain even the most complex of theoretical discourses, such as Marxism, psychoanalysis, structuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism.
- Gale Literature CriticismExplore the most extensive compilation of literary commentary available. Includes analysis from book excerpts, periodicals, and more.
- Gale Literature Resource CenterFind up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras.
- The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and CriticismThe Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements. It includes alphabetically arranged entries and subentries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods. In print in the library's reference collection (PN81.Z99 J64 1994)
- Oxford BibliographiesPeer-reviewed, annotated bibliographies. Follow to more excellent sources on a variety of disciplinary areas.
- Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and PoeticsThe Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics is a comprehensive reference work dealing with all aspects of its subject: history, types, movements, prosody, and critical terminology.