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| TITLE | DESCRIPTION | A FEW EXAMPLES..... |
| DICTIONARIES AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS | Define
words, check spellings, syllabication, pronunciation, or grammatical usage.
They can be descriptive, with examples of how a word is commonly used, or
proscriptive, showing you how a word should be used. Dictionaries may be
abridged or unabridged. Specialized dictionaries include dual-language dictionaries, thesauri (singular "thesaurus"). Like dictionaries, encyclopedias can be generalized or specialized |
Oxford
English Dictionary
Grove Dictionary of Art Grove Dictionary of Music, and Musicians Encyclopedia Britannica International Encyclopedia Social & Behavioral Science Online encyclopedias list Online dictionaries list |
| MAPS, ATLASES, AND GAZETTEERS | Are geographical resources, used most commonly to answer locational questions. However, don't forget that there are many specialized resources that apply to the Social Sciences and its cross-disciplinary nature - especially thematic atlases. |
Online atlases list |
| BIBLIOGRAPHIES | In the broadest definition of the word, the term bibliography means a "list of books". However, the term bibliography has come to mean a reference tool that assists in providing information about a book or other work such as film or recordings, including author, publisher, and place of publication. One may choose to utilize a bibliography when attempting to locate relevant works about a particular topic, subject, or author. They can also be used as a verification tool for checking citation information. | Bibliographies
may be found in Griffin as separately published works. You may also find bibliographies of works on a topic at the end of books or articles on that same topic. |
| ALMANACS, YEARBOOKS, AND HANDBOOKS | Provide concise, factual information concerning both current and historical events, organizations, people, countries, governments and statistical trends. | Online handbooks list |
| DIRECTORIES | List people or organizations in a systematic way, often including addresses, telephone numbers, affiliations, and other details specific to organizations or associations (officers, income, etc.). | Online
directories list |
| STATISTICAL RESOURCES | The federal government is the most important statistics-gathering agency in the world. There are statistics available to you either from the WSU Libraries and the Internet on topics ranging from agriculture, crime, education, business, sociological studies, etc. | Bureau
of Transportation Statistics Statistical Abstract of the United States Congressional Record Federal Register Useful Government Document statistics CensStats |
Some of the definitions above are based on information from William A. Katz' 7th edition of Introduction to Reference Work, published by McGraw Hill (New York), in 1997.