Research Guides (LibGuides): Education & Teacher Research: Reference

What are Reference Materials?

What are reference materials???

Reference materials are books and online sources that help you to verify basic information about a topic. These include things like dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, guides, atlases, and manuals.

Remember World Book from your school library? That's a great example of a reference material!

Reference Sources

Reference materials, in print, are available in the Education Resource Library Reference Collection and at Irwin Library.

Online reference sources are listed below:

Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Primarily a collection of encyclopedias on specific subjects, but other reference works are also included.
Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Online version of Encyclopaedia Britannica - includes video clips, quotations, some classic literature, news, etc.
Oxford Reference Online (ORO) This link opens in a new window
The Premium Collection offers a huge range of fully-indexed, extensively linked, up to date, and cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions series.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new window
"The definitive record of the English language."