Subject Encyclopedias
Subject Encyclopedias
To gain a good general overview of your topic, including a summary of current research, don’t ignore subject encyclopedias. Articles in these encyclopedias will summarize the major issues regarding your topic and often provide a selective bibliography of the most important books and articles that have been written about the topic. The library has print encyclopedias on hundreds of different subjects, such as:
- International Encyclopedia of Dance
- Encyclopedia of the Holocaust
- Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences
- St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
- Encyclopedia of Aesthetics
- Encyclopedia of Psychology
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
- The Grove Dictionary of Art
- American National Biography
- Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals
Most of these are in the reference area of the library (2nd Floor) and can be found:
- by consulting a reference librarian, or
- by searching in WebCat. Use a keyword search, combining a subject word, such as “dance,” or “holocaust” or “music” with the words “dictionaries” or “encyclopedias” or “handbooks.” (For best results, use WebCat in the Advanced Search mode, and limit your search to items in the Reference collection.)