Reference materials, such as encyclopedias, handbooks, and dictionaries, are useful for finding background information, statistics, theories, and more. Check out some of the resources highlighted on this page.
Use these reference databases to search for literary criticism, authors, theories, and more. Start with these best bets!
Content: Includes access to Gale Literature Resource Center (literary commentary), Gale Literature Criticism (biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers), and Gale Literature: Something About the Author (lives/works of children and young adult authors and illustrators).
Purpose: This interface brings together Gale's premier literary databases in a new digital environment that allows researchers, faculty and students to search across these resources to discover and analyze content in entirely new ways.
Special Features: Browse by topic, search for an author, search for a specific work, see your search history, and much more!
Here are a few more reference databases with specialized information. Depending on your topic, these may be worth checking out!
Content: A collection of reference e-books published by Oxford University Press
Purpose: A collection of reference e-books
Content: A reference database useful for accessing scholarly definitions, background and contextual information. Subjects covered include art, biography, business, economics, education, history, literature, music, psychology, religion, and science and technology.
Purpose: An excellent starting point for brainstorming a research topic and building out your initial search terms list.
Special Features: Mindmap; related articles; image search