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Library & Information Technology: Background

Reference Sources

Reference books provide background information on a topic, such as definitions of terms, key figures and events, and well written overviews. They can be a useful starting point for any research project, because they fill in missing knowledge about the topic or provide you with the language of the discipline.

Featured Reference Books

Selected books from our Reference collection:

Oxford English Dictionary

"The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. "

Oxford Reference Online

Search selected dictionaries and encyclopedias from Oxford University Press:

Examples:

  • censorship
  • children's literature
  • classification
  • e-book
  • information technology
  • Internet
  • literacy
  • publishing

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Enter a search term in the box below to search selected dictionaries and encyclopedias from Gale:

Sage Knowledge

Search Sage Knowledge for indepth, authoritative background information on social sciences topics.
 

Sage Knowledge Searching Tips

Wiley Online Library

Formerly known as the Blackwell Reference Online, here you will be provided with authoritative, scholarly reference sources (dictionaries, handbooks and companions) in the social sciences and humanities.

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