Authoritative Information in Bite-Size and Dinner Plate Servings

Looking for quick but authoritative background information on a host of subjects? Looking for an outline of current interpretations as well as an overview of past interpretations? Need responsible suggestions for further reading? Apart from databases, perhaps the most vibrant child of the reference book publishing industry today is the TOPICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. Britannica http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/eb.html can be very useful; but subject encyclopedias are in a league by themselves. They’re special. At their best, they parse and tightly define an already tightly defined intellectual universe, whether it is the Enlightenment, American colonial history, American cultural and intellectual history, or American social history. Not all of these sources are avaiabvle online, but for a list of what we have avaiable online, go to Encyclopedias by Subject http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/infotree/resourcesbysubjecEncyclopedias.asp. For some guidance on overview sources freely avaiable on the Web, go to Web Reference Sources http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/selected.html.

These sources are excellent aids for preparing for examinations and wonderful sources of ideas for papers. You could walk through the reference collection of a large research or academic library and bump into many of them – and many other things along the way. Or you might search an online catalog using the form, in keyword mode, encyclopedias.su. and women.su. or encyclopedias.su. and slavery.su. As you can see, it’s formulaic. Confused: Read the directions for keyword searching http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/help/ubwebcat.html! And, also, the distinction between topical/academic encyclopedias and dictionaries is not tightly drawn. A favorite of mine is the erudite Dictionary of the History of Ideas. In fact, students of the history of ideas will want to consult the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, and the new – and online – International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/IESBS.html.
Look at any of these sources across time, that is, in various editions, and you’ll see changing interpretations and fashions concisely presented. In fact, used this way, these sources can be used as primary sources for historical investigation.

Needless to say, the same topic may be treated in “myriad” sources. In fact, the referential publishing business has been so big that the number of these things is speaking modestly -- ENORMOUS. Now, however, you can search across thousands of them at one time using a dandy resource named Reference Universe http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/refuniverse.html. Another source that aggregates or gathers together overview information from a veriaty of publications is History Resoruce Center: U.S. http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/hrc.html.

Finally, be sure to take a look at The Reader's Guide to American History, avaibale only in hardcopy. Peter J. Parish, editor. London: Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997. Lockwood Library and Undergraduate-SCI/ENGR Reference Collections E178.R43 1997 What are the most important books on a topic? This highly useful volume answers this question by offering a brief essay on each topic created through summaries of selected books. It is an encyclopedia and a guide to reading and historical interpretation and is complemented by Reader's Guide to Women's Studies, edited by Eleanor B. Amico (Fitzroy Dearborn, 1998), Lockwood Library and Undergraduate-SCI/ENGR Reference Collections HQ1180.R43 1998.