Online Encyclopedias, Biographies, and Other Reference Tools
Encyclopedias are a good place to start if you need an overview of a topic you are unfamiliar with. They will often include a bibliography of sources that you can consult for more information.
- American National Biography Online This link opens in a new window
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Biographies of more than 19,000 men and women who have influenced American history.
- The Borderlands: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Politics on the U.S.-Mexico DivideA collection of resources related to the border area between the United States and Mexico. From the University of Texas. El Paso.
- Gale E-Books (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
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GVRL provides access to encyclopedias, dictionaries, and specialized reference sources. Scroll down and select the appropriate subject area. A sampling of their titles includes:- Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, 2nd ed.
- Encyclopedia of Bilingual Education, 2nd ed.
- Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice
- Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 12th ed.
- Encyclopedia of the Mexican American Civil Rights MovementInformation on the concepts, issues, plans, legislation, court decisions, events, organizations, and people involved in that long fight.
- International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
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See articles on Anthropology and/or Archaeology.
- Marquis Who's Who on the Web This link opens in a new window
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Marquis Who Who on the Web provides biographies of over 1.4 million people of note, in the United States and around the world. It is the online counterpart of Marquis renowned biographical dictionaries. All biographies since 1985 are included.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
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An illustrated collection of 60,000 biographies of men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's history, up to the present.
- Reference Universe This link opens in a new window
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Provides access to over 15 million authoritative citations to 11,000 specialized print and electronic encyclopedias. Click on retrieved links to see where the book is in the UCLA Library (it may in print or online). - SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
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E-books and reference works in the social sciences. Includes scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more. Includes books published by both Sage and CQ Press. UCLA subscribes to only a small fraction of the books available, and not all content from Sage. - World Biographical Information System Online (WBIS) This link opens in a new window
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Contains biographical profiles of people from all centuries as well as all countries and regions worldwide. Compiles biographical articles from printed reference works published from the 16th to the 20th century, and reproduces these original documents as facsimile images on the screen.
Dictionaries
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
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Includes the complete text of the Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. plus quarterly updates of new and revised entries. Trace the origin and history of words and their meanings in this etymological dictionary.