LibGuides: Italian Language and Culture: Reference sources

Reference sources

Reference sources are a great place to begin your research, especially if you are exploring a new topic, or a subject area that you know very little about. These sources can help you to:

define your topic in general terms
find background information, including themes and key points
identify keywords and alternative terms for conceptualizing your subject, and for database searching
bring you up to date with academic conversations and trends taking place in your subject area.

Reference sources include dictionaries, encyclopaedias, thesauri, directories, bibliographies, handbooks, atlases, gazetteers, style manuals, and statistical materials.

Online Reference collections

Blackwell Reference online
The home of quality reference resources for students and scholars, featuring Wiley-Blackwell’s acclaimed companions, handbooks, dictionaries and guides from across the social sciences and humanities.
Cambridge Companions Online
Collections of specially commissioned essays taken from the renowned Cambridge Companions series of authoritative guides, written by leading experts in the field. CCO covers literature, philosophy, religion, classics, cultural studies, and music, ensuring a complete reference for all those working in the humanities.
Cambridge Histories Online
Historical reference compendium with instant access to the texts of the Cambridge Histories series. All the available volumes are grouped into topics such as British history, economic history, literary studies, music, philosophy, political and social theory, theatre studies and performing arts, and warfare.
Oxford Bibliographies Online
An entirely new and unique type of reference tool that has been specially created to meet a great need among today's students, scholars, and professionals. It offers more than other bibliography initiatives on- and offline by providing expert commentary to help students and scholars find, negotiate, and assess the large amount of information readily available to them. It facilitates research in a way that other guides cannot by providing direct links to online library catalogs and other online resources. Organizing the resource around discrete subject entries will allow for quick and easy navigation that users expect when working on screen.
Oxford Handbooks Online
Collections of review essays in various fields that evaluate current thinking on a topic, and make an original argument about the future direction of the debate.
Oxford Reference Online
Offers a huge range of fully-indexed, extensively linked, up to date, and cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
SAGE Reference Online
Contains SAGE authoritative and award-winning encyclopedias and handbooks offering comprehensive overviews of key sub disciplinary areas across the social sciences.