Central Oregon
Community College
LIBRARY 127
 

WEB REFERENCE SITES
 

Online Encyclopedias and Other Subscription Reference Sources

Now, you probably know this already, but not everything on the Web is factual, objective information. 

Myth-mongering, commercial fibs and down-right slander abound on the World Wide Web!  Snopes.com is a great site for checking rumors and urban mythology.  Browse for recent examples at http://www.snopes.com/.  When looking for FACTS on the web, you want to make sure to evaluate webpages very carefully--we'll be discussing this more towards the end of the term. 

  Generally, you want to start looking for facts using a SUBSCRIPTION online reference source.   What do we mean by "subscription"?  That means that your own wonderful COCC Barber Library regularly spends a bunch of money BUYING authoritative, online reference sources for you!  Because you are a student at COCC you get to use these neat sources for free!  These tools are authoritative--meaning that the folks that create them or write for them are AUTHORITIES in their field--the best of the best. 

For example,  the grandmother of all general encyclopedias--The Encyclopedia Britannica--is perhaps considered the most authoritative encyclopedia in either print or online version.  The COCC Library has BOUGHT it online for you online--so you can access it any old time.  

NOTE: even though the Britannica is a wonderful, fabulous encyclopedia, it is still what we call a "general" encyclopedia.  College professors often do NOT want you to list a general encyclopedia in your bibliographies or list of resources.  Use it to gain essential background information on a topic, but don't put it in your bibliographies.  For Lib 127, you can use it in labs, but not on your midterm or final. 

Many other of the print reference items that we discussed in this week's first reading are available on the web as well.  For example, the Oxford English Dictionary is offered for about $6000 per year.  Yes,  libraries pay every year to subscribe to most web reference items; the print versions of the same reference items usually involve just a one time price.  Small libraries such as ours tend to purchase the print version of reference works because of the lower costs involved--this is gradually changing as prices deflate and purchasing consortia are developed.    NEWS FLASH!  We have just bought the OED! 

You may be wondering--"wait a minute, libraries are paying to subscribe for web-based information?" 

Yes!  While students around the world are  'googling' for information, libraries pay to provide access to top-notch, authoritative, research based and peer reviewed knowledge for their library patrons.  Remember where we started with this lesson--the World Wide Web is rife with mis-information!  Lots of information on the web can be useful (look at the web links at the end of this lesson, for example), but the quality, consistent and research oriented web-based resources are often only going to be available by subscription.  Libraries pay for the subscriptions and you, the student or patron, get to use them for free!

OK, you ask, so where is this great stuff?

Go to the COCC Library Webpage.  Just look for the pull down menu that looks like this:

Quick Facts: Encyclopedias, Stats, etc.

The pull down menu will allow you to choose to look at online encyclopedias, statistics, etc.  In addition, you may locate most of our online reference items using our online catalog--and we'll be covering that in a few weeks.  Finally, most of these resources are also listed in our "all databases" list of databases--also available from the COCC Library website.

If you are accessing these resources from home, you MUST use the library webpage pull down menu that I just showed you!   You will be presented with a COCC webpage that asks for your last name and ID # (beginning with 82). 

So--here's some of our best and most wonderful subscription reference resources online.  Like any reference item, they provide background, contextual information on a topic. 

 If you are on campus you should be able to just click on the following links to get to the resource.  

 If you are off campus, you will need to access these resources from the COCC Library Webpage pull down menu described in the bright pink box above!

Encyclopedia Britannica.  This is worth another mention.  Use this when you don't even know the most basic facts about a topic--such as, when was the Roman Vatican created?

Opposing Viewpoints.  A great resource for controversial social issues! Get to it from the Library's Quick Facts menu.  It offers viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to websites. Go to this website when you are looking for a good topic for that research paper or Library 127 Final Resource List!

Oxford English Dictionary  We've just bought this!  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a main source to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. 


CQ Researcher
The CQ Researcher is a  a great source for in-depth, objective analysis of contemporary, controversial issues.  Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology.  Get to the CQ Researcher from the Library's Quick Facts menu.   If you need to define your topic--CQ Researcher is a great place to go for background information!

Oxford Reference Online
A collection of more than 100 reference works published by Oxford University Press including dictionaries and other subject references sources covering all disciplines. A list of all Oxford titles included is available here.   Get to this incredible collection by using the Library's Quick Facts menu and choosing encyclopedias.

Gale Reference Online
A collection of ten major reference books. Get to this incredible collection by using the Library's Quick Facts menu and choosing encyclopedias.

American Decades Primary Sources
Dictionary of American History
Encyclopedia of Bioethics
Encyclopedia of Education
Encyclopedia of Modern Asia
Encyclopedia of Religion
Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics
New Catholic Encyclopedia
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations

Literature Resource Center    This resource provides a brief history of the literary criticism of North American and English modern writers. Each article includes a brief biography of the writer, then commences with a series of contemporary excerpts from criticism of that author, from the time the author began publishing, to the current date.  Get to the Literature Resource Center by using the Library's Quick Facts menu and choosing "Biographies and Criticism"

Oxford American National Biography Online
An exploration of American history through the lives of the men and women who shaped the nation. Get to it by using the Library's Quick Facts menu.

CollegeSource Online
This database features over 23,000 college catalogs in complete cover to cover original page format including 2-year, 4-year, graduate, and professional schools. It also provides profiles, links to the colleges web sites, and maps for directions.  Get to it by using the Library's Quick Facts menu.


NOTE: If it were me doing research and not knowing a whole lot about my topic, I'd go to Encyclopedia Britannica first for the very basic facts (dates, spelling of terms, major names, etc.)  Then I'd go to both Oxford Reference Online and Gale Reference Online (each of these have search forms that search all their included reference works at once).  

If my topic pertained to current events or controversial social issues, I'd definitely check Opposing Viewpoints and CQ Researcher first, in order to define my topic and get more information on the basic points of controversy.

Of course, if my topic related to a figure in American history I'd go to Oxford American National Biography Online.  If my topic related to literature in any way I'd go to Literature Resource Center.

 

Wikipedia and other 'free web' resources

You've heard of it.  You've used it.  It is the Wikipedia-- a free online encyclopedia that uses the best of the collaborative and creative aspects of the World Wide Web.    Be careful with this--entries can be composed by anyone, hence may not be the final, most authoritative source of information.  Many instructors will not let you cite the Wikipedia in class related research.  Nevertheless, it may be a good place to initially explore a potential topic (knowing that you will follow up with research in more authoritative sources) and it is an interesting example of a web-based FREE information product.  Here's their official definition:

a multilingual Web-based free-content encyclopedia. It exists as a wiki, and thus is written collaboratively by volunteers, allowing most articles to be changed by anyone with access to a web browser and an Internet connection. Wikipedia has more than 3,700,000 articles in many languages, including more than 1,000,000 in the English-language version. Since its inception, Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity,[1] and has spawned several sister projects. Editors are required to uphold a policy of "neutral point of view" under which notable perspectives are summarized without an attempt to determine an objective truth...Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales has called it "an effort to create and distribute a multilingual free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."[2] However, there has been controversy over its reliability and accuracy. Common points of criticism are vandalism, inconsistency, uneven quality, unsubstantiated opinions, systemic bias, and preference of consensus or popularity to credentials.

NEWSFLASH!  Here's an article published in the London Times discussing the relative merits of Wikipedia and print sources.  Make sure you read all the responses...the author missed the essential information that most public libraries in England offer free access to the Encyclopedia Britannica online.   Here's the article link:

 Reference books? Give me Wikipedia [The Times]http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/magnus_linklater/article3193083.ece

Here is a link to more to another list of web-based general encyclopedias for you to browse if you're interested.  Some of these are those authoritative, subscription based items presented by bona fide publishers and others are collections of pretty authoritative web pages put together by librarians or other experts.  None of them are the kind of anonymous results  achieved with a "shot in the dark" Google search!

LibrarySpot's General Encyclopedias

Now, remember, we we talked about print reference works, we talked about general encyclopedias and topical encyclopedias.  General encyclopedias are your classic A-Z compilations of a little bit of information about almost every topic under the sun.  Topical encyclopedias focus on just one profession, field, or topic.  Don't depend on just online topical encyclopedias!  We have a burgeoning collection of print topical encyclopedias (many of which are discussed in the previous reading this week) too.  Again, not that I mean to be beating a dead horse or anything here, but you can often much more quickly track down a fact or some context or background on a topic by using a print reference source than wandering around on the web.

A few topical online encyclopedias available freely on the web (but published by reputable folks) are:

HowStuffWorks
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Find out how just about anything works!

NLM Medical Encyclopedia 
http://medlineplus.gov/
The National Library of Medicine's encyclopedia includes articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations.

Cambridge History of English and American Literature
http://www.bartleby.com/cambridge/
Considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing.

ArtCyclopedia
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/
Guide to great art on the 'net.

AltaVista Translation Service - This site translates words, phrases and web sites from/ to English to/from French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Portuguese.  A word of caution: the translations are not always perfect, especially those of longer texts or idiomatic phrases.

Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases - The Internet edition of Roget's Thesaurus.

WWWebster Dictionary - This easy to use Dictionary and Thesaurus is based on the print version of the well known Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  A handy feature allows you to use wildcard characters ("?" and "*") to help you search words that you are not sure how to spell.

Here's a few free but reasonably authoritative statistics web sites:

PollingReport.com - A bi-monthly "independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion." The Web site is updated after the release of new polls, which means almost daily.

Fast Facts - Although not comprehensive, this is a  useful list of resources for  finding fast facts similar to those included in an almanac or statistical abstract.  Besides the main Subject Guide, at the bottom of the page there is a list of comprehensive resources that may also be of value. 

Statistical Abstract of the United States: I mentioned this in the web-text on print reference items.  The online version of the Statistical Abstract is an abbreviated version of the print title.  It offers tables and charts summarizing the statistics gathered by the U.S. government. If it can be expressed in numbers and is important in the U.S., it will probably be there.    If you need detailed statistics, go to the
full, hardcopy edition at  Ref. HA 202 .U5 

Other interesting "reference" type information  (often refereed by libraries or librarians) on the web includes:

Academic Info
http://www.academicinfo.net

Bartleby.com
http://www.bartleby.com

Biography.com
http://www.biography.com

INFOMINE:Scholarly Internet Resource Collections
http://infomine.ucr.edu/

LibrarySpot.com
http://www.libraryspot.com/

RefDesk.com
http://www.refdesk.com/

Virtual Reference Shelf
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html

Virtual Free Sites
http://www.virtualfreesites.com/reference.encyclopedias.html

 

Other online reference sources are available via the Campus Library webpage:

http://campuslibrary.cocc.edu/Research+Tools/Online+Reference/default.aspx

Oh!  And one more note!  I mention Google a lot here...but I don't mean to be disparaging.  I like Google.  I think it is one of the best search engines around.  They are actually doing pretty neat things with and for libraries.  For quickly locating information I can trust  though, I often still go to the print (yes print!) reference collection!