Textbooks, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

It's difficult enough to find information on a topic you do understand, but it's even worse when your topic is still beyond your comprehension. The journal articles you find aren't usually helpful for background information because they're too specific. What do you do?

Your first step should be to look at any textbooks that are part of your course. Check to see if there's a section or chapter on your topic. If there's an index in the back of the book, that's a good place to look.

The next step should be to search TOPCAT for any subject-specific encyclopedias or dictionaries that we have available. Did you know there were such things? On our Reference shelves (or online) you'll find titles such as:

• Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East
• Encyclopedia of Adolescence
• Antarctica : an encyclopedia from Abbott ice shelf to zooplankton
• Encyclopedia of astronomy and astrophysics
• The Blackwell dictionary of political science [electronic resource]
• The Concise Oxford dictionary of sociology
• Encyclopedia of forensic science
• Encyclopedia of global environmental change
• International encyclopedia of business and management

These books are here to help you understand the basics of your topic, before you look for empirical evidence to support an argument in your paper.

How Do You Find Them?

Textbooks

Current textbooks aren't usually available in the library. Because they're required reading, students are expected to purchase them. The library's role is to provide supporting research materials, and its budget and space are allocated accordingly.

Occasionally there are exceptions and we do have textbooks. There may be a copy on Reserve because the bookstore ran out of copies, or there may be an older edition on the stacks.

Textbooks aren't easily identified using TOPCAT because there isn't a classification for textbooks. If you know the title you want, search for the title. Otherwise, look for general titles, such as "Introduction to..." or the subject alone - "Organic Chemistry". These textbooks are probably older versions or texts that were used in previous courses. If they're online, they may have come as part of a package. They'll still be useful for background reading, but they probably won't replace the required text for the course.

TOPCAT

Dictionaries and encyclopedias are supporting research materials, and we purchase many of these. Because everything in our library is listed in TOPCAT, you can search TOPCAT for them. Try a keyword search, using dictionar$ or encycloped$ as one of the keywords (the $ finds singular and plural forms of the words). Combine these keywords with your topic, and consider truncating your keywords for better results: sociolog$ will find sociology and sociological.

See some dictionary locations for our library.

Subject Guides

Our Subject Guides also list useful Reference Books, including dictionaries and encyclopedias. This is a great place to find lists of books that are easily accessible to you in our library. Get to them by scrolling down or clicking on the link to Reference Books at the top of each guide.

What Does "Reference" Mean?

Reference books are found on the main floor of the library and they can't be signed out. They are the kinds of books you use for quick reference to information, and you don't need to read through the whole book.

Don't be fooled into thinking a book is not scholarly because it's called a dictionary or encyclopedia. Some dictionaries only give very brief definitions of concepts, but some specialized dictionaries may provide pages of information on a topic, as well as a good bibliography of other sources of information. Many encyclopedias have sophisticated entries by prestigious subject specialists, suitable for University-level research.

There are other useful types of reference books, as well. They are shelved by call number so that subjects are generally found together, and once you find one book of interest, you'll probably see others nearby on the shelf that are also useful.

Why Doesn't Journal Literature Help?

When you search for articles on a topic, you're looking at the latest findings by subject specialists, usually on a very specific topic. These specialists don't write about the basics you're learning in undergraduate work, because it's general knowledge. Journals are publishing new information.

When your course instructor tells you to find articles for your research, that doesn't mean you can't use other materials as well. Often a good definition or description of your topic is a great way to start your paper, and a quote from a dictionary or encyclopedia shows that you took the extra step to ensure you know your topic well.

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Last Modified: July 5, 2011
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