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Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Handbooks - Quick Online Reference Resources

Penn State Users Only Penn State Users Only

Categories: Database of Dictionaries & Encyclopedias | English Language Dictionaries/Thesauri | Foreign Language Dictionaries/Translators
General Encyclopedias | Subject Dictionaries & Encyclopedias | Math, Science, & Technology Handbooks

<< Database of Dictionaries & Encyclopedias >>

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library Penn State Users Only
    A cross-searchable database of hundreds of full-text of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources in many different subject fields.
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  • Oxford Reference Online Penn State Users Only
    Brings together over 100 dictionary, encyclopedia, language, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press in a single cross-searchable resource.

    • << English Language Dictionaries/Thesauri >>

  • Merriam Webster Online
    Merriam-Webster provides a free online dictionary, thesaurus, audio pronunciations, Word of the Day, word games, and other English language resources.

  • Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Penn State Users Only
    OED Online contains the complete text of the Oxford English Dictionary’s twenty-volume second edition (1989) and three-volume Additions Series. Users can find a term when they know the meaning but have forgotten the word; find words that have come into English via a particular language; search for quotations from a specified year; and search for all quotations from a particular author or work. OED Online also offers 1,000 new and revised words each quarter, and users can compare revised entries with entries from the second edition to see how language has changed and how new scholarship has increased understanding of our linguistic and cultural heritage.

  • Acronym Finder
    With more than 500,000 entries, Acronym Finder is a comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms.

  • American Sign Language Browser
    Michigan State University's online American Sign Language (ASL) browser includes videos of thousands of ASL signs.

    • << Foreign Language Dictionaries/Translators >>

  • Foreign Language Dictionaries Online
    Links to online dictionaries; Listed by Language.
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  • Babelfish (AltaVista Translator)
    AltaVista Babel Fish Translation provides free computer-generated translations of short passages of text or entire Web sites for 19 pairs of languages.

  • FreeTranslation.com
    Provides free computer-generated translations of both text and web pages for 17 pairs of languages.

    • << General Encyclopedias Online >>

  • Columbia Encyclopedia
    Columbia Encyclopedia online contains nearly 51,000 entries with more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references. Includes links to other Bartleby.com Great Books Online (reference, literature, and nonfiction). Note the complete list of titles at: http://www.bartleby.com/reference/ ; http://www.bartleby.com/verse/ ; http://www.bartleby.com/fiction ; http://www.bartleby.com/nonfiction/

    • << Subject Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Handbooks >>

  • Gale Virtual Reference Library Penn State Users Only
    Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) contains searchable full-text of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources in many different subject fields.
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  • Oxford Reference Online Penn State Users Only
    Brings together over 100 dictionary, encyclopedia, language, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press in a single cross-searchable resource.

  • Grove's Art Online Penn State Users Only
    Grove Art Online provides web access to the entire text of The Dictionary of Art (1996) and The Oxford Companion to Western Art (2001). Covers all cultures from prehistory to the 1990s. Over 1,500 thumbnail art images and line drawings are displayed in the text of 45,000 articles. Contains links to searchable image databases and over 40,000 art images on museum and gallery web sites around the world. Updated continuously.

  • Grove Music Online Penn State Users Only
    Grove Music Online is a fully-searchable encyclopedia covering all aspects of the history of music, with articles about composers (including lists of works), performers, styles and genres, countries and cities, and instruments.

  • Encyclopedia of American Studies Penn State Users Only
    The Encyclopedia of American Studies provides interdisciplinary coverage of the American experience, from pre-colonial days to the present. Over 660 articles cover areas such as history, literature, art, photography, film, architecture, urban studies, ethnicity, race, gender, economics, politics, wars, consumer culture, and global America.

  • Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications Penn State Users Only
    The Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications (EIMC) seeks to provide "clear knowledge of the workings of the media and communications worldwide" and to outline possible futures. "Communications" is restricted to communications technology

  • International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences Penn State Users Only
    The International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences is the online equivalent of the 24 volume encyclopedia published in 2002. Content is organized around more than 30 primarily interdisciplinary topical areas of active research and significant promise (for example, memory, crime and violence, markets, modernization), combined with the categories: Overarching Topics,Disciplines, Intersecting fields, and Applications.

  • MIT Cognet: Reference Collection Penn State Users Only
    Click on LIBRARY, then REFERENCES to search the full-text of 7 major reference works from the MIT Press: The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, The Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, The Cognitive Neurosciences III, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, The Handbook of Multisensory Processes, The Visual Neurosciences, The MIT Encyclopedia of Communication Disorders.

  • Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
    Most of the articles in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are original contributions by specialized philosophers around the Internet. Others are temporary or "proto articles" adapted from public domain sources. Hosted and updated by faculty at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

    • << Math, Science, & Technology Handbooks >>

  • Access Science (McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Online) Penn State Users Only
    The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology delivers full-text high-quality encyclopedia articles in all areas of science.

  • ASM Handbooks Online Penn State Users Only
    This resource features extensive engineering and property data for materials of all types. It contains the fulltext of several ASM handbooks including the Metals Handbook and the Engineered Materials Handbook..

  • ENGnetBASE (engineering handbooks) Penn State Users Only
    A collection of over 100 handbooks covering all fields of engineering.

  • Knovel (engineering and science handbooks) Penn State Users Only
    Knovel contains over 800 engineering and science handbooks, and related databases. The system has interactive capabilities that provide analytical tools to analyze the data they contain and produce tables and graphs.

  • CHEMnetBASE (chemistry, physics, polymers) Penn State Users Only
    A collection of dictionaries and handbooks providing information on chemical compounds, polymers, and physics data.

  • IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology (Gold Book) Penn State Users Only
    International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry definitions of chemical terms. For more resources, visit the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library web site.

  • Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry Penn State Users Only
    The Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology is a major reference resource for chemistry, chemical engineering, and related disciplines. It contains substantial articles on topics in these areas and has extensive bibliographies that accompany the articles. For more resources, visit the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library web site.

  • STATRef (nursing, biomedical books) Penn State Users Only
    STATRef provides access to a number of full-text electronic nursing and biomedical reference books. Titles include: Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment-43rd Ed. (2004), Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses-8th Ed. (2003), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR™, 2000), Dictionary of Medical Acronyms & Abbreviations - 4th Ed. (2001), Diseases and Disorders: A Nursing Therapeutics Manual - 2nd Ed. (2002), Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacologic Basis of Therapeutics - 10th Ed. (2001), Griffith's 5-Minute Clinical Consult - 12th Ed. (2004), Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine 15th Edition (2001), Hurst's the Heart - 10th Ed. (2001), Merck Manual - 17th Ed. (1999) Centennial Edition, Mosby's Drug Consult™ - 13th Ed. (2003), Nurse's Pocket Guide: Diagnosis, Interventions, and Rationales - 8th Ed. (2002), Primary Care for Physician Assistants: Clin Prac Guidelines, 2nd Ed. (2001), Stedman's Medical Dictionary, 27th Ed. (2000), Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary - 19th Ed. (2001)

  • Merck Manuals (medical information)
    Five authoritative sources of medical information - free, fulltext, and searchable online. Merck Manuals included are: Merck Manual of Medical Information (2nd ed); Merck Manual of Diagnosis & Therapy; Merck Manual of Health & Aging; Merck Manual of Geriatrics; Merck Veterinary Manual (18th ed.).

  • Atlas of the Human Body (American Medical Association)
    Images, graphics, and information about various body systems, and health issues affecting each.

  • MathWorld
    "The web's most extensive mathematical resource." Developed and maintained by Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica. Coverage includes: Algebra, Applied Mathematics, Calculus and Analysis, Discrete Mathematics, Foundations of Mathematics, Geometry, History and Terminology, Number Theory, Probability and Statistics, Recreational Mathematics, Topology.