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Reference Shelf   Tags: background, reference, subject  

Find reference materials including online encyclopedias, general interest databases, background resources, and more!
Last Updated: Apr 11, 2011 URL: http://purchase.libguides.com/reference Print Guide RSS UpdatesShareThis

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Reference Room

Library Reference Collection

The Reference Collection is located on the First Floor to the right of the Reference/Information Desk as you come down the stairs

 

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This service is staffed by librarians from New York State, as well as other parts of the country. You will not necessarily be chatting with a librarian from Purchase College.

 

Overview Resources (Reference Materials)

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Use these general interest databases, e-books, online encyclopedias, and other reference resources to find background or overview information about your research topic.

  • Credo Reference
    Contains the full text of hundreds of reference books covering every major topic, including art, medicine, history, technology, social sciences, literature, music and geography; along with images, customizable data, visual concept maps of results, sound, maps, and more.
  • Oxford Reference Online  
      
    Collects language and subject dictionaries and other reference works. Topical coverage includes general reference, language, science, humanities, social sciences, business and professional.
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library
    A plethora of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multi-disciplinary research. Contains full text.
  • Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia
    Encyclopedic entries spanning all subject areas.
  • Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
    Covers social issues and current event topics. Presents the facts, as well as the arguments, of a topic's proponents and detractors. Includes viewpoint articles, contextual topic overviews, government and organizational statistics, biographies of social activists, court cases, profiles of government agencies and special interest groups, newspaper and magazines articles. Contains full text.
  • Oxford English Dictionary
    A complete online version of the OED's 20 volume Second Edition and 3 volume Additions Series. Provides a guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over 500,000 words and traces their usage through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.
 

Music Reference Resources

  • Oxford Music Online  
      
    Access Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music. Search funcationality includes subject and historical period filters tailored to suit the content of each work.
  • African American Music Reference
    Brings together reference texts, biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner notes, and discographies which chronicle the diverse history and culture of the African American experience through music. The database includes comprehensive coverage of blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and more.
  • The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
    Each of the 10 volumes contains an overview of the region, a survey of its musical heritage, traditions and themes; and a description of specific musical genres, practices, and performances. Articles include detailed photographs that show musicians, musical instrument, and the cultural context of dances, rituals, and ceremonies. Other images include drawings, maps, and musical examples for further study.
 

Art Reference Resources

  • Oxford Art Online  
      
    Access Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Includes more than 5,000 images from the texts, and from places such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Art Images for College Teaching (AICT), and the Artists Rights Society.
  • Dictionary of Art Historians
    From Duke University, this is a free online biographical dictionary of historic scholars, museum professionals and academic historians of Art. Intended as a beginning point to learning the background of major art historians of western art history.
  • Thames and Hudson Encyclopedia of the Italian Renaissance
    Ebook/online encyclopedia about art during the Italian Renaissance.
  • Encyclopedia of American Folk Art
    Includes 600 articles with bibliographies concerning American folk art. Written by 92 specialists in association with the American Folk Art Museum.
 

Resources

  • Library Hours
    Displays hours for the library during the regular semesters, breaks and holidays.
  • Catalog
    Find books, films, sound recordings, scores, and more.
  • Databases
    Search for articles, e-books, background information, images and more.
  • eJournals and eBooks
    Find full text ejournals, ebooks, newspapers, magazines.
  • Interlibrary Loan
    Request an item our library does not own.
  • Moodle
    Campus Learning Management System
  • RefWorks
    Citation management system.
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