Research Guides: Government: Prof. Deborah Brooks: Reference Sources

Oxford Reference Online

Oxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.

The Premium Collection offers over 175 fully-indexed, cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series.

Introduction

"Reference" sources are entres to research.
They provide definitions or introductory information of the sort found in dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks. They lead to published or unpublished scholarly writing, or to "primary source" material via library catalogs, article databases, and bibliographies.

Their purpose is to answwer factual questions and to help researchers identify and eventually obtain the information needed to investigate and learn about a topic.

* There are a few significant differences between the type of sources recommended here and Wikipedia, for example.
   • Subject dictionaries, handbooks, etc. acquired by the library are almost always written and edited by scholars in the field.
   • Authors are identified.
   • Entries, chapters, etc. are based on broad and deep knowledge of a subject, not on a single source.

Almanacs, Directories, Guides...

Almanac of American Politics (in print)

CQ Almanac

CQ Press Guide to Congress (in print)
7th edition, 2013

Guide to the Presidency and the Executive Branch (in print)
5th edition, 2013

Guide to U.S. Elections (in Print)
6th edition, 2010

Politics in America

Who's Who in American Politics

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of new media - Steve Jones
Electronic book

From ARPANET to the World Wide Web, the Encyclopedia of New Media presents entries that explain the key terms, concepts, trends, and buzzwords that become the everyday language of the Internet and global society. Edited by Steve Jones, one of the leading scholars in and founders of the new media field, the Encyclopedia explores the evolution and revolution in digital communications and human-computer interaction from an interdisciplinary, historical, social, and global perspective.

Encyclopedia of political communication / [editors] Lynda Lee Kaid, Christina Holtz-Bacha.
Los Angeles : Sage Publications, c2008.
2 v. : ill. ; 29 cm.
Baker Berry Ref. JA85 .E64 2008

Encyclopedia of media and politics / edited by Todd M. Schaefer, Thomas A. Birkland.
Washington, D.C. : CQ Press, c2007.
xxxvii, 344 p. : ill. ; 29 cm
Baker Berry P95.82.U6 E47 2007