e-Reference Shelf

Search for relevant dictionaries and encyclopedias (print and electronic) on your topic.

For more encyclopedias, go to subject pages.

 Theology/Religion:

• Encyclopedia of Religion.
• New Catholic Encyclopedia.
• Encyclopedia Judaica.
• Encyclopedia of Islam.

Literature:

• Literature Resource Center.
• MagillOnLiterature.
• Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism.

Science:

• Access Science.
• CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics

History:

• Cambridge Histories Online.
• International Encyclopaedia for the Middle Ages.

Social Sciences:

• International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
• Human Relations Area Files -  World Cultures.

Arts:

• Oxford Music Online.
• Oxford Art Online.

These sources will provide full text entries online:

• Encyclopedia Britannica Online
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
• Blackwell Reference Online
• Sage Reference Online
• CQ Researcher

These search tools can help you locate encyclopedias in both print and online formats:

• Reference Universe
• Hesburgh Library Reference Collection

• Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged
• Oxford English Dictionary (OED) the most comprehensive dictionary of the English language.  It includes extensive etymologies, definitions, pronunciations, quotations, date charts, and more.
• Oxford Reference Online English dictionaries and thesauri.
• Merriam-Webster includes audio pronunciations

French-English/English-French:

• Oxford Language Dictionaries Online Audio pronunciations are included.
• Oxford Reference Online

German-English/English German:

• Oxford Language Dictionaries Online with Audio pronunciations
• Oxford Reference Online
• Leo  with audio pronunciations.

Irish-English/English-Irish:

• Oxford Reference Online
• Irish Dictionary Online  

Italian-English/English-Italian:

• Oxford Reference Online

Latin-English/English-Latin:

• Oxford Reference Online
• Database of Latin Dictionaries Click "Enter databases," then select "Database of Latin Dictionaries".

Spanish-English/English-Spanish:

• Oxford Language Dictionaries Online includes audio pronunciations
• Oxford Reference Online

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• Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English
• Roget's II : The New Thesaurus
• MSN Thesaurus

• • AllWords.com includes English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
  • Babel Fish Translator  
  • Lexicool.com

Abbreviations:

• Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations dictionary
• Acronym Finder
• The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations Click "English Language Reference" for access.

• Bartleby
• Yahoo's Quotations Index
  

Grammar:

• Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar Click "English Language Reference" for access.
• Elements of Style The William Strunk classic.

• Biographical Dictionary.  
• Biography and Genealogy Master Index.  
• Biography in Context. .
• Biography.com. Over 25,000 entries from historical and popular culture.
• Who's Who on the Web   
• World Who's Who.

Theology/Religion

• Acta Sanctorum Database. Collection of texts on the lives of the saints from the beginning of the Christian era to the end of the sixteenth century.
• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. . Biographies of the 20th century cardinals and of the events and documents concerning the origin of the Roman cardinalate ... [more] and its historic evolution.

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Sciences

• Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists.
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography. This reference source contains biographies of mathematicians and natural scientists from all countries and from all historical periods.

Arts & Humanities   

• Literature Resource Center. Provides biographical, bibliographical, and critical content on literary figures from all time periods. 
• Oxford Art Online.
• Oxford Music Online -

Political Science

• International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's Who. . Includes information on countries, territories and federal states; significant international and national organizations; and biographical ... [more] profiles of significant people.

• American National Biography. . A standard biographical resource for more than 17,000 notable people in American history. 
• Contemporary Hispanic Biography. . Biographies of Latinos and Latinas in the international Hispanic community.
• Dictionary of Irish Biography. Online searchable database corresponding to the Royal Irish Academy/Cambridge University Press's print DIB.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. . The classic, authoritative biographical source for British history.

• Ancestry Library Edition  Searchable genealogical information on billions of names across thousands of census and related collections. 
• Biography and genealogy master index.   Indexes hundreds of biographical sources covering individuals, living and dead, from every field of activity worldwide.
• BlackPast.org. . Provides reference materials on six centuries of African American history. Includes an online encyclopedia of hundreds of famous and lesser known figures in African America. 
  lesser known figures in African America, full text primary documents and major speeches of black activists and leaders from the 18th century to the present. Links to hundreds of websites covering the history of African Americans, including major black museums and archival research centers in the U.S. and Canada. [less]
• Counties in time.   Provides a sample of records held in the National Archives of Ireland for each of Ireland's 32 counties covering the period from late 16th century to mid-20th century.
  Ellis Island. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF) web site for searching immigration records from Ellis Island’s archives.
• Family Search. .  An important source for genealogy research maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
• Genealogy Home Page. An all-in-one resource for genealogy topics.
• Geneaology.com. Online resource for genealogy searches.
• Legacy.com (Obituaries).   Current obituaries from over 1000 newspapers.
• World vital records.  Provides genealogy databases and family history networking tools. Includes U.S. content, plus international data like the United Kingdom ... [more] censuses, birth, marriage, and death records, Genealogical Publishing Company, Archive CD Books Australia, the International Newspaper Collection, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, and more. 

Used for: Literature, Liberal Arts, Humanities

Library Copy: Hesburgh Library Reference Desk LB 2369 .G53 2009.  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Printed 7th ed., 2009. (other copies)

Quick Guides:

• MLA 7 Quick Style Guide
• MLA 7 Citing Online Sources
• MLA Footnotes - Citing within your paper

RefWorks.

Free basic online citation managers, with limited functionality:

• ND Academic Code of Honor
• Notre Dame Dissertations and Theses Resources
• How to Cite Electronic Sources
• Harvard Business School Citation Guide (.pdf)
• Avoiding plagiarism

Other suggested sites? Contact us

Used for: Sciences, Social Sciences.

Library copy: Hesburgh Library Reference Desk BF 76.7 .P83 2010 Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Printed 6th ed., 2010 (other copies)

Quick guides:

• APA 6 Style Guide
• APA in text citations - Citing within your paper

BibTeX is an open source tool and file format that works in conjunction with LaTeX documents (used in math and science). BibTeX was created for use with LateX software, but now compatabile with other software.  Widely used in math, science and engineering.  More help can be found at the Ames Library RefWorks and BibTeX Libguide or the MIT Libguide EndNote with LaTeX and BibTex.

There are also a number of plugins and tools available on the BibTeX Links webpage including BibDesk for Mac.

Used for: Arts, History, Literature, Sciences

Electronic Access: Chicago Manual of Style

Library copy: Hesburgh Library Reference Desk Z 253. U69 2010. Chicago Manual of Style. Printed 16th ed., 2010 (other copies)

Quick guides:

• Chicago Manual of Style Citation Guide
• Chicago Footnotes - Citing within your paper

Used for: Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences.

Library Copy: Hesburgh Library Reference Desk LB 2369 .T8 1996 Turabian, Kate. A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations. Printed 6th ed., 1996 (other copies)

Quick Guides:

• Turabian 6 Quick Guide
• Turabian 6 Footnotes - Citing within your paper 

Used for:  Sociology

Library Copy:  Not available at this time.

Quick Guides:

• Quick Style Guide. American Sociological Association. 2007. American Sociological Association Style Guide. 3rd ed. Washington, DC

Used for:  Anthropology

Library copy: Not available at this time

Quick Guides:
AAA Style Guide American Anthropological Association, 2009

Used for: Chemistry

Library Copy: Chem/Physics [231 Nieuwland] General Collection 
QD 8.5 .A25 2006  The ACS Style Guide. Printed 3rd. ed., 2006 (other copies)

Quick guides:

• ACS 3 Quick Guide
• ACS 3 Footnotes - Citing within your paper

• • Investigating Possible Plagiarism

    In the Fall of 2002, the University joined Turnitin.com to provide assistance to faculty checking possible plagiarism from the internet. However, due to the very limited ways in which Turnitin has been used over the past seven years, the University has decided to drop its institutional subscription and to provide individual licenses on an as-needed basis. Faculty members can get these individual subscriptions of Turnitin.com at the university’s expense.

    Other highly effective alternative means of detecting plagiarism include Google (simply run a search on suspect passages) and WCopyfind, a freeware program available for download at the following site: http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/Wsoftware.html

    For assistance purchasing an individual license to Turnitin.com, please contact Jeanne Bowen, Officer Assistant in the Provost’s Office.

    Office (jbowen1@nd.edu; 631–5716).

Used for: Natural sciences, including Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics

Library copy: Hesburgh Library Reference Collection T 11 .S386 2006 Scientific style and format. Printed 7th ed., 2006

Quick guides:

• CSE 7 Citation Guide
• CSE 7 In-Text by Name-Year – Citing within your paper

• Book Review Digest  
• New York Times Book Review Books since 1996
• London Review of Books 
• Books in Print
• Choice Reviews Online  
• H-Net Reviews
• MagillOnLiterature Reviews of literature titles.
  
  
• Education Review Education.
• EH.net Economics, history, and related fields.
• Medieval Review Medieval Studies.

• Academic Search Premier  
• America, History and Life
• Expanded Academic ASAP
• International Index to Performing Arts
• LexisNexis Academic
• MathSciNet
• PsycINFO
• Web of Science

Film reviews and film criticism resources available at Notre Dame Visit this guide for a comprehensive list of resources for location film reviews and film criticism.

Federal Tax Forms and Publications

• Online Forms: Select and download multiple Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Forms and Publications. 
• Paper Forms: IRS Paper forms and publications are no longer available in the Hesburgh Libraries. All tax forms are available from the IRS office in South Bend, Indiana located at 100 E. Wayne Street. This office is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They can be contacted by phone at (574) 236-8149.
• Forms by Phone: Forms and publications are also available by phone: 1-800-TAX-FORM.
• Electronic Filing: The IRS e-file program offers quick, easy, and accurate alternatives to paper returns.

Indiana Tax Forms and Publications

• Online Forms: Select and download Indiana Department of Revenue muliple forms and publications.
• Paper Forms: Paper forms are no longer available at the Hesburgh Libraries.
• Email: Forms and publications can by requested by sending an email to the Indiana Department of Revenue at pfrequest@dor.state.in.us.
• Fax: The Tax Fax system allows taxpayers and preparers to dial a fax machine and request a publication or form by number. The Tax Fax number is 1-317-233-2329.
• Electronic Filing: Link to Indiana filing and payment methods.

Other State Tax Forms and Publications

• All state tax forms: http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/forms.html

Tax Assistance Programs

• The Vivian Harrington Gray Notre Dame-Saint Mary's Tax Assistance Program provides free preparation services (Federal and Indiana forms) to US resident tax payers whos income is $35,000 or less. (Locations, dates)
• University of Notre Dame international students, scholars, researchers, and faculty can register for free tax appointments, and can get additional tax information.
• Federal Taxes: Free online filing: Through a public-private partnership between the IRS and the tax software industry, eligible taxpayers are able to access free, online tax preparation and electronic filing services.
• Federal tax questions by phone: 1-800-829-1040.

• CalculateMe Conversions and calculations for temperature, weight, exchange rates, etc.
• ConvertIt.com Converts measurements, currency, time, etc.
•  FX History: Historical Currency Exchange Rate World wide historical currency exchange rates for over 35 years.
•  Homefair.com Compare salaries, cost of living, etc. for U. S. cities.
  
•  KnowledgeDoor Unit and base conversion as well as an extensive library of units and constants 
• Temperature Conversion Converts Celsius to Fahrenheit and the reverse 
• Universal Currency Converter Up to date currency conversion for most countries. 
• World Paper Money Historical paper currency from around the world.

• AltaVista Image Search  
• ARTstor Searchable database of more than 1,000,000 images applicable to different times, cultures, and disciplines. 
• Corbis Photographs for personal and professional use.
•  FreeFoto.com One of the largest collections of free photographs for non-commercial use on the Internet. 
• Getty Images Collections of photography and cinematography from around the world. 
• Google Image Search   
• NYPL Digital Gallery Images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the collections of The New York Public Library. 
•  Science Photo Library .
• Washington Post Photos Requires free registration.
• Wikimedia Commons: Images Media repository that is created and maintained by volunteers. 

• Alumni directory / University of Notre Dame    Coverage: 2001Official directory of Notre Dame graduates. 
• Business and company resource center Coverage: 1980- A wide variety of global business information, including company profiles, brand information, rankings, investment reports, and more.   
• Conduit 11850: Telephone Directory Inquiries Online search facility for telephone numbers in Ireland. 
• Directory of American firms operating in foreign countries    Directory information on American companies with substantial investment in overseas operations.
• Directory of Foreign firms operating in the United States Directory information on foreign companies with substantial investment in American operations.
• Dun & Bradstreet's Million dollar database  Provides information on U.S. public and private businesses (and their executives) with sales of at least one million dollars or 20+.
• 
   
• Foreign government resources on the Web A mega site covering all kinds of information related to foreign governments, NGOs and IGOs, worldwide.
• Foundations & Grantmakers Foundations and grantmakers by name.
• Medical Schools   
• Peterson's Grad Channel Graduate schools and programs by name, location, or program.
• Scholarly Societies Project World-wide scholarly societies by name or abbreviation.
  
• Serials directory. Popular serial publications.  
• Switchboard Search for individual and business phone numbers. Includes a reverse function.
• Thomas Register Companies and products manufactured in North America. Search by product name, company or brand name.
• U.S. Postal Service Zip Codes  
• White Pages Search for persons or businesses
• Yahoo Postal Information Zip codes

• ircom Phonebook Telephone directory for Republic of Ireland.

• Data and Statistics
• Government Documents
• Dissertations and Theses
• Maps and GIS
• Leisure Reading
• Newspapers
• Library Catalogs

• • National Atlas of the United States
    
    Designed to provide a reliable summary of national-scale geographical information.
    
  • A-Z Maps Online contains 4,000+ maps of continents, countries, and states as well as political, population, climate, and other thematic maps
  • Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970 includes more than 660,000 large-scale maps of more than 12,000 American towns and cities.
  • Geodata.gov
    
    U.S Maps & Dates, your one stop for federal state and local geographic data.
  • Google Earth
    
    Free high resolution mapping software with satellite imagery. Download required 
    
  • Barrington atlas of the Greek and Roman world map-by-map directory
    
    Provides information about every place or feature in the Barrington Atlas, including references to ancient testimony or modern studies. ... [more] Usage info: Licensed for one concurrent user. Access info: The directory, in PDF format, accompanies the Barrington atlas (located in the Reference Atlas section, call number G 1033 .B3 2000). [less]
  • GIS Atlas for Indiana
    
    Online atlas providing information on demographics, hydrology, elevation, geology, mining and much more for the state of Indiana.
  • Map collections, 1500-2004
    
    Library of Congress map collections. Part of the American Memory project.
  • Maps at Hesburgh Libraries provides information on maps at Hesburgh libraries and web resources for maps.
    
  • University of Colorado Boulder Map Library links to online resources
  • University of Michigan Map & Geography Library links to digital map collections and geographic information.
    

• American Indian Studies
• Creating Effective Library Assignments
• Datasets & Statistics
• Open Access
• Who's Citing Whom?
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