Library Guides: E-Books at Iowa State University: Encyclopedias & Reference E-books

Encyclopedias & Reference E-books

A variety of handbooks, encyclopedias, and dictionaries are available in the following packages:

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
This e-book collection contains numerous encyclopedias and handbooks for the following areas: Arts, Biography, Business, Education, Environment, General Reference, History, Information and Publishing, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation and World, Religion, Science, Social Science, & Technology.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
This e-book collection contains 224 titles covering all subject areas. There are specialized dictionaries/handbooks for Art, Biology, Literature, Performing Arts, Religion, Science, and more.

Encyclopædia Britannica - Academic Edition This link opens in a new window
The full-text version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with special features such as guides to subjects, time lines, and a country comparison feature.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Not a standard dictionary, the OED includes etymologies of over 600,000 words, providing more than 3.5 million quotations to illustrate context and usage. Current definitions are included, but the emphasis is on word history.

Additional online encyclopedias are listed by discipline on the library guide Online Encyclopedias, maintained by Library Instruction Services.