General Reference and Research

Internet Research Guides

Use this guide as a starting point for any of your research papers. Remember to write down or cut-and-paste the bibliographic information (e.g., title of work, author, publisher, date and place of publication and page numbers), for any resource you might use in your research paper. It’s always easier to throw away extra, unused bibliographic citations than it is to have to re-locate your resource an hour before the paper is due!

• Internet Public Library
  This website has been thoroughly screened by librarians of academic, public and specialty libraries. Please check posting and/or updating dates for each site to ensure that the information reflects current perspectives where appropriate. Take the time to explore the left-hand bar in which ready-reference, subject guides and reading guide links are all located!
  
  
• Library of Congress
  The National library holds 130 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves, acting as the research resource for the U.S. Congress. You can check the availability of a book at a nearby library to your location, as well as verifying the bibliographic information of any source within their holdings. The following are additional, helpful resources that you might wish to consider using:
  
  
  • Ask a Librarian
    Check with the subject that you are interested in for the hours a librarian would be available to answer questions;
    
    
  • Library Catalogs
    Explore the different search options and then choose from Basic Search, Advanced Search or “Other Online Catalogs” searches.
    
    
• WorldCat
  Find a book, journal, audio/video recording and more at local libraries worldwide with one catalog – now a free online resource!
  
  
• World Fact Book
  Electronically published by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), this website has substantial information about every global country, including statistics regarding such social issues as human trafficking and updated boundary changes.
  
  
  

Print Resources on General Reference and Research at the Daniel T. Banks Library

• From Idea to Essay 10th Edition
  Author: McCuen, Jo Ray and Anthony C. Winkler
  Call Number: PE1408 .M394 2004
  Publisher: New York : Longman, c2004.

• Communicate!
  Author: Rudolph F. Verderber, Kathleen S. Verderber.
  Call Number: P90 .V43 2002
  Publisher:    Australia ; Belmont, Calif. : Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, c2002.

• Roget’s International Thesaurus 6th Edition
  Kipfer, B.A. (Ed.)
  Call Number: PE1591 .R73 2001
  Publisher: New York : HarperResource, c2001.

• An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama
  Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, William E. Cain (Eds.)
  Call Number: PN6014 .I498 2004
  Publisher: New York : Pearson Longman, c2004.

• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 11th Edition
  Call Number: PE1628 .M36 2003
  Publisher: Springfield, Mass. : Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003

• Statistics For People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics
  Author: Salkind, Neil J. 
  Call Number: HA29.S2365 2004
  Publisher: Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

• A Writer's Reference 5th Edition
  Author: Hacker, Diana
  Call Number: PE1408 .H2778 2003b
  Publisher: Boston : Bedford/St. Martin’s, c2003.