Emerging Adulthood (Psychology)

Reference books, like encyclopedias and handbooks, provide background information about a topic.

Reference books can help you:

• Explore a topic: find out what has been said about this subject, trends, issues, etc.
• Identify and define unfamiliar terms or people in your reading
• Find references to other books and articles on the subject
• Find specific keywords to use in online searches

"The purpose of an encyclopedia is to summarize and codify knowledge in a given field. This is in contrast to a handbook, which offers essays on cutting-edge research in a field, or a dictionary, which provides short, to-the-point definitions of key concepts in a field."
Source: Sica, A. (2001). Encyclopedias, Handbooks, and Dictionaries. In N.J. Smelser & P.B. Baltes (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B0-08-043076-7/00039-5. As cited in American Library Association. (2011). ALA Guide to Sociology & Psychology Reference. Chicago: Author.

Reference Databases

Search across multiple subject specific encyclopedias and handbooks: