Reference Databases by Subject

General/Interdisciplinary

• Britannica Academic (a general encyclopedia aimed at college students)
• Britannica Library (a general encyclopedia intended for public library users)
• Credo Reference (articles from almost 900 reference works, such as subject-specific encyclopedias)
• Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia (a general encyclopedia)
• Gale eBooks (a small set of reference resources on various subjects)
• Infoplease (an almanac)
• Oxford Reference (almost 900 reference resources, such as subject-specific encyclopedias, in all subjects)

Biographies

• Biography in Context (information about notable people, both contemporary and historical, from a wide range of sources, such as biographical dictionaries, magazines, newspapers, and academic journals)
• Biography Reference Bank (information about notable people from periodical articles and biographical dictionaries)
• Current Biography Illustrated (focuses on information about celebrities)

Business

• Company Profiles (over 10,000 MarketLine profiles of the world’s most important companies)
• EDGAR: SEC Company Filings (financial information about public U.S. companies)

Education

• LearningExpress Library (guides to professional certification exams such as Praxis as well as graduate school entrance exams such as the GRE, MCAT, LSAT)
• StudySC (supports South Carolina-specific curriculum standards) Reference Sources for K-12 Students

• Britannica Escolar (Spanish-language encyclopedia for children)
• Britannica Fundamentals (encyclopedia for pre-K – 2nd grade)
• Britannica Moderna (Spanish-language general encyclopedia for secondary students)
• Britannica School (encyclopedia for elementary, middle, and high schools)
• NoveList K-8 Plus (recommends children’s and young adult novels based on user-selected criteria)
• World Almanac for Kids: Elementary (basic information on a multitude of topics; for students in grades 2-5)
• World Almanac for Kids: Intermediate (basic information on a multitude of topics; for students in grades 6-9)

Hispanic Studies

• Britannica Escolar (Spanish-language encyclopedia for children)
• Britannica Moderna (Spanish-language general encyclopedia for secondary students)

History

• African-American History – a multimedia database made up of articles from reference works and newswires, as well as primary sources, images, and videos.
• History Reference Center (a multimedia resource that includes reference sources, academic journals, primary historical documents, and videos)

Literature

• Bloom’s Literature (information on literature primarily from high school textbooks and academic books)
• Gale Literary Sources (a database covering mostly (but not exclusively) English-language literature and comprising all sorts of resources, including reference works, academic journals, book reviewing magazines, and even full-length monographs)
• Literary Reference Center (an eclectic database comprising literary criticism, author biographies, plot summaries, and even complete classic works of literature)
• NoveList Plus (recommends novels based on user-selected criteria)
• Oxford English Dictionary (traces the historical development of English-language words)
• Poetry for Students (analyses of the themes, images, and structures of well-known poems)
• Short Stories for Students (analyses of the plots, themes, characters, and cultural/historical contributions of well-known short stories)
• Writer’s Reference Center

Music

• Musical Theater Songs
• Naxos Music Library
• Oxford Music Online

Politics

• Congress.Gov (formerly known as THOMAS: Legislative Information from the Library of Congress)
• USA.gov: The U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal
• World FactBook (brief information on all countries)

Science

• Science Reference Center (science encyclopedias, reference books, and periodicals)
• Science.gov (scientific information generated by federal government agencies such as the EPA, the National Library of Medicine, and NASA)

South Carolina

• SCIWAY (web sites providing information on South Carolina)