Social Science electronic resources: General Reference Works
Except where stated, titles listed here are only available within the Library - access from outside the Library is not available for licensing reasons.
If you do not find the resource you are looking for, see the Library's complete listing of electronic resources in the British Library London Reading Rooms.
Almanacs and Factbooks | Biographical Dictionaries | Collections
Dictionaries - Acronyms | Dictionaries - Language | Dictionaries - Subject
Directories | Encyclopaedias
Almanacs and Factbooks |
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| Title |
Brief description |
Format |
|---|---|---|
| CIA World Factbook | Presents basic facts and figures about nation states compiled by the US Central Intelligence Agency. This site is freely available on the Internet. |
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| Information Please | Online version of the popular almanac which you can browse by topic or search. Also includes the Random House Websters College Dictionary and the Columbia Encyclopedia. This site is freely available on the Internet. |
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| Keesing's Online | Digest of political, social and economic events for all countries of the world from 1931. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Statesman's Yearbook Online | This site contains the full text of the current edition of The Statesman's Yearbook, regularly updated to reflect recent world events, with search and browse facilities. It provides current political, social and economic information about all the nation states of the world. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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Biographical Dictionaries |
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| Title |
Brief description |
Format |
|---|---|---|
| Biography and Genealogy Master Index | Indexes biographical dictionaries and who's who, subject encyclopaedias, volumes of literary criticism, and indexes which refer the user to bodies of work published elsewhere. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BCE to the year 2000, with 10,000 portrait illustrations. Updated three times a year. The online Oxford DNB also includes the entire text of the first DNB. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Who's Who and Who Was Who | Online version of the most
recent edition of the British Who's Who
together with the complete Who Was Who
archive, which contains biographical information
for all the people, now deceased, included in
previous editions of Who's Who, which
was first published in 1849. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| World Biographical Information System | Formerly known as World Biographical Index, WBIS is an index to the Saur biographical archives. Microfiche editions of some of the archives containing the complete texts of the biographical descriptions are available from the Reference Enquiry Desk in the Humanities Reading Room. The digitised version of the British Biographical Archive (series 1 and 2) is accessible via WBIS Online. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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Collections |
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| Title |
Brief description |
Format |
|---|---|---|
| Credo Reference | Credo Reference is an online reference library that provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, music, religion, science and technology. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Internet Archive | The Internet Archive makes it possible to surf superseded web pages stored in its digital library. It allows you to enter a URL or click on a link to a specific collection to see what the web page looked like in the past. However it does not allow you to do searches from the stored pages. This site is freely available on the Internet. |
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| Oxford Reference Online | Collection of language and subject dictionaries. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Xreferplus | See Credo Reference | |
Dictionaries - Acronyms |
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| Title |
Brief description |
Format |
|---|---|---|
| Acronym Finder | This site is freely available on the Internet. | |
| Internet Acronym Server | This site is freely available on the Internet. | |
Dictionaries - Language |
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| Title |
Brief description |
Format |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge Dictionaries Online | Access to the full text of a collection of Cambridge University Press dictionaries for people learning English. Includes French-English and Spanish-English translating dictionaries. This site is freely available on the Internet. |
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| Credo Reference | Credo Reference is an online reference library that provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, music, religion, science and technology. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Dictionary.com | Online English language dictionary. This site is freely available on the Internet. |
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| Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary | Available on the Encyclopaedia Britannica site. This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. |
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| Oxford Reference Online | Includes a range of bilingual dictionaries (French-English, German-English, Spanish-English and Italian-English) | |
| Your Dictionary.com | Portal linking to English, foreign language and translating online dictionaries and thesauri. This site is freely available on the Internet. |
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Encyclopaedias |
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| Title |
Brief description |
Format |
|---|---|---|
| Encyclopaedia Britannica Online | This is a subscription based service and can only be accessed from the reading room. | |