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Encyclopedias: Online Reference

Encyclopedia Databases (MU Only)

Please note that these resources are only available to Miami affiliates & will require logging in with a Miami username/password to gain access off-campus.
Associations Unlimited [?]

Contains information for approximately 460,000 international and U.S. national, regional, state, and local nonprofit membership organizations in all fields, including IRS data on U.S. 501(c) nonprofit organizations.

Biography in Context (Formerly Biography Resource Center) [?]

A full-text database of biographical information on people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. It combines biographies from multiple Gale reference publications, such as Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Dictionary of American Biography, and Directory of American Scholars, with articles from more than 300 magazines, such as American History, The Christian Century, and U.S. News & World Report.

Biography Reference Bank [?]

Biographical information on over half a million people from around the world, with articles from such biographical reference books as Current Biography and the World Author Series, as well as magazine citations from Biography Index Database after 1984. Some third party publications are included, such as a subset of the biographies from Oxford's American National Biography.

Columbia Gazetteer if the World [?]

The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online contains over 170,000 articles or entries on all types of places throughout the world; both physical places and political entities. Most articles have details on where the place is located, its dimensions and borders, and information on economic activities, demographics, history, and former or alternate names and different spellings and pronunciations.

CQ Press Political Reference Suite [?]

Includes resouces on political theories & concepts, legislative histories, & more.

Gale Virtual Reference Library [?]

Collection of over 100 reference e-books on many subjects which can be accessed individually or searched together as a single source.

International Studies Encyclopedia [?]

Peer-reviewed essays written and edited by an international team of the world's leading scholars and teachers. Covers topics such as international relations, feminist theory and gender studies, foreign policy, human rights, international communication and law, peace studies, and so much more.

OhioLINK Electronic Book Center, Reference E-Books [?]

This collection includes many specialized encyclopedias, primarily in the humanities and social sciences, most published by ABC-CLIO, but an increasing number by others, such as Gale, Sage, Macmillan, and Scribner.

Oxford Reference Online [?]

Offers over 175 subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

World Book Advanced [?]

Articles from the World Book Encyclopedia, an atlas and a dictionary, articles from earlier encyclopedia editions, magazine articles from EBSCO, animations, videos, sound clips, and Web links.

Online Reference LibGuide [?]

Provides links to Miami reference materials available online.

Online Encylopedias (Public)

Encyclopedia of Life [?]

Synthesizes biodiversity knowledge about all known species, including their taxonomy, geographic distribution, collections, genetics, evolutionary history, morphology, behavior, ecological relationships, and importance for human well being, and distributes this information through the Internet.

Info Please [?]

Searches almanacs, the Columbia encyclopedia, an atlas, and a dictionary to find information on disasters, over 30,000 biographies, and more.

Legal View Encyclopedia [?]

Contains 128 articles on legal issues and law that can be browsed by topic.

Old Farmer's Almanac [?]

Learn about the movement of the planets, moon, and stars, in addition to finding information about the weather & gardening.

Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy [?]

Peer-reviewed encyclopedia entries on broad range of philosophy topics.

Wikipedia [?]

User created site in encyclopedic format.