Reference Works Online - Facts & Encyclopedias

To access Oakton Library databases from an off-campus computer, click on the database name and then use your Oakton username and password to login. Questions? Call 847.635.1644.

Background Notes

This U.S. Department of State website includes facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty.

Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability (10 Volumes): Table of Contents

• Volume 1: The Spirit of Sustainability 
• Volume 2: The Business of Sustainability
• Volume 3: The Law and Politics of Sustainability
• Volume 4: Natural Resources and Sustainability
• Volume 5: Ecosystem Management and Sustainability
• Volume 6: Measurements, Indicators, and Research Methods for Sustainability
• Volume 7: China and India: Assessing Sustainability
• Volume 8: The Americas and Oceania: Assessing Sustainability
• Volume 9: Afro-Eurasia: Assessing Sustainability
• Volume 10: The Future of Sustainability

Black Thought and Culture ASP

Black Thought and Culture contains 1,297 sources with 1,098 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Includes interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.

Citation guides:

Guides to citing reference works. APA, MLA 2009, Chicago Manual of Style

Consumer Edition Health Source EBSCO

Provides information on many health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. Health Source: Consumer Edition provides access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines.

CQ Almanac

Offers original narrative accounts of every major piece of legislation that lawmakers considered during a congressional session for each year over the past 60 with tables, graphs, and charts that help explain the issues. 

CQ Contemporary Middle East Historic Documents

120 primary source documents covering the period 1917 to 2007.

CQ Historic Documents

Each annual volume includes approximately 100 documents covering the most significant events of the years 1972 - 2008. These documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.

CQ Press Electronic Library - Making Democracy Work

Includes CQ Global Researcher, CQ Researcher Plus Archive, CQ Almanac, The Contemporary Middle East, The Encyclopedia of Political Science, Encyclopedia of Religion in America, Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History, Historic Documents Series, and Political Handbook of the World.

CQ Press Encyclopedia of Political Science

Offers a wide range of concepts and frameworks, both Western and non-Western, highlighting the intersections of politics with philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, religion, psychology, history, and economics.

CQ Press Encyclopedia of Religion in America

Covers the significant denominations and movements that have originated or flourished in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, from the beginning of European settlement to the present.

CQ Press Encyclopedia of US Political History

Trace themes over time or delve deeply into American political institutions, culture, and behavior during seven time periods that correspond to key eras in United States history.

CQ Press Political Handbook of the World

Provides country profiles that include key facts, government and political history, current issues, political parties and organizations, legislatures and cabinets, and communications as well as profiles of more than 38 non-UN intergovernmental organizations, such as OPEC, NATO, the WTO, regional banks, and the agencies and specialized bodies of the United Nations.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics Online, 93rd Edition, 2012-2013

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics 93rd Edition, 2012-2013 offers four ways to find the information that you need: Table of Contents Search, Text Search (keywords, sentence, or question), Chemical Structure Search, or Chemical Properties Search.

Credo Reference - All Subjects Search

Contains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles.

Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970

Sanborn® fire insurance maps are detailed property and land-use records covering more than 12,000 U.S.towns and cities.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Basic introduction to over 75,000 different topics, including encyclopedia articles, maps, news, definitions, and statistics. Includes a dictionary/thesaurus, (media (photographs and selected audio/video files), famous quotations, country profiles, selected websites and news articles.

Encyclopaedia Judaica GVRL

More than 21,000 entries on Jewish life, culture, history, and religion, written by Israeli, American and European subject specialists.

FactsonFile American History Online

Spans more than 500 years of political, military, social, and cultural history, highlighting the important people and events of the American experience. 

FactsonFile Ancient and Medieval History Online

Explores the pre-modern world with in-depth focus on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

FactsonFile Ferguson's Career Guidance Center

Provides detailed profiles of more than 3,300 jobs and 94 industries, invaluable advice on career skills, more than 55,000 resource entries.

FactsOnFile Health Reference Center

Provides clear and comprehensive information on conditions and diseases, health and wellness, mental health, and the human body.

FactsonFile Modern World History Online

Covers the people, places, and events in the broad expanse of history-from mid-15th century to the present.

FactsonFile Science Online

Presents a broad range of scientific disciplines through extensive definitions, essays, diagrams, biographies, and experiments.

FactsonFile World Geography & Culture

Provides country geography and physical features, government, people, and society facts at a glance and in-depth coverage through country entries, maps, flags, images, statistics, news articles, a gazetteer, and more.

FactsonFile Databases Portal

Links to the FactsonFile databases available at Oakton.

Funk & Wagnall's New World Encyclopedia EBSCO

Database contains over 25,000 records with full text and various images in many subject areas.

Gale Contemporary Authors

Includes biographical and critical details on approximately 116,000 modern novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists, and scriptwriters.

Gale Virtual Reference Library

eBook editions of Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Encyclopaedia Judaica, and International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - Literature Research 

eBook editions of Concise Major 21st Century Writers, Drama for Students, Novels for Students, Poetry for Students, and Short Stories for Students.

Grove Art Online Oxford

Includes Grove Art Online, Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics and Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.

Harper's Weekly

Online version of Harper's Weekly (1857-1912), the leading American illustrated magazine of its day, covering political, military, social, and cultural stories. May be browsed by date or literary genre; the full text is searchable by keywords.

Health Source - Consumer Edition EBSCO

Provides a comprehensive resource for consumer-oriented health content designed to support the information needs of patients, and to foster an overall understanding of health-related topics.

LearningExpress Library

300+ practice tests covering ACT, SAT, GED, civil service, military, and professional licensing, certification practice tests,and more. Includes complete answer explanations and study suggestions. Login with your Oakton Library username and password at an on-campus computer, then use that username and password for on-campus and off-campus access to your account at "My Center."

LexisNexis Academic

Provides full-text access to general, regional and international news, company news and financial information, legal information, and other topics such as biographical information.

Literary Reference Center Plus EBSCO

Literary Reference Center Plus contains the full text of articles/essays of literary criticism, author biographies, literary journals, author interviews, book reviews, classic and contemporary poems, classic and contemporary short stories, classic texts, and plot summaries, synopses and work overviews as well as ebook versions of the Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Beacham's Research Guide to Biography and Criticism, The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, The Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, and all of MagillOnLiterature Plus.

Novelist Plus EBSCO

Online readers' advisory tool that helps readers find new fiction and non-fiction titles based on books they've already read or topics in which they are interested. Readers can look for books about particular subjects, relationships, geographic areas, or periods of time. Book reviews are also available. 

Occupational Outlook Handbook

is a source of career information published by the U.S. Department of Labor

Oxford English Dictionary

A comprehensive dictionary of the English Language that stresses the historical origins of words.

Oxford African American Studies Center

Primary documents, web sites, and maps. Material is compiled by Oxford University Press from their many reference works, such as Africana, Encyclopedia of African American History, various Oxford Companions, and the forthcoming African American National Biography.

Oxford Islamic Studies

Includes the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, primary source documents, translations of the Qur'an,with links to an online version of A Concordance of the Qur'an by Hanna Kassis. Timelines covering major events in the Islamic world and images and maps are provided.

Sage Reference Collection

Provides full-text access to high quality reference works in many areas of the social sciences: anthropology, criminal justice, education, political science, psychology, public policy, and sociology.

Saskia Art Images Collection

Contains 30,000 digital images of paintings, sculpture and architecture, as well as archaeological sites.

Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) is maintained and kept up to date by experts in the field and all entries are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public. Fixed editions that are created on a quarterly basis and stored in the Archives can be cited.

United States - Historical Statistics

Data in the Historical Statistics of the United States relates to the social, behavioral, humanistic, and natural sciences including history, economics, government, finance, sociology, demography, education, law, natural resources, climate, religion, international migration, and trade. Includes over 37,000 data series and statistics from more than 1,000 sources.

United States - Statistical Abstract 2012

The Statistical Abstract of the United States summarizes statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States, and is designed to serve as a guide to other statistical publications and sources. In addition to national data, many tables present data for regions and individual states and a smaller number for metropolitan areas and cities.

WorldCat OCLC

Find books in libraries around the world through OCLC WorldCat (provided by the Illinois State Library). To request a WorldCat book, come to the circulation desk at either campus.

Women and Social Movements ASP

Includes books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies that document women's activism in American public