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Reference Materials for Communication Studies

Find dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and other reference materials

  • Archives of sexuality & gender (Gale)
    The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history.
    Permitted Use | Purchased multi-user unlimited access
  • ARTstor
    Artstor is a repository of approximately 300 collections composed of over 2.5 million digital images (and growing), related data and provides tools to actively use those images in a restricted usage environment that balances the rights of the content providers and the needs of the users. The images are drawn from different sources, such as museums, archaeological teams, photo archives, slide collections, and art reference publishers.

    Scholars can examine wide-ranging material such as Native American art from the Smithsonian, treasures from the Louvre, and panoramic, 360-degree views of the Hagia Sophia in a single, easy-to-use resource. The artistic traditions across many cultures embraces architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture.

  • Dictionary of Media and Communication

    The Dictionary of Media and Communication is an authoritative and wide-ranging A-Z providing over 2,200 entries on terms used in media and communication, from concepts and theories to technical terms, across subject areas that include advertising, digital culture, journalism, new media, radio studies, and telecommunications. It also covers relevant terminology from related disciplines such as literary theory, semiotics, cultural studies, and philosophy. The entries are extensively cross-referenced, allowing the reader to link related concepts that span different discourses with ease. It is an indispensable guide for undergraduate students on degree courses in media or communication studies, and also for those taking related subjects such as film studies, visual culture, and cultural studies.

    With highly relevant web links to key essays, images, examples, and websites which complement the A-Z entries, as well as ‘Biographical Notes‘ with web links to key people, this is a valuable resource for media professionals, postgraduates, academics, and researchers and an eminently practical and user-friendly reference for anyone involved in the worlds of media and communication.

  • Dictionary of the Social Sciences
    "Oxford's unprecedented Dictionary of the Social Sciences is designed to break down the barriers between social science disciplines, as well as to make social scientific language comprehensible to general readers. Collecting anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, human geography, cultural studies, and Marxism in one volume, the Dictionary presents concise, clearly written definitions of more than 1,500 important terms. Entries are true definitions, not extended essays or summaries. Ranging from 50 to 500 words, they succinctly define terms within each specific discipline and acquaint readers with the intellectual issues at stake when the terms are used. The entries draw on classic and contemporary scholarship, and include basic terms, concepts, theories, schools of thought, methodologies, techniques, topics, issues, and controversies. In addition to terminology, the Dictionary includes nearly 275 biographies of major figures—from Franz Boas to John Maynard Keynes to Max Weber, whose work has had a profound impact on the various fields."
    Collection limited to subscribed 5-user access
  • International encyclopedia of communication online
    This title is part of the Wiley/Blackwell Reference Online e-book collection available through the Wiley Online Library.
  • Literature online : the home of literature and criticism
    Literature Online offers full text access to rare and inacessible works, up-to-date, reference resources, in addition to the full text of poetry, drama, and prose fiction from the seventh century to the present day. Materials are included from almost every period and genre of English literature as well as many works by 20th century authors. Contemporary criticism is available through the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).
  • Maclean's Magazine Archive (EBSCO)
    Maclean’s Magazine Archive, offering content from 1905-2015, a Canadian news and general interest magazine, provides a unique perspective on both national and international affairs. Topics include investigative reporting, opinion and analysis on politics, economy and business, science and technology, society, arts and culture, education and work. It was initially known as then The Busy Man’s Magazine from 1896-1911, with a couple of 1905 issues published as The Business Magazine, and then changed to the current title, Maclean’s, in 1911.

    Features:
    • Cover-to-cover processing presents each issue in its entirety as originally published
    • Articles and cover pages are fully indexed
    • Advertisements are fully searchable
    Subscribed multi-user unlimited access | 1905-2015
  • Oxford English dictionary (OED)
    "This unique and powerful resource offers unprecedented access to the definitive record of the meaning, history and evolution of more than 600,000 words over the last 1,500 years."A complete text of the 2nd. ed. of the Oxford English dictionary with quarterly updates, including revisions not available in any other form.
    Subscribed multi-user unlimited access
  • Oxford Reference
    Multi-part database of the online versions of Oxford University Press texts. Each topical division contains the searchable version of the latest edition of published dictionaries and encyclopedias. Additionally, information about Oxford University Press is provided. Online texts will be updated after new editions of the print monographs are published.Covers the humanities and social sciences.
    Collection limited to subscribed 5-user access
  • Ulrichsweb : global serials directory
    Bibliographic database providing detailed, comprehensive and authoritative information on serials published around the world.
  • Wiley/Blackwell Reference Online
    Wiley/Blackwell Reference Online "is a vast new online library giving instant access to the most authoritative and up-to-date scholarship across the humanities and social sciences. With more than 350 reference volumes to be published in Blackwell Reference Online by the end of 2008, it is the largest academic reference collection available online and includes the critically-acclaimed Blackwell Companions and Handbooks, major reference works such as the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management and the Companion to Syntax, and a whole host of other valuable reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias and concise companions."