Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Almanacs


English language dictionaries | Non-English language dictionaries

Subject dictionaries and encyclopaedias | Encyclopaedias | Abbreviations and acronyms | Names and pseudonyms

Dates and chronologies | Almanacs | Quotations | Symbols | Awards | Colour guides



xrefer   © xrefer 2000
A web reference search engine that has fully integrated a large and diverse collection of reference works. This  reference engine contains encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, books of quotations and a growing range of subject-specific titles.

English language dictionaries

Dictionaries are shelved at 423 and thesauri at 424 in the Reference collection.
Dictionaries of English slang and colloquialisms are at 427 in the Reference collection.

To find call numbers use the subject options in the catalogue under: name of language followed by dictionaries

e.g. "English language -- Dictionaries"
Oxford English dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. 20 vols.
Reference collection 423 O98.2 (consultation tables)
Electronic database (access available only in the Library)
 
Cambridge Dictionaries online (© Cambridge University Press)
Search  - International Dictionary of Idioms,  International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs, International Dictionary of English and a Dictionary of  American English.
Hypertext Webster Gateway

A search engine for accessing various dictionary services on the Internet (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913); From WordNet (r) 1.6 (wn); From U.S. Gazetteer (1990))

WWWebster Dictionary - Merriam-Webster
The World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition

 
Wordsmyth English Dictionary - Thesaurus (WEDT)    ©1999  Wordsmyth Collaboratory
An integrated English Dictionary and Thesaurus with definitions, pronunciations and examples - Exact Synonyms and Similars (near synonyms)

Roget's thesaurus 1911, Project ARTFL
Search the headwords or full text of Roget's Thesaurus version 1.02 (supplemented: July 1991) released to the public domain by MICRA, Inc. and the Gutenberg Project. Internal cross references are represented as clickable hyper-text links.
 

See Subject dictionaries and encyclopaedias for dictionaries on a particular subjects

Non-English language dictionaries

Language dictionaries are in the Reference and Main collections at the call number for the language concerned.

To find library call numbers use the subject option in the catalogue under name of language followed by dictionaries
            e.g. "french language dictionaries"

Translation dictionaries
The "Other Languages" and "English - ???" links provide several language dictionaries.

Translation Dictionaries: Information Resources Department of Fermilab
Keyword search for French, German, Japanese, Rusian and Spanish from English and back to English. The link to other languages "Logos" is unreliable.

travlang's Translating Dictionaries  © 1995-1999 travlang
A huge range of translation dictionaries for many languages including some English.

A Web of On-Line Dictionaries, compiler and site manager, Robert Beard.
Scroll down to see a very comprehensive list of language dictionaries and down further to a link to "Multilingual Dictionaries".
 


Abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms dictionaries call number  423.1

 
Acronym and abbreviations
List of acronyms and abbreviations in the Network Acronym and Abbreviation Server. This is a list of (mostly) acronyms (abbreviations constructed from the first letters [or first few letters] of the words of a phrase), not a dictionary or encyclopædia.

 
Acronym Finder (©1988-2000, Mountain Data Systems)

The Acronym Finder defines common acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms about all subjects and organizations, including information technology, telecommunications, and the military.

Names and pseudonyms

A dictionary of surnames. 1988.
Reference collection 929.4203 H241d
A dictionary of first names. 1990.
Reference collection 929.4403 H241d
Pseudonyms and nicknames dictionary.
Reference collection 920 P968
Names (Nom De Guerre) ,

List of pseudonyms used by Entertainment Personalities, Athletes, Writers and Historical Figures.
On the same page scroll down to "Other links that you might find nominally revealing:"  for more links to authors pseudonyms.

Quotations

Search for the term "quotations" in the catalogue using the Keyword from Subject Heading option. Alternatively search the Any keywords option for "quotations" and a keyword for your topic eg: women quotations
Familiar quotations. Bartlett, J. 15th ed. 1980.
Reference collection 808.8 B289.15


Bartlett's familiar quotations
searchable database

Yahoo: Quotations

Comprehensive set of links to quotations collections. (move down the page to the Quotations heading)
Quotations Page, Michael Moncur
You can repeat your search in 12 collections of quotations by selecting from the drop down box.

Dates and chronologies

Search for the term "chronology" in the catalogue using the Keyword from Subject Heading option. Alternatively search the Any keywords option for "chronology" and a keyword for your topic eg:
Chronologies of world history are at 902 in the Reference collection.
Chronologies of countries are with the history of the country eg:
Encyclopedia of American facts and dates. Reference collection 973.03 C319e
Australians vol 12: Events and places. Reference collection 994 A9425
Today in History: Archive, American Memory, Library of Congress
A index to historic events for each day of the calendar year. Coverage is mainly American. Ability to perform a topic / keyword search as well as limit by a particular date.


Symbols

Books listing symbols and signs are shelved at 419 in the Reference collection.

Dictionary of symbolism: Originally Constructed by Allison Protas Augmented and refined in 1997 by Geoff Brown and Jamie Smith. Provides some possible cultural significances of various symbols, and suggest ways in which those symbols may have been used in context.

SYMBOLS.com   (c) 1997-1999 HME Media. Produced by Melody IS
An  encyclopedia of graphic symbols  their histories, uses, and meanings are  discussed.   The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti.  Use the Graphic Index to search for the meaning or history of a sign. If you want to see an ideogram with a certain meaning, use the Word Index. Note the indexes are at the very top of the web page.

Encyclopaedias

Printed general encyclopaedias are at 030 in the Reference collection e.g.
The Australian encyclopaedia. 8 volumes.
BSL Reference collection 03 A93.6
Roseworthy Reference 994.003 3.6
The new encyclopaedia britannica. 15th ed. 1994. 32 vols.
Reference collection 03 E5.15
Britannica Online ,  The  University of Adelaide has a subscription but a free version is also available.
Continuously updated, and including access to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.
Encyclopedia.com Copyright © 2001, Infonautics Corporation.
The entries are short.  Has extensive cross-references. Links to related web sites and books are also available -- along with links to millions of articles and pictures from the Electric Library. Includes  The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.

Encarta: online concise encyclopaedia, by Microsoft.
A free, abridged version. It includes 16,000 articles as well as media - photos, maps, charts, tables - and a collection of editorially selected Web links.

The World Factbook.  produced by CIA
The "Country Listing" has quick factual information.


Subject dictionaries and encyclopaedias

Search the library catalogue using the "Any keyword" option for your topic and by adding dictionaries and encyclopedias in brackets the system will search for either term in the catalogue eg:
McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science and technology. 7th ed. 1992.
Reference collection 503 m14.7
International encyclopedia of the social sciences. 1968-1991.
Reference collection 303 I61
OneLook Dictionaries
The "Browse dictionaries" link provides you with a list of all the Dictionaries included in the "OneLook" search engine. Dictionary word count = 1803084 words in 303 dictionaries indexed

A Web of On-line Dictionaries (Bucknell University, Chris Beard)
The "Index of Specialised Categories" lists dictionaries available in a wide range of subject areas.

See subject guides for examples in particular subjects. 

Almanacs

Browse the library catalogue using the Keyword from subject heading option for "almanacs"
Whitaker's almanac
Reference collection 03 W57
World almanac and book of facts
Reference collection 03 W92
Almanac: Infoplease (© Copyright The FamilyEducation Network)

Able to search several references, individually or simultaneously, including an almanac, dictionary and an encyclopaedia.


Awards

Browse the library catalogue using the Keyword from subject heading option for "awards"
National Honours and Awards of Australia
Reference collection 737.220994 M433n

Colour guides

AS2700 Colours standards for general purposes
BSL Information desk
Dictionary of colour standards : a list of colour names referring to the colours shown in the companion volume. 2nd ed. 1951
BSL Special collections rare books 535.6 B862
Naturalists colour guide. 1975.
BSL Special collections rare books 535.6 S664n
Methuen handbook of colour. 3rd ed. 1978.
BSL Reference collection 535.6 K84.3
Munsell soil color charts.
1975 edition Roseworthy 631.44 4
1992 edition BSL AV collections 631.44 M969

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                                              Last modified: January 10, 2001
                                              Uupdated by Bernadine Hardin
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