General Encyclopedias

This "featured collection" in the HathiTrust Digital Library makes it possible to search the full text of most of the print books in the Hatcher Graduate Library's Reference Collection (about 7,500 works in about 15,000 print volumes), including most of the books shelved in the Reference Reading Room and at the Information and Reference Center on the second floor. 

For the 20% of materials covered that are in the public domain, the full text of the reference work can be viewed online.  The other 80% of works covered that remain in copyright are "Search Only," meaning that the full text cannot be viewed online, but search results indicate on what page(s) of the volume a match with the search terms occurs, so one can then retrieve the print volume and know what page(s) to turn to locate the search terms in the printed text. 

Note:  No reference works published since 2010 are covered by this index.  Neither are reference works that the library has acquired only in online form.  This is an index to print reference works only.

Selected print reference books published between 1850 and 2009.

General encyclopedia with 26,000+ articles (8,000 more articles than print edition) plus 12,000+ pictures and maps, 100+ videos and animations, 10,000 sounds (including pronunciations), and 7,000 links to editor-approved Web sites. Also includes the World Book Dictionary with 248,000 definitions, the World Book Atlas with 750 maps, and the full text of primary source documents, major literary works, and selected recent articles from magazines.

Latest edition. Continuously updated.

Provides online access to the complete full text of over 100 reference works from Gale, Macmillan, and other publishers. Includes: African American Almanac, Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Datapedia of the U.S., Dictionary of American History, Encyclopedia Judaica, Encylopedia of Religion, Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, World Press Encyclopedia, and many more. Articles can be displayed in HTML with active hyperlinks, or as PDF facsimiles of pages from the original print edition. Individual titles are arranged by subject category (see keywords below), and also appear in Search Tools and Mirlyn separately. Searching can be done within an individual title, or across the entire collection.

Recent editions.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's latest article database (including hundreds of articles not found in the print edition), Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, and the Britannica Book of the Year (1994- ), with thousands of web links selected by editors.

Current Academic Edition. Updated daily.

Online version of the Europa World Year Book and all nine volumes of the Europa Regional Surveys of the World series, containing detailed political, economic, and geographic information on over 250 countries and territories, including recent statistics, directory information, and current analysis. Plus thousands of directory contact details with click-through web links and a comprehensive listing of some 1,900 international organizations. Additional features include: the ability directly to compare multinational statistics in graph and tabular form; interactive visual features, including maps, flags and downloadable graphs; an extensive directory of research institutes specializing in each region; book and periodical bibliographies of further research; and more.

Current edition, with ability to download earlier editions from 2006 onward.

Combines all the general facts, brief profiles and data included in Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, the World Almanac of the U.S.A., the World Almanac of U.S. Politics, and the World Almanac for Kids.

1998 - Updated annually.

Fully indexed, cross-searchable database of about 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. Includes subject reference works in the humanities, social sciences, and science.

Includes latest editions of reference works published in recent years.

An ongoing collaborative and searchable English language translation of the original Encyclopédie edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert. Individual articles are linked to the original French edition maintained by ARTFL.

First published over the course of more than twenty years (1751-1777), the 32 volumes of the Encyclopédie include 21 volumes of text with more than 70,000 articles on subjects ranging from asparagus to zodiac. The remaining 11 volumes contain beautifully engraved plates illustrating many of the articles.

The Encyclopédie was the major achievement of the French Enlightenment whose aim, in Diderot's words, was to "change the common way of thinking" through the expansion of knowledge and the development of critical modes of thought. The Encyclopédie was a collaborative project, the work of a "society of men of letters," as its title page declared. By the time the last volume was published, more than 140 people had contributed articles to its pages. In the same spirit, this website is a collaborative effort of volunteer translators who share an interest in the Enlightenment and a belief in the value of making freely available to English readers articles from the Encyclopédie. The articles you will find here reflect the interests and expertise of the translators. Although we cannot hope to translate all 70,000 articles, we will continue to post new translations as they come in. This is an ongoing project to which we hope many more people will contribute.

For students and teachers, the Encyclopédie is a crucial resource as well as an important gateway into the project of Enlightenment. The Collaborative Translation Website allows you to browse articles that have been translated and to search the database of translations in a variety of ways. You will also find links to the original French versions of translated articles.

18th Century

Web site for the popular compilations of facts and statistics covering politics, current events, geography, history, business, sports, entertainment, weather, science, health, etc. Includes the Columbia Encyclopedia, a dictionary, and resources for kids.

Current edition.