Subject Encyclopedias

The Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa – all related to developments in one calendar year. The Africa Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, each of the four sub-regions (West, Central, Eastern, Southern Africa) focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organizations as well as one article on continental developments and one on European-African relations.

3550 pages of text from 3 print Brill encyclopedias, complete and unabridged - Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (2009) , Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle (2010), Encyclopaedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles c. 450-1450 (2012) offering 3600 signed articles on aspects of medieval history, culture and belief, together with nearly 200 illustrations. Cross-searchable.

 

Covers topics such as dieting and popular diets, dietary concerns, nutritional basics, and the effects of a person's dietary choices on one's health. Topics are organized around the development and history of a diet, its basic principles, any key figures that influence the trend, and any public or regulatory concerns associated with the practice. Provides information across all age groups from infants to the elderly.

Encyclopedia of War Crimes and Genocide, Revised Edition examines the contemporary history of crimes against humanity, during both wartime and peacetime. With more than 500 entries, this two-volume A-to-Z encyclopedia covers a wide range of relevant topics, including human rights, war criminals, war crimes, examples of genocide, international organizations and international law concerning war crimes, and much more. This revised edition also includes updated information on recent human rights and war crime trials. The primary resources section contains documents that are vital to understanding this subject.

Coverage includes:

    * Amnesty International
    * Apartheid
    * Armenian genocide
    * Babi Yar
    * Klaus Barbie
    * Biological weapons
    * Bosnia and Herzegovina
    * Cambodia
    * Collateral damage
    * Conflict diamonds
    * Darfur
    * François "Papa Doc" Duvalier
    * El Salvador
    * Executions
    * Freedom House
    * Geneva Conventions
    * Ghost prisoners
    * Gulags
    * Human Rights Convention
    * Saddam Hussein
    * International Committee of the Red Cross
    * Kosovo
    * My Lai massacre
    * North Korea
    * Piracy and international law
    * Pol Pot
    * Rwanda
    * Shining Path
    * Slavery
    * Taliban
    * Desmond Tutu
    * War on terror
    * Simon Wiesenthal

In more than 480 entries, The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca, Third Edition is an exciting update to one of the landmark references on the subject—by paranormal expert Rosemary Ellen Guiley. This edition provides unparalleled coverage of witchcraft practices around the world—spanning different time periods and societies—including entries on magic, shamanism, the occult, and wizardry. Now covering Wicca-related material not included in the previous editions as well as updates of contemporary biographies and Wicca material, this encyclopedia is perfect for casual readers and researchers, as well as those fascinated by this spellbinding topic. All content has been expanded considerably, providing updates and new information about the key topics of witchcraft.

New and revised coverage includes:

    * Amulets
    * Biographies of contemporary and historical figures
    * Book of Shadows
    * Charms
    * Demons
    * Familiars
    * Folklore relating to witchcraft
    * Hand of glory
    * Historical cases of witchcraft trials
    * The Inquisition
    * Magic and Wicca
    * Salem witches and other historical cases of witchcraft trials
    * Spells
    * Tools, such as altars, amulets, cauldrons, and charms
    * Wicca practices, rituals, beliefs, and traditions
    * Wiccan organizations
    * Witches in entertainment: films, television, stage, and popular fiction.

The Third Edition of the highly acclaimed Encyclopedia of Special Education has been thoroughly updated to include the latest information about new legislation and guidelines. In addition, this comprehensive resource features school psychology, neuropsychology, reviews of new tests and curricula that have been developed since publication of the second edition in 1999, and new biographies of important figures in special education. Unique in focus, the Encyclopedia of Special Education, Third Edition addresses issues of importance ranging from theory to practice and is a critical reference for researchers as well as those working in the special education field.  The encyclopedia is edited by Cecil R. Reynolds, PhD, Texas A&M University and Elaine Fletcher-Janzen, EdD, University of Colorado.

The WCD is updated quarterly. It includes detailed information on 9,000 Christian denominations and on religions in every country of the world. Extensive data are available on 238 countries and 13,000 ethno-linguistic peoples, as well as on 5,000 cities and 3,000 provinces. This extraordinary database is an invaluable reference tool for professionals, scholars, students, agencies, health organizations, and news media. Information is readily available on religious activities, growth rates, religious literature, worker activity, and demography. Additional secular data is included on population, health, education, languages, and communication. All this information makes the WCD an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Christian and religious demography and the history of Christianity. Thousands of sources are evaluated and reviewed on a weekly basis by a professional staff dedicated to expanding and updating the WCD. There is no other resource completely focused on providing global statistics on World Christianity today.

Sources

• A large majority of the data collected for the WCD comes from published and unpublished sources, field work, interviews, and questionnaires - Around 5,000 statistical questionnaires returned by churches and national collaborators over the period 1982-present
• Field surveys and interviews on the spot in over 200 countries
  
• A mass of unpublished documentation on all countries, collected on the fi eld, including reports, memoranda, photographs, maps, statistical summaries, and historical documents
  
• Around 4,500 printed contemporary descriptions of churches, describing denominations, movements, countries and confessions
  
• Officially-published reports of 500 government-organized national censuses of population
  
• A series of in-depth interviews with bishops, church leaders, and theologians
  

Detailed Religious and Demographic Statistics include:

• Global comparative fi gures for every major religion
• Population and religious adherents for every country and United Nations region
  
• Access to source material on religious affiliation (census and survey fi gures)
  
• Breakdown of major religions into traditions (e.g. Sunni-Shi’as within Islam)
  
• Multiple data points to compare growth rates (1900, 1950, 1970, 2000, 2005, 2025, 2050)
  
• Feedback mechanism for users to comment on data, sources and methodology
  
• Population and Adherents (for 1900, 1970, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2025, 2050)
  
• Demographics (birth rate, adult percentage, life expectancy)
  
• Health (HIV rates, access to water, mortality)
  
• Education (literacy percentage, schools, universities)
  
• Communication (scripture access, religious freedom)
  
• Christian personnel
  
• Evangelism rates
  
• Status of missions work
  
• Lists of Christian denominations in every country
  
• Country, regional, and global estimates of Pentecostals and Charismatics
  
• Status of Bible translation
  

Features and Benefits

• 9,000 Denominations
• 13,000 Ethnolinguistic Peoples
  
• 5,000 Cities
  
• 3,000 Provinces
  
• 238 Countries
  
• Quarterly updates
  
• - Unique reference tool for professionals, scholars, students, agencies, news media

Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now available in English and Online, continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Religion Past and Present indisputably belongs to the small class of essential reference works.

RPP Online will include ALL 13 volumes of the print edition and is automatically updated whenever a new volume has been published (2 volumes annually).

Features and Benefits
- Strongly international, cross-cultural and ecumenical, written by over 3,000 authors from 88 countries
- RGG has been a standard reference work since the publication of the first edition in 1908
- Covers an unparalleled breadth of subject matter in theological and biblical studies
- Up-to-date research and bibliographies make it an indispensable resource for all levels of users
- Interdisciplinary articles cover a wide range of topics from history, archaeology, liturgy, law, bible, music, visual arts, politics, social sciences, natural sciences, ethics and philosophy
- Over 15,000 entries and 8 million words
- Abstracts drawn from a wide range of journals in various languages
- Covers an array of complementary disciplines
- Continually updated with new entries

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.