Research Guides: African-American Studies: Dictionaries/Encyclopedias

Finding Reference Resources

Reference resources are used for:

starting your research
background information
facts and figures
maps
following citations

Location of Ref. books in Grafton:

Either side of the computers on the main floor.

Grafton Library Map

You will need to cite information you learn from reference works, just as you would from books and articles. Citation information is usually at the bottom of the screen if you are using an online reference source.

Online reference resources

Oxford Reference: History A collection of subject-specific books and encyclopedias

Historical Statistics of the United States Millenium Edition This link opens in a new window Includes over 37,000 data series on a variety of topics such as migration, health, crime, slavery, American Indians, and poverty.

Encyclopedia Virginia Encylopedia Virginia publishes topical and biographical entries written by scholars documenting the history and culture of Virginia.

The African American Electorate by Hanes Walton Jr; Donald R. Deskins Jr; Sherman Puckett
ISBN: 9780872895089
Publication Date: 2012-07-20
This work brings together registration data on African American voters from Colonial America to 2012. It features election returns for African American presidential, senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates.

Reference Books in Grafton

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
Call Number: Ref. E185 .E54 1996
ISBN: 0028973453
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War
Call Number: Ref. E468 .E53 2000
ISBN: 1576070662
Encyclopedia of American Social History by Cayton, Mary Kupiec, Elliott J. Gorn, and Peter W. Williams, eds.
Call Number: Ref. HN 57 .E58 1993
ISBN: 0684192462
Dictionary of American History
Call Number: Ref. E 174.A43
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century
Call Number: Ref. E169.1 .E626 2001
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century
Call Number: Ref. E740.7 .E53 1996
Encyclopedia of African and African American Religions
Call Number: BL2462.5 .E53 2001
ISBN: 0415922453
Documents illustrative of the history of the slave trade to America
Call Number: Ref. E441 .D69 1965

Online biographical sources

Biography Resource Center This link opens in a new window Find biographies and articles on more than 335,000 people.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online This link opens in a new window 56,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to present.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window The LRC is a select compilation of the literary criticism series published by Gale. Find biographical and critical information about writers and literary and dramatic works.

Biographical Resources

The Scribner Encyclopedia of American lives by Jackson
Call Number: Ref. E176 .S37
ISBN: 0684804921
The African American National Biography
Call Number: Ref. E185.96 .A4466 2008
ISBN: 9780195160192
Current Biography by Ref CT100 .C8
Current Biography magazine draws information from newspaper and magazine articles, books, the Internet, and occasionally personal interviews or questionnaires completed by the subjects
Dictionary of American Biography
Call Number: Ref. E176 .D562 1928 - 1995