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Usually focused on a particular subject, annuals, atlases, and yearbooks present data and statistics from a given year. Their primary purpose is to compile the year's activities into an arrangement by country, subject or specialized area. Annuals and yearbooks are usually located in the Reference Collection of the Library.
| The Statesman's Yearbook: The Politics, Cultures, and Economies of the World | REF JA 51.S7 |
Books are written or printed works produced by one or more authors. Individuals or committees with expertise in the field often edit books. Because they provide comprehensive information on their subject at the time of publication, books are very valuable in the research process. For many subject areas this is the best starting point for research. Many books contain valuable bibliographies at the end of each chapter or at the close of the book. This provides an excellent entry point into the subject material as well to the authors publishing in a particular field of study.
| Basic Mathematics for Economists | HB 135.R665 |
| Blue Print of the Digital Economy | HC 79.I55.B57 |
| A Brief History of Economics: Artful Approaches to the Dismal Science | HB 75 .C367 |
| Digital Economics: How Information Technology has Transformed Business Thinking | HC 79 .I55 M369 |
| The Economics of an Aging Society | HQ 1064.U5 E267 |
| The Economics of e-Commerce: a Strategic Guide to Understanding and Designing the Online Marketplace | HF 5548.32 .V85 |
| Economics of the Firm: Theory and Practice | HB 172 .T58 |
| The Economics of Life | HC 59.15.B44 |
| Frontiers of Development Economics: the Future in Perspective | HD 75 .F77 |
| Macroeconomics and the Real World, vol. 2 | HB 172.5 .M3355 |
| Masterworks of Economics; three volumes. | |
| Microeconomics and Behavior | HB 171.5 .F733 |
| The Nobel Laureates: How the World's Greatest Economic Minds Shaped Modern Thought | HB 87.M337 |
| An Open economy Macroeconomics Reader | HB 172.5 .U35 |
| Output and the Role of Money | HB 172.5 .M87 |
| Post-Keynesian Econometrics, Microeconomics and the Theory of the Firm | HB 139 .P675 |
| Real World Micro | HB 172 .R35 |
| Working Americans 1880–2003; five volumes. | REF HD 8066 .D47 |
| Dictionary of Business and Economics | HB 61.A53 |
| Dictionary of the Social Sciences | REF H 41.D53 |
| The McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Modern Economics | REF HB 61.M3 |
Encyclopedias are among the most widely used reference sources and contain articles of varying lengths covering all fields of knowledge. Typically encyclopedias cover many topics but without going into a great deal of depth on any one thing. Encyclopedias are a good starting point for researching topics that you do not know much about or that are completely new to you. They can give you background information which can help when you move to more in-depth sources later. Specialized encyclopedias may cover just one field or even a sub-unit of that field. Subject encyclopedias can be consulted for detailed or technical information on a subject.
| Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History; two volumes. | REF HC 102.G35 |
| International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences; seventeen volumes. | HB 135.R665 |
| The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Economics | REF HB 61.E55 |
Government information is generated by local, state, national, and international governments on almost all topics. Most government information is undergoing a major shift from traditional formats such as print and microfiche, to a variety of electronic formats available through the Internet. Government information is considered to be a primary, authoritative and reliable resource. To find government information on your topic, search the library catalog, specialized indexes, and government agency web sites.
An excellent resource for all types of government information in virtually any subject area or topic is the GSA Federal Citizen Information Center. Individuals can access information online or by using the Consumer Information Catalog to locate items.
Handbooks, manuals and guides are resources which supply concise factual and statistical information, often in the form of charts, graphs, tables and formulas. These sources have very basic information, with little or no discussion or analysis of the facts they present. They cover a wide variety of topics, and as with other reference sources, these tools may be general or specific to a field, group of people, or era. These sources are frequently updated, which makes them valuable for locating current information. Try searching the online catalog using the keywords of your topic combined with one of the following keywords: handbook, manual or guide.
| The Economics of e-Commerce: a Strategic Guide to Understanding and Designing the Online Marketplace | HF 5548.32 .V85 |
| A New Guide to Post-Keynesian Economics | HB 99.7 .H65 |
| The Value of a Dollar | REF HB 235.U6 .V35 |
Journals are scholarly periodicals which publish current research and commentary on their specific field of study. Most scholarly journals are peer-reviewed which means they have been reviewed and verified by a panel of experts in the field.
Statistical sources attempt to answer questions beginning with “How much?” or “How many?” The tool needed to answer such a question is determined by the question's depth and complexity. Typically a straightforward question requires searching for statistics already analayzed and recorded in books, journal articles, and the publications of governments, associations, and organizations.
Online information databases are large, regularly updated collections of digitized information -- including but not limited to abstracts and full text articles from journals and newspapers, conference proceedings and submitted papers, dissertations, government reports, essays, book chapters, web pages, etc. The content is created by publishers who release print versions, then lease the rights to their information to database vendors. Database records are easy to search and retrieve because the content of each record has been analyzed and assigned appropriate subject headings, keywords, names, etc. New records are regularly downloaded from the producer of each database.
In order to access these resources off-campus, you must first obtain the passwords.
If you are looking for a specific journal within a database, use the E-Journal Portal. It returns the names of databases which contain the desired journal.