General Interest Subject Guide
Encyclopedias
7 resources available
- Restricted to WMU users 
- Open Access
Full text online from over 400 encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference books. Search a topic, build a concept map or browse information sources organized by subject. Find text, images, sound files, sortable data tables and more.
Indexes the individual articles and the indexes in thousands of subject encyclopedias and other reference books. Provides citations to specific volumes and page numbers. Links to the WMU Library Catalog for sources we own, but doesn't contain full text itself.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Online reference books in business, education, law, medicine, religion and social science.
A multi-language free-content online encyclopedia project. Since many people have created the content of the Wikipedia, it has a wide range of information, but the articles are often not edited, it is not always reliable and some instructors may not allow its use for academic work. Cross reference Wikipedia information with other reliable sources and check the entry footnotes.
AE 5 .E363 (in all Reference areas, latest in Waldo Library)
The online version is the free version with short articles from the encyclopedia as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Thesaurus, and the Britannica Book of the Year. For full length articles use the print edition.
Includes the contents of the most recent volume of: Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, The World Almanac and Book of Facts, The World Almanac of the U.S.A., The World Almanac of US Politics, and The World Almanac for Kids.
World Book Online Reference Center
This online encyclopedia is based on the printed World Book Encyclopedia, and enriched with more articles, maps, tables, videos and sound clips. It provides many cross references and links to other resources including magazine articles and Web sites. It includes a dictionary, atlas and basic Spanish language encyclopedia.