Finding Dictionaries and Encyclopedias: Encyclopedias

What is an encyclopedia?

The Oxford English Dictionary describes an encyclopedia as "A literary work containing extensive information on all branches of knowledge, usually arranged in alphabetical order."

An encyclopedia will often give you a broad overview of your topic, and can help you to find keywords and background information, which you can then use to search more effectively through the library's databases for scholarly sources. The library's guide on Developing Your Topic has more information on using encyclopedias in your research.

"encyclopaedia | encyclopedia, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2018, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/61848. Accessed 30 May 2018.

Online encyclopedias

The Canadian Encyclopedia
Including the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada Current Multimedia encyclopedia of Canadian history available in English and French. It is home to more than 40,000 articles, 6,000 interactive maps, graphs, photographs and animations.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Online: Academic Edition
Comprehensive reference work including content from several resources: Encyclopaedia Britannica and Britannica Concise Encyclopedia articles as well as media, web sites, and videos. Magazines and journals are also available. Also includes dictionary and thesaurus as well as notable quotations from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus.
Access Note: Mobile app with limited access available for iOS.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Oxford Reference Online (ORO)
The Premium collection of language and subject reference works published by the Oxford University Press. Search individual titles or across all titles. Oxford Islamic Online database retired June 21, 2022 and is now a part of Oxford Reference Online.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Gale eBooks (GE)
A collection of electronic reference titles published by Gale or an affiliated publisher. The Library subscribes to selected titles only of the available titles.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Publication Date: 2004
E-book version. Reference work "making information on the latest advances in science and technology accessible to non-specialists through concise, well-illustrated articles...Includes approximately 150 articles from 200 leaders in their respective fields covering technical disciplines from Agriculture to Zoology.
Encyclopedia of Rhetoric
Publication Date: 2001
E-book version. This reference work features 150 original, signed articles by leading scholars in the field of rhetoric. "It synthesizes a vast amount of knowledge from classics, philosophy, literature, literary theory, cultural studies, speech and communications, and discusses basic concepts and themes throughout rhetoric."
The people's chronology: a year-by-year record of human events from prehistory to the present by James Trager
Publication Date: 2006
E-book version. An electronic reference book, presenting "a year-by-year record of human events from prehistory to the present."
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras
Publication Date: 2004
E-book version. A reference book "profiling milestones and movements in the arts, literature, music, and religion from a specific period, each volume in this five-volume set helps students and researchers understand the various disciplines of the humanities in relation to each other, as well as to history and culture."

Native Peoples of the World
An Encyclopedia covering "the world’s Indigenous peoples, their societies and cultures, the countries in which they reside, and the issues that affect their ways of life. It also highlights the complex relationships between Native groups and the natural environments in which they live."
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It includes historical and contemporary information on nearly 400 specific groups (organized by region), 80 nations, and 50 contemporary issues and institutions. The regions include: Africa, Central and South America, East Asia and Oceania, Europe, North America, and South Asia and Middle East. Sidebars highlight notable individuals, events, sites, and ideas. It also includes "essential primary documents, recommended further readings, a Master Bibliography, a selection of Web links, and a colorful collection of images enhance the coverage." The primary documents are: Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention (1957), Declaration of Indigenous Peoples of the World (1992), and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).

Columbia Gazetteer of the World
A comprehensive gazetteer or encyclopedia of over 170,000 geographical places in the world and features, including names, descriptions, and characteristics.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
eLS
A comprehensive reference work covering the life sciences. Based on the contents of the 20-volume Encyclopedia of Life Sciences and the Encyclopedia of the Human Genome. Includes text, graphics and multimedia.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Wikipedia
"Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopedia project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on a model of openly editable content. Unlike printed encyclopedias, Wikipedia is continually created and updated, with articles on historic events appearing within minutes, rather than months or years."

Print encyclopedias

The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
Call Number: FC3504 .E53 2005
Publication Date: 2005
Encyclopaedia Britannica in print
Call Number: AE5 .E56
We own plenty of older versions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to use for a historical perspective.
Note: Not everything on this list is the Encyclopaedia Britannica; some items might reference it in their summary.
The World almanac and Book of Facts
Call Number: Murray Library-Reference Desk AY67 .N5W9
Publication Date: 1922 - 2017
Provides a source for essential and authoritative facts for entertainment, reference and learning; contains thousands of facts and statistics. (Also available online from 2000 to 2009)