Research Guides: Subcultures and Scenes: Reference Sources

Why reference?

Reference materials provide well-known facts.

They are trustworthy and reliable, giving you the correct information you will need for your research papers and presentations. Reference books, either in print or electronic format, will also provide you with keywords and terms to use in your searches through the library catalog or databases. If you are searching for a research topic, using the overview on a subject that a reference source provides can spark the idea for a researchable thesis question.

Encyclopedias and Indexes

This is just a brief selection of the many general and specialized encyclopedias and bibliographies related to Subcultures available in the Reference center at Bobst Library.

American Decades by Vincent Tompkins
Examines the changes in American civilization from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.
Hippie by Barry Miles
Experience the ultimate flashback with this celebration of an era. Rich in illustrations and filled with the history, politics, sayings, and slogans that defined an age, this tribute to the 1960's counterculture is as groovy as it gets. For those who were there, this volume will invoke the spirit of the time. Those who weren't, will wish they had been.
Language of the Underworld by David W. Maurer

Electronic Encyclopedias

Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
Search across a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and more.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
Brill Online Reference Works This link opens in a new window
Brill Online is a searchable suite of databases. NYU's subscription includes the following: Brill's New Pauly, Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE, Encyclopaedia of the Quran, Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Brockelmann Online, Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics and Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to dictionaries, language reference, Islamic studies and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.