WRIT 120: Hip Hop Culture and the Poetics of Place
Karen Olson
Karen Olson
she/her/hers
LibKey Nomad
Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts
Karen Olson
she/her/hers
Why Use a Reference Source?
Reference sources are tertiary sources, including dictionaries and encyclopedias. They draw on primary and secondary sources to summarize the basic details of a topic.
Reference sources are a good place to start your research, especially if your topic is brand new to you.
- They provide introductions the topic and the major research points that other scholars have discussed.
- They provide quick definitions of important terms or concepts.
- They often include bibliographies of suggested sources that can help you build your own set of research sources.
Reference Sources
General Reference
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Reference Online brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest and most trusted reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowOffers full-text access to over 500 highly-regarded titles from 70 publishers. Covers every major subject in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences from the world's best publishers of reference.
African American Reference
- African American Experience This link opens in a new windowFull-text primary and secondary sources illuminating African American history and culture. Includes scholarly books and articles, oral histories, slave narratives, images, speeches, a historical timeline, teaching resources, and more.
- African American Music Reference This link opens in a new windowFull-text reference resource on African American music, covering blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other genres. Includes biographies, chronologies, lyrics, sheet music, liner notes, images, and discographies.
Music Reference
- Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowGo-to reference source for music. Primary focus is on western art music, but also includes biographies and subject entries on major popular musicians.
- Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text encyclopedia covering music around the world. Includes references to hiphop culture around in many countries.
- Cambridge Companion to Hip HopIndividual essays on various aspects of hip hop culture.