Few disciplines are as well supported by auxiliary reference material as history. There are a host of bibliographies on virtually any era, movement, or major event, as well as regional and thematic encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, chronologies, catalogs of special collections, and guides to historical literature. Some of these sources are available online, but most exist only in print, and savvy researchers know that this wealth of reference material can save them vast amounts of time otherwise spent reinventing the wheel.

Among guides to the literature, good starting points are:

There are also hundreds of encyclopedias and dictionaries devoted to particular regions, time periods, and genres. These vary widely in degree of scholarly sophistication and completeness. The difference in quality from one encyclopedia to another can be very striking. The best way to become familiar with these resources is to browse the reference sections in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library and also in the Stack Reference area (in the 300s, 900s, and 016s), and for online sources, consult our guide to: