INSPIRE is a collection of academic databases and other information resources provided by the Indiana State Library and is accessible to all Indiana residents. As a public Indiana institution, the IU East Campus Library can share access to these resources from IUCAT as well as our A-Z List to IU East students, whether they live in Indiana or not.
What are “reference” resources?
The type of information you find in the reference section of a library would be resources such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, directories, atlases, biographies, and bibliographies. While not usually in depth, these resources often provide a general overview of a subject and can be a great place to begin exploring a topic, place, or person.
For regular users of our reference resources, it is important to note that several of the general reference databases from Library vendor EBSCO have had name changes, removing “center” from the following titles, and instead adding “source” to the end. This is also an opportunity to share the variety of reference resources that INSPIRE and, by proxy, IU East Campus Library provides to students and faculty who may be unfamiliar with these databases.
Like Opposing Viewpoints, this database provides multiple sides of an issue, with content that can help students assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues, and develop analytical thinking skills.
This database contains full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other reliable sources. In addition, the database includes a vast collection of images from sources such as Getty, NASA, National Geographic, and the Nature Picture Library.
A full-text database providing information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and periods of time.
This database features full text for thousands of primary source documents, such as maps, photos, and videos, and informational texts from history periodicals, biographies, encyclopedias, and non-fiction books.
This database offers a collection of full-text biographies and unique narrative biographies to search any person of interest.
If you are new to a topic or wanting to learn more about a notable person that you have never heard of, then these reference databases are the places to start. After gathering general background information, you can then move on to scholarly resources available in our multidisciplinary databases, such as ProQuest One Academic or Academic Search Complete. If you need any assistance in researching a topic, or guidance on the best database to use, just Ask Us! iueref@iue.edu.