Skip to Main Content

Development Studies: Reference works

Dictionaries

The Library holds a wide range of other printed reference materials including dictionaries, encyclopaedias, guides to current research and so on. A list of some of the more useful follows, but further examples will be found principally at the classification number 330.3 (for economics-related publications) or 303 (for sociology- and other social science-related material) either in the Reference Collection on Blue Area Floor 1 or with the economics books or sociology books on Blue Area Floor 4. 

  • Alcock, P et al. Blackwell dictionary of social policy. Blackwell 2002 (Blue 2 REF 360.3/A1)
  • Allaby, M Concise Oxford Dictionary of Ecology. Oxford U.P. 1994 (IDPM Reference Collection)
  • Allaby, M A dictionary of ecology, 3rd ed 2006 (Oxford Reference Online e-book)
  • Black, J Dictionary of Economics. Oxford University Press, 2003 (Oxford Reference Online e-book)
  • Collin, P and Hodgson, P Dictionary of ecology and the environment. Peter Collin Publishing 2001 (Kantorowich Library - Geo. Ref. 910.3/C37)
  • Collin, P and Ivanovich, Dictionary of human resources and personnel management. Peter Collin Publishing 1997 (IDPM Reference Collection) 
  • Collin, S Dictionary of personal computing and the Internet. Peter Collin Publishing, 2000 (Blue 2 004.03/C11) 
  • Eatwell, J et al. (eds), The new Palgrave dictionary of economics. Macmillan 1998. (Blue 2 Ref. 330.3/P3) 
  • Ellwood, W (ed.), The A to Z of World Development. New Internationalist 1998 (Store (Ref) - Store (Ref) 309/C264) 
  • Heery, E  and Noon, M  Dictionary of human resource management. Oxford University Press 2001 (Blue 4 Quick Ref. REF 331.87/H95 and Oxford Reference Online e-book) 
  • Livesey, F Dictionary of economics. Pitman Publishing, 1993 (IDPM Reference Collection)
  • Michie, J (ed.), Reader's guide to the social sciences. Fitzroy Dearborn 2001. (Blue 2 Ref 303/M60)
  • Outhwaite, W and Bottomore, T (eds.), Blackwell dictionary of  modern social thought. Second Edition, Blackwell 2003. (Blue 2 Ref 303/O20 / Kantorowich Library (Geo. Ref. 303/O20 and Blackwells e-book) 
  • Robertson, D Routledge dictionary of politics. Routledge 2004 (HD, IDPM (Muriel Stott Centre) 320.3/R16 and Ebsco e-book)
  • Sachs, W The development dictionary. Zed books 1992 (Blue 2 and HD303/S5)
  • Scott, J and Marshall, G Dictionary of sociology. Oxford University Press, 2005 (Oxford Reference Online e-book) 
  • Welsh, B and Butorin, P (eds.), Dictionary of development: Third World economy, environment and society. St James 1990. (Store (Ref) - 309/W95)

Online dictionaries

Oxford Reference Online. This service provides access to over 120 reference works covering a range of subject areas, such as economics and business, food and nutrition, politics and social science. There is also a collection of dictionaries available, such as English dictionaries and thesauruses, bilingual dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Yearbooks, statistics and development biography

 

You can access these Yearbooks either online or by using Library Search.

 

The Library holds a wide selection of printed statistical publications which come as part of our holdings of British official publications or our collections of some of the major international organizations, principally the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

Finding relevant statistical material can be a problem given the enormous variety available. For the UK the best guide is the Guide to Official Statistics from the Office for National Statistics shelved in the Reference Collection at REF B310.942.

An increasing amount of statistical material is being made available electronically and although much of this is available only commercially, some useful series are accessible free of charge. Most national governments' statistical services and the major international organizations are making freely available some of their statistical data. You could also look at websites such as:

 

Bibliographies can provide useful introductions to an area of study with which you are unfamiliar. A good, recent example of this type is the Development Bibliography series produced by the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University. In the Library, bibliographies on a subject are shelved with the books on that subject but their shelf numbers are prefixed with a B and they are shelved at the start of the sequence. For example, if you browsed along the shelves at B338.1 on Blue Area Floor 4, you would find a range of bibliographies on agricultural economics and agricultural development shelved before the books on those subjects. 

Library catalogues such as the British Library Public Catalogue or the Library of Congress Gateway to Library Catalogs are also a useful source of information.

 

Encyclopaedias

  • Barrett, J (Ed.) Encyclopedia of women's associations worldwide. Gale Research International Ltd. 1993 (IDPM Reference Collection and Springer e-book)
  • Berman, E. and Rabin, J. Encyclopedia of public administration and public policy (3 volumes). 2nd edition. New York : Taylor & Francis, c2008 (Eddie Davies Library 351.7303/BER)
  • Forsyth, T. Encyclopedia of international development. London : Routledge, 2005. (IDPM collection 309/F128)
  • Jones, B (Ed.) Routledge encyclopedia of international political economy (3 volumes). Routledge 2001 (IDPM Reference Collection)
  • International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. 2001.(Available via the Science Direct database). 
  • Kuper, A and Kuper, J  The social science encyclopedia. Routledge 2004. (Blue 2 303/K72 Reference) 
  • Mann, M (ed.) Macmillan student encyclopedia of sociology. Macmillan 1983 (Blue 2 303/M6)
  • O'Hara, P (ed.), Encyclopedia of political economy. Routledge 1999. (Blue 2 REF 330.3/O1) 
  • Stromquist, N and Monkman, K Women in the Third World: an encyclopedia of contemporary issues. Garland 1998. (Blue 2 REF 396/S109)
Creative Commons Licence This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence.