Tertiary sources compile, summarize, index, or help identify scholarly sources on a topic. They are useful for background research or to get an overview of a topic before delving into secondary or primary sources. Common tertiary sources for literature, media and communication include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and other reference sources.
From this page you can
Browse a virtual bookshelf of dictionaries in the Georgia Tech Library
Access key resources for background research in literature, media and communication
Dictionaries in the Georgia Tech Library
Resources for background research in literature, media and communication
The OED online can be used to perform simple searches for word definitions, or for full-text searching of all OED's definitions, etymologies and quotations through the Search function.
Literature Resource Center provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of over 130,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers.
More than 160,000 complete entries from two award-winning series Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography for in-depth biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors lives and works. Includes literature criticism, biographies, topic and work overviews, news, primary sources, literary works, images, links to audio and interviews, and reviews.