Dictionaries: Print vs. Web

The Web is now the home of many wonderful and useful resources, but when you need to find a definition are Web dictionaries recommended?

First, let's compare print with Web dictionaries. Traditional print dictionaries from respected publishers have a long history of scrupulous attention to detail and a good reputation.

Dictionaries on the Web can be created by anyone: a respected publisher, an individual (scholar or not), or an organization. You have to evaluate who created this, whether or not there is bias, and whether or not this source is reliable.

Now let's look at the situations and what your options are:
Quick definition look-up for your own edification: Either one. Just to remember to evaluate a Web source first.
For your paper or dissertation: The most respected source you can find. At this time, this still means a print source. Now if you are thinking of convenience remember that there are also print dictionaries in digital form in ebrary. This is a source you have access to 24/7 with full text searchability but you can cite it and trust it as if it is print.

Quick Access to a Psychology Dictionary

Not everyone has the ultimate psychology book collection on their shelves at home. When you need a psychology dictionary, you may want to check out the psychology dictionaries available in ebrary.
If you select the Advanced search tab and choose to search the phrase psychology dictionary as a title search, you will get the following results.

-Dictionary of Biological Psychology
-Concise Dictionary of Psychology
-Dictionary of Theories, Laws & Concepts in Psychology
-Historical Dictionary of Quotations in Cognitive Science : A Treasury of Quotations in Psychology, Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence

Each of these sources is full text and you can copy and paste into a Word document. Just highlight the text and an options list will pop up. Once you paste it in a document or email, the citation information is provided automatically with the pasted text.
You can find other dictionaries in ebrary by just leaving out the "psychology" part of the instructions above. Or try searching on your topic in ebrary. ebrary provides full text access to 25,000 academic titles in a great variety of subjects.
If you have never used ebrary before, it is located on the Access Online Databases page and you will need to download and install the ebrary reader (browser plugin) to get access to the full text. If you have questions or need help, just ask us.