WR 121 - Nick Hengen Fox: Exploring
Reference Work for Background Information
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowProvides online versions of 500 published reference works, including general and specialized dictionaries and encyclopedias. Try the Concept Map to search for terms and topics that are interconnected and displayed in a visual form.
- Gale Ebooks (formerly GVRL) This link opens in a new windowGale eBooks has over 200 encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Look here for biology, chemistry, nursing and medicine, sociology, history, education, law, and more.
Strategic "Googling"
Using web searching to help you develop a topic can be incredibly useful. Googling your topic and exploring the kinds of results that you get can help you get a good lay of the land. As you use Google to find sources, think about trying to locate professional, academic, and governmental organizations that focus on your topic; don't just haphazardly pick pages where your search terms show up. Just remember that as you move toward greater focus in your research, you will want to move away from Google and toward more precise tools (like library databases).
Wikipedia will definitely come up in your search results. Use the entries to increase your knowledge of a topic and to direct you to other potential sources but do not cite Wikipedia in your paper.