Electronic Reference Resources
Some tips for searching "SAGE Knowledge Books and Reference" :click on the Advanced Search link and put in search terms related to your specific topic. Scroll down to "Content Types" and under the reference category, select Encyclopedias and any other relevant items.
- SAGE Knowledge Books and Reference This link opens in a new windowOnline books, reference works, handbooks, series, and professional development titles across the social and hard sciences.
- Elsevier encyclopediasClick on the URL then click on the magnifying glass at the top (to the right of the text "journals and books". A box will open where you can search by your topic. Then, on the left, you can restrict by "Article type". There, select Encyclopedia.
- Access Science This link opens in a new windowOnline encyclopedia and dictionary for the sciences. Includes biographies, images and animations, and videos.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Reference includes dictionaries, including authoritative dictionaries for many languages, encyclopedias, and companions, featuring more in-depth but still brief entries, e.g. Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization.
Medline Plus. Source of popular or relatively popular information about medical topics, but check for psychological concepts as well.
Merck Manuals Includes information about diseases as well as a drug look up feature. Check them for psychological topics as well that might have a medical basis.
Books and Ebooks
Books and Ebooks can serve as a form of background information.
See the page of the library guide about how to search for them.
Video Tutorial: Finding an Ebook
To discover books and ebooks, go to ASA, the library catalog near the top of the library homepage. See this video tutorial about how to limit your search in ASA to ebooks. .Also, see the Ebooks library guide.
Popular Articles: Magazine and Newspaper Articles
Go to the page about "Popular Articles" to find another source of background information.
Using Google and Wikipedia
A source of background information is Google
Try using the advanced Google search interface. You might want to limit your results to ".edu" types of resources, which are mainly educational. (For example, lehigh.edu )
Evaluate what you find, using the "Evaluating .Web Resources" box; see the next box.
If you use Wikipedia articles, you will have to confirm independently the information, but they can point you to useful resources. See the Wikipedia article about the Reliability of Wikipedia.
Evaluating Web Resources
Web resources can be rich sources of information on a topic, but when conducting research, it's important to consider the quality and accuracy of sites you visit on the open web. Use the CRAPP test to determine whether a web resource is trustworthy:
