Getting Started
The first step on your research journey is to gain background information on your topic. Watch these videos to learn about the research process and how to use encyclopedias to find background information for your research topic:
- Developing Your Topic: Ideas, Research, More Ideas... (6:47)
- Gathering Background Information: Using Credo Reference (7:05 est)
Developing Your Topic: Ideas, Research, More Ideas...
Gathering Background Information: Using CREDO
- Alternative Link to VideoLink to the video, Gathering Background Information: Using Credo Reference
Hands on Activity: Background Information
Now that you've become familiar with this preliminary research process, try this hands-on activity!
- Background Information Hands on ActivityUse the information you learned from the video to use Credo
- Mapping Your Research Process WorksheetUse this worksheet to help organize the background information you find. Follow the steps to focus your topic, then come up with questions to research and find new information.
Search Tool Links
Best Bets for Exploratory Research to help you define your topic. Use the search links below or access them from the library homepage ... Quick Links tab for easy access:
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowCredo Reference contains reliable overviews of many subjects, often drawing from specialized encyclopedias. While you are not allowed to cite Credo for the Engl 130 bibliography assignment, it is a great place to begin looking for key terms, and references in individual entries may provide useful sources for your project.
- Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new windowProvides different points of view on controversial subjects.
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowCQ Researcher is often the first source that librarians recommend when researchers are seeking original, comprehensive reporting and analysis on issues in the news. Each single-themed report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, footnoted and professionally fact checked. The consistent, reader-friendly organization provides researchers with an introductory overview, which poses and addresses relevant questions; a background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; a pro/con debate by representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.
