Reviewing What We Learned about Finding Background Information

Let's admit it. We often skip this step of starting our research with reference sources like encyclopedias, but that actually makes research more difficult. It's so much easier to get an overview of our topic before jumping into searching the library databases or the web for scholarly articles and other sources.

For academic research, using subject encyclopedias is the best place to start, and we learned how to search Highline College Library's databases to find these types of sources. In addition, we also learned how to use Wikipedia to get some background information, search terms, and references to more scholarly sources.

Help

For more help with finding background information, contact a librarian at the Highline College Library.