Background Information          --- Background Information --- Overview Encyclopedias Current Periodicals Bibliographies

Encyclopedias

Encyclopedias are important sources to consider when initially researching a topic. General encyclopedias provide basic information on a wide range of subjects in an easily readable and understandable format. 

If you are certain about what subject area you want to choose your topic from, you might want to use a specialized or subject encyclopedia instead. Subject encyclopedias limit their scope to one particular field of study, offering more detailed information about the subject.

Keep in mind that for academic writing most university instructors DO NOT accept encyclopedia articles as cited sources for scholarly papers. Therefore, encyclopedias should only be used to find topics or look for background information.

General Encyclopedias

General encyclopedias provide information about nearly every topic. Using an encyclopedia is an effective way to quickly get a broad overview of a subject. Some encyclopedias will provide more in-depth information than others, however any general encyclopedia is a good source to consult for background information of your chosen subject area. Most encyclopedias provide the following:

• Main concepts 
• Titles of important books written about topic
• Names of authors who have written about topic
• Keywords and subject terms related to topic
• Lists of related articles or additional resources 

Frequently Used Online Encyclopedias

• Britannica Online
  (http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/eb.html)
  
  Print version of the New Encyclopedia Britannica is located in the Lockwood Library Reference Collection, AE5 .E361 1998.
  
  The online version of Britannica is available free to the UB community. It contains full text articles with photographs and illustrations. Many of the articles in the online version are not found in the print version. The online version also provides 75,000 definitions from the Merriman-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, articles from magazines such as  Newsweek and the Economist, and links to over 100,000 reviewed web sites.

Subject-Specific Encyclopedias

Subject-specific encyclopedias are important background sources for information. Unlike general encyclopedias which cover a wide range of topics, subject-specific encyclopedias focus their information in one particular subject area. Some features of subject-specific encyclopedias include:

• Detailed articles written by experts within a field 
• Extensive and comprehensive bibliographies of important resources

Go to Encyclopedias by Subject for a list of subject-specific online encyclopedias.

Go to Resources by Subject for a list of subject-specific and electronic resources including encyclopedias.

Searching BISON for subject-specific encyclopedias

• Keyword search example: psychology and encyclopedia
• Keyword search example: psychology and dictionary (Sometimes "encyclopedia" is used interchageably with "dictionary" in the title.)
• Keyword search example: psychology and (encyclopedia or dictionary) (Results will include psychology and encyclopedia AND psychology and dictionary).

• Subject heading search example: psychology--encyclopedias
• Subject heading search example: psychology--dictionaries