Library Homepage: K. Brown: GSTR 210 (Spring 2017): Background Info

Why Use Encyclopedias?

Background sources like encyclopedias can provide context for your topic, or even help you choose one. They are great places to start because:

they explain topics in simpler language than scholarly articles
they are much shorter (often just a just a page or two, instead of the 20 pages or more found in a scholarly article or the hundreds of pages found in a book)
they highlight important issues, figures, dates, and/or events that you may want to focus on in your paper or project
they give you suggested sources for further research in the form of bibliographies or works cited

Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Gale Virtual Reference Library offers a wide variety of full-text interdisciplinary content on virtually any subject area to support assignments, papers, projects, and presentations. Includes the Scribner Writers Series.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Oxford Music Online comprises the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London, 2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie (London, 1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, edited by Barry Kernfeld (London, 2002). Articles that have been updated since their appearance in print are date-stamped in the upper right corner of the screen. The publisher has also added The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music to this online resource.