Why Background Information?
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other resources to help you discover basic information—names, dates, definitions, summaries, etc. These materials--commonly known as reference books--are good places to start when narrowing or choosing your topic, and when beginning research on an unfamiliar subject.
Recommended Reference & Background Info: Literature
American Women WritersISBN: 9781438150086Publication Date: 2016-02-01This engaging resource examines the stories of women from a wide array of cultures and generations who share a love of writing. These women are also united by the unique challenges facing women writers - some having to opt for masculine pen names in order to be published.
Dictionary of Classical MythologyISBN: 9781782976356Publication Date: 2014-05-31A comprehensive A – Z guide to Greek and Roman mythology. All major myths, legends and fables are here, including gods and goddesses, heroes and villains, dangerous women, legendary creatures and monsters. Characters such as Achilles and Odysseus have extensive entries, as do epic journeys and heroic quests, like that of Jason and the Argonauts to win the Golden Fleece, all alongside a plethora of information on the creation of the cosmos, the many metamorphoses of gods and humans, and the Trojan War, plus more minor figures – nymphs, seers, kings, rivers, to name but a few.
Encyclopedia of African-American Literature by ISBN: 9781438140599Publication Date: 2013Encyclopedia of African-American Literature, Second Edition covers the entire spectrum of the African-American literary tradition, from the 18th-century writings of pioneers such as Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley, to 20th-century canonic texts, to the finest of today's best-selling authors and rap artists.
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and PoeticsISBN: 9780691154916Publication Date: 2012-08-26The most comprehensive and authoritative reference for students, scholars, and poets on all aspects of its subject: history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more.
Recommended Reference & Background Info: General Topics
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Credo Reference is a general knowledge database providing articles, images, charts, maps and other materials on thousands of topics. With 750+ searchable, full-text titles, Credo Reference places particular emphasis on subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks. Also included are more than 1,100 short reference videos, more than 475,000 high-resolution art images, photographs, and maps across all subject areas.
- Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window Featuring a dynamic design and a wealth of features, Issues & Controversies helps researchers understand today's crucial issues by exploring hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Issues and Controversies provides up-to-date, in-depth and objective information on prominent and hotly debated issues. It combines objective analysis with clear explanations of opposing points of view. Chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, bibliographies and contact information augment the balanced, accurate coverage of current and historical events.
- Sage Reference This link opens in a new window Start your research with authoritative encyclopedias and handbooks in the social and behavioral sciences. Provides access to hundreds of carefully selected reference titles on topics across the social sciences. Content includes handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and debates.
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window The Oxford English Dictionary is the world's leading authority on the history and development of the English language since 1150. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, sometimes from as far back as the 11th century, and of the language—traced through 3.5 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts, song lyrics, and social media posts.
- In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window Opposing Viewpoints offers material to support differing views to help develop critical thinking skills on thousands of current social topics in the forms of primary source documents, statistics, websites and multimedia. Find overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues, including racism, capital punishment, global warming, and voting rights with reference sources, newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly journals, court cases, government documents, viewpoints, maps, images, audio, video and websites.