Vasconcellos | Environmental Science Debates: Presearch

Tertiary Sources: Encyclopedias/Reference Books/Wikipedia:

Teritary sources like encyclopedias, reference books, and sites like Wikipedia are collections of short, factual entries often written by different contributors who are knowledgeable about a topic. General encyclopedias provide short, clear overviews on a wide variety of topics. Reference books provide short articles on a specific topic. World Book Online and Britannica Online are available through links on the Mid-Pacific library portal pages.

How They Are Used:

To start the research process when looking for background information on a topic
When trying to find key ideas, important dates or concepts

Consider:

While any source can have inaccurate information or content that is out-of-date, encyclopedias are generally considered excellent sources of reliable information.

Visual searching tool.

A great source to use at the start of your research!

Use this database to search for background reference sources.

Search all of the Gale eBooks at the Mid-Pacific Library.