CCSF Library: Steps of the Research Process: Find Background Information

Find background information

Background and introductory information place a research topic into a greater context. Lecture notes, textbooks, and reference books such as encyclopedias and almanacs provide important background information.

1. Look up keywords in a reference source to get an overview of the subject you're exploring. Credo Reference and Gale eBooks contain hundreds of encyclopedia and reference books and are great places to start.

2. Read articles and entries in the sources you find to set the context of your research. Pay close attention to the vocabulary the authors use.

Credo Reference
Credo Reference offers background information on topics from hundreds of full-text general and subject-specific reference/encyclopedia titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
Gale eBooks
An online collection of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Small searchable and downloadable collection of electronic books on a variety of subjects.

▶ Check out our video on how to use e-books for research.
Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)
Features viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites.