Tacoma Community College Library: ENGL 101: Carver, K. (Fall 2024): Reference sources

Reference databases

Why use reference sources?

Reference sources can give you a background information and a general overview of your topic and can point you to more specific research. They can also help you identify relevant names, places, ideas, and dates to use as search terms. In addition, they can help you to brainstorm ideas for narrowing a very broad topic to a point of interest.

Try searching the following subject encyclopedia database:

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Digitized reference works, covering many disciplines. Very useful for background information on a topic. Search by keyword and use no more than one or two terms (e.g., biomedical research).

Take a look at the following brief video tutorial if you need guidance on searching the Gale eBooks database:

Search example in Gale eBooks (formerly known as GVRL)

Searching Gale eBooks

Follow the steps shown below to search for content in Gale eBooks.

Searching for an article

Consider the MAIN concept you are exploring, and use that as a keyword to search this database for relevant articles.

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Selecting an article

To read an article in Gale eBooks, click on the article title. Be sure to note the titles of the encyclopedias the articles come from. Finally, always read through more than one article to get multiple perspectives or views on an issue.

Click the article title to read the whole article.

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Saving and citing an article

Once you click on an article title, look at the tools on the side for how to cite, email, download, etc., so you can take that article with you.

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