Skip to Main Content

The Family and Marriage Research Guide

Background Research

Search the database Credo to familiarize yourself with and explore your topic. Credo Reference gives you access to over 600 reputable encyclopedias online. Short encyclopedia articles can help you to quickly identify concepts, topics, issues, and keywords for your topic.   Credo is a scholarly version of Wikipedia and comes with properly formatted citations!

Companions, Handbooks, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

These reference works are designed to give comprehensive introductions to their subjects. They are excellent when you are beginning a research project and need an intellectual map of how to proceed.  

Reasons to do Background Research

To find out the basics -To narrow the topic --Is information available? --To identify significant people--To identify search terms --To learn the theory--To plan your research---To formulate questions

Search the Library Catalog to find more!
You can find reference books on many subject by searching the catalog and using Use the Advanced Search page, change search type to Subject, type in a keyword related to your topic, EX: Frida Kahlo and add keyword(s) that will limit your search to reference sources, such as encyclopedias, bibliography, dictionaries, companions, handbooks, etc.

Examples of Reference Books