How do I get to know my topic?
Background information sources are a gateway into your research. They provide overviews and context to help familiarize you with a topic and answer straightforward questions. Background information can help you narrow your research topic to a suitable scope for a paper or presentation. They include definitions, statistics, and summaries.
Finding Background Information
On Current Events
- Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new windowCurrent social issue topic overviews, including pro/con viewpoint essays, academic journal and news/magazine articles, images, videos, statistics, and more
- ProCon.orgSource for straightforward, nonpartisan information and research on controversial issues of the day
- FactCheck.orgAnnenberg Public Policy Center, Univ. of Pennsylvania
On People
- Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographical essays on "the world's most influential people," both contemporary and historical, with videos, images, magazine and newspaper articles, and more
- Gale Literature: Something About the Author This link opens in a new window
Full text essays cover the life, writings, critical reception, and more for authors and illustrators in all genres of English-language literature for children and young adults
Summaries and Overviews
- Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window
Gale’s eBook platform provides comprehensive support from many of today’s top publishers.
- Very Short Introductions This link opens in a new windowFull text overviews of diverse subjects, including ancient warfare, climate, consciousness, economics, game theory, Islamic history, literary theory, privacy, and more from Oxford Univ. Press
- Britannica This link opens in a new windowFull text academic edition of Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster Dictionary; includes video and audio clips
- Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new windowFull text encyclopedia articles, biographical entries, primary sources, images, and more relevant to African American studies and Africa and diaspora studies
Facts, Statistics, & More
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new windowLandmark historical resource that defines and illustrates through quotations the use of English language words from earliest known occurrence to present
- Statistical Abstract of the U.S. This link opens in a new window
Online edition of annual statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsMeasures labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.