Encyclopedias are great sources for background information. Like Wikipedia, the Library's encyclopedia collection covers a broad range of topics; however, encyclopedias have some clear advantages over Wikipedia:
- All of the articles are written by experts in the subject area.
- The entries can only be updated by authors or other experts chosen by the editor.
- The bibliographies or additional sources that accompany the articles will provide you with other credible sources you can use.
So even though Wikipedia can be a good place to begin, encyclopedias are more trustworthy and reliable. You can search for encyclopedias the same way you can for dictionaries (see instructions above).