ENC 1102 - Marcus (Dale Mabry): Home

* What? Reference materials (encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, atlases, etc.) are great sources to start your research—or to supplement it at any stage. 

* Why? They provide background information and topical overviews. Your professor may allow you to cite a subject-specific reference source.

* Where? In the Library - Reference room, 2nd Floor, DLRC. Online - In library research databases. The following are a few that contain articles from subject-specific encyclopedias and other reference items:

Find books, articles, videos, & more

Click to Search Log-in first for best results! Advanced Search

Your search terms—key words or phrases—and how you combine them, are the first step in searching for the results you want. 

• student loan* and debt
  • The * picks up alternate endings of the word. This search is conduced in the Advanced Search screen. Location is limited to Dale Mabry for any physical, hard-copy books.

• "hills like white elephants" and criticism
  • Enclosing two or more words in "quotation marks" searches words that belong together, in the order shown, as a phrase.
  • Adding the keyword criticism searches materials that discuss the story, rather than materials that contain the text of the story itself. 

Individual databases may provide a smaller "universe" than the all-in-one library catalog search that brings up items in the library along with electronic materials. Search your topic in these databases for online sources such as articles, streaming videos, and more.