Subject Guide: Communication: Background Information & Reference Books

Background information is very useful when narrowing down your topic, or when first learning about your topic. Background research (or pre-search!) is the first step in the research process. Getting background information on your topic allows you to learn enough about your topic to decide which specific aspect of that topic you wish to focus on, and gives you enough information about your topic for you to be able to talk about your topic for about a minute without repeating yourself. 

Background research can be as simple as Googling your topic or skimming the Wikipedia page for your topic to get a little more information about your topic. However, encyclopedias and other reference books can be even more helpful for background research. Encyclopedias are written by a variety of contributing authors with expertise on that topic and are put together by 1 (or more) editors. When searching for encyclopedias or encyclopedia entries on your topic, keep in mind that encyclopedia entries are often quite broad, so you may not find one exactly on your specific topic. Instead, they are designed to give a broad overview of a topic so you can learn the most important facts or details about that topic.

Examples of reference books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, and handbooks.

Reference books are found in the Reference Collection, or the green-labeled shelves in the library. You cannot check out reference books from the library, but you can look at them for as long as you are in the library, and you may take photo-copies of reference books. 

Access our print and online encyclopedias in the links below.

Often a Communication speech or report is on various subjects.  You are able to find subject encyclopedias on various topics in our reference collection.