Find Background Information

Background information can give you an overview of your topic and introduce you to concepts, trends, vocabulary, events, etc. around your topic. Wikipedia and Google can often be good places to go for some basic background information. Library databases can also help you find detailed and informative background information on your topic.

Reference Sources provide you contextual information and an overview of the critical historical events and figures. They are written based on primary and secondary sources. These are good are for familiarizing yourself with your research area.

Reference sources can:

Provide an overview of your topic
Are often written by scholars or experts in the field
Provide key people, places, events, and terms that you can use to refine your searches
Often offer suggestions for further reading

These databases can help you find background information.

Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Contains online reference works -- see title list for individual works included.
Literary Reference Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. Materials include plot summaries, overviews, literary criticism, author biographies, and more.
Literary Reference Center includes more than 10,000 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews; articles of literary criticism; author biographies; full text of over 300 literary journals; book reviews; 25,000 classic and contemporary poems; 11,000 classic and contemporary short stories; full text of over 7,500 classic novels; author interviews; and over 1,000 images of key literary figures.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism This link opens in a new window
Access a historical survey of literary theory and criticism. Includes the field’s influential figures, schools and movements. The scope is international with an emphasis is on Western critical theory. Each entry includes a selective primary and secondary bibliography.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online This link opens in a new window
Access biographical and critical essays on the lives, works and careers of the influential literary figures.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook This database is also cross-searchable with the Gale Literature Criticism Online database.
Oxford Bibliographies Online. African Studies This link opens in a new window
Guide to scholarly literature in the field of African studies. Subdivided into articles by established scholars covering major categories of research with corresponding bibliographies of recommended resources.