Encyclopedias contain short, factual entries by contributors with expertise on the topic. There are two types of encyclopedias: general and subject. General encyclopedias contain concise overviews on a wide variety of topics. Subject encyclopedias provide in-depth entries focused within a single field of study. Encyclopedias are an excellent place to start your research.
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You can find encyclopedias in the SLU Libraries Catalog and search across hundreds of encyclopedias at once using Gale eBooks.
Use encyclopedias to:
Scholarly or Popular?
Encyclopedia entries will not usually meet your instructor's definition of a scholarly source, but they are often written by experts in the field, especially subject encyclopedias and may lead you to other scholarly sources through the bibliography or references.
