Use this guide to perform background research to refine a research topic, confirm terminology, and get a general understanding before finding books and articles to support a research project.
Getting started with academic research | Overview of anthropology | Recommended databases
The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences provides full-text reference articles in HTML and PDF on a broad spectrum of the social sciences, including the arts, economics, psychology, psychiatry, and religion.
Search or browse across 23 subject encyclopedias and dictionaries with over 65,000 entries. References are linked via Get VText.
The Smithsonian Library's Digital Library contains digital publications, collections and objects including online exhibitions, webcasts, digital editions, bibliographies and fact sheets, and finding aids/inventories for collections such as our trade literature collection and artist files.