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Encyclopedias Encyclopedias can be very useful sources for locating information on a research topic. Although we discussed how to use online databases and print magazine indexes first in this Tutorial, we actually recommend that you start your research using an encyclopedia. Encyclopedias come in different forms. There are general encyclopedias such as World Book and Encyclopedia Britannica which cover a wide range of knowledge. Most of us have probably used a general encyclopedia in high school, or own one at home. General encyclopedias are written for the average layperson and are targeted for junior and senior high school students. We will not cover general encyclopedias in this Tutorial. However, general encyclopedias can be quite valuable for gathering background information on a topic. The other type of encyclopedia is known as a subject encyclopedia. Subject encyclopedias come in all shapes and sizes. Some are one or two volumes in length and others can have as many as twenty volumes or more. Subject encyclopedias cover specific subject areas and are designed for the educated reader. The articles in subject encyclopedias are produced by scholars in the field and usually provide an in-depth bibliography. Subject encyclopedias are published on just about any topic imaginable. Here are just a few of the subject encyclopedias own by the MCTC library.
These encyclopedias represent only a small number of the encyclopedias owned by the MCTC library. To locate the encyclopedias owned by a library, go to the library's online catalog and do a Subject Heading search using the term "encyclopedias." This will provide you with a list of the library's encyclopedias--most of which are located in the library reference collection. Subject encyclopedias are very useful for doing research. Sticking with our genetic engineering of food research topic we will demonstrate how to make good use of subject encyclopedias. One of the problems in using subject encyclopedias is knowing how to locate the right encyclopedia. Many students wonder how they are supposed to know whether the library owns an encyclopedia on the topic they are researching. One way to find out is by spending some time in the library reference room. Another thing we can do is consult our Dewey Decimal guide and locate the subject encyclopedia based on where it should be cataloged in the collection. (At a library that uses the Library of Congress system refer to the LC Classification guide). Subject encyclopedias are cataloged with other reference books in the same subject area. For example the Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History has the call number REF 973.0496073 En19. "REF" means that the book is located in the reference collection. Looking at the Dewey Decimal summary we see that the 900's cover the subjects of geography and history. The 970's cover the general history of North America. Going further you would find that 973 covers the history of the United States. Encyclopedias which cover aspects of American history are classified in Dewey 973. Similarly, encyclopedias that cover social problems and services will be located in the 360's and encyclopedias that pertain to architecture are located in the 720's. Approach using the Library of Congress Classification System the same way. Using the Dewey Decimal guide is helpful but it still does not address the question of how we determine which encyclopedia is right for our topic. For our purposes we will continue to use the topic "genetic engineering of food." We recommend that when doing actual research you start with a subject encyclopedia rather than online databases or print magazine indexes, especially if you do not know much about the subject. To determine which encyclopedia to use for locating information on our subject we must think about how our topic fits into the structure of knowledge. Given the nature of our topic (the genetic engineering of food crops), we would be right in assuming that we can find information in subject encyclopedias in the areas of science, agriculture, the environment, ethics, and philosophy. Now we must determine whether the library we are using has encyclopedias published in these areas. To do that, go to the library's' online catalog and perform a truncated keyword or subject keyword search using the words "encyclopedia#" and the broad subject category for the topic. For example, if you want to know if the library owns an encyclopedia of ethics you could do a keyword search for: "encyclopedia# ethics" If you are at the MCTC library you will discover that we have two very useful encyclopedias in the area of ethics:
Both these encyclopedias are multi-volume sets. To learn how to use these encyclopedias, look at the following lessons.
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Now that you know how to use subject encyclopedias it
is time for you to search them yourself. Print off the
