Agriculture

Encyclopedias and other reference books will:

• Give you brief facts about your topic.
• Give you a general understanding of your topic. 
• Highlight the important things about your topic. 
• Help you put your topic into context. 
• Show you how you can break down your topic into small manageable sub-topics (topical outline).
• Help you brainstorm your topic (Is your topic too narrow, too broad).
• Provide you with extra sources of information.

NOTE: You need to log in using your library barcode and PIN in order to access the e-books if you are off-campus. The following titles are a small sample of available resources. To find more resources, search the Library catalogue.

Wikipedia is NOT considered an appropriate or a credible source for academic research. The credibility of the information is questionable because anyone can edit the information in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia, is however a source that you can use (with caution):

• As a starting point for background information on your topic
• To find keywords that you can use for further research
• For a topical outline. A topical outline shows you the important concepts that you have to discuss in your paper
• To decide if your topic is too specific or too broad
• To put your topic into context; in other words, which aspects of your topic you would like to write about
• The references and links provided at the end of each entry can lead you to credible and scholarly information