Find background material on your topic

The Library licenses access to many specialized encyclopedias, handbooks, and short introductions to topics and issues.

Use them to get background information on your topic efficiently.

Learn facts or scholarly opinion about a country, historical event or period, individual, thinker or writer (Freud or Aristotle).

Use better tools

Recommended sources

Humor: A Very Short Introduction, by Noel Carroll.  Online.

  Noel Carroll considers the nature and value of humour, from its leading theories and its relation to emotion and cognition, to ethical questions of its morality and its significance in shaping society. Please click on "End Matter" to reveal the extensive list of "References and Further Reading".

Editorial Cartooning and Caricature: a Reference Guide, by Paul Somers. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998. Uris Library: A.D. White Z5956.C3 S66x 1998.

General reference sources

Gale Virtual Reference Library  Excellent collection of full text encyclopedias.

Sage Reference Online  Excellent collection of full text encyclopedias.

Oxford Reference Online  Outstanding collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and companions.

Encyclopedia Britannica  Now includes rich supplementary material (maps, data, news, articles, website links and more).

Background on theories and theorists