REL 246: Christianity (Online): Encyclopedias

An encyclopedia is a type of reference book. Use a reference book to:

• Define important vocabulary words related to your topic,
• Find a basic overview and main issues related to your topic,
• Find references to additional resources, and
• Discover important background information related to your topic.

 How to Search in Online Encyclopedias

 Use broad terms, as encyclopedias usually provide general overviews of topics.  

                                              prayer

Use quotation marks ( "  " ) around phrases (two or more words); this tells the database to look for the words in a specific order.  

"school prayer"

 This image is shared in the Public Domain under aCreative Commons Deed CC0 1.0 from www.pixabay.com.

Below are a few places you can find definitions and encyclopedia articles, just remember that you will have to login with your myNOVA username and password (the same ones you use to access Canvas, student email, etc.).