While an article from a general encyclopedia is usually not an acceptable source in a college research paper and must be used only as a background source, a specialized encyclopedia article with experts as authors may provide enough substance and detail to be considered a scholarly source. Encyclopedia articles will also often list citations to books or other research materials for you to investigate in your research. Many reference tools, such as the library catalog and many periodicals indexes, are electronic databases accessed through a computer. All reference tools used to be print sources. Many were later converted to electronic format to enhance opportunities for detailed and comprehensive searching.
Libraries continue to have many bibliographic sources in paper format.
For many topics, you'll need to use both paper and electronic sources. You'll learn more later in this course about using databases to locate periodical articles. You'll learn many database searching techniques in this class, techniques that will help you do research on your own. When using electronic databases, however, especially ones new to you, you may need to ask advice from a reference librarian who can help you devise an effective search strategy. So feel free to ask for help at the reference desk.