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Sociology 111 - South Bend-Elkhart

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Background information (e.g., encyclopedia entries and other reference materials) will provide you with a good overview of your topic/subject matter, but it will also:

  • Highlight important facts related to your topic (such as terminology, dates, events, history, names, and organizations)
  • Help you refine your topic (or give you ideas for a new one)
  • Lead you towards additional sources/information on your topic (look at the sources cited in reference articles you read!)
Lightbulb. Tip: take note of the terminology/keywords in the information you’re reading, as you can use these as search terms later

Use the databases below to find background information on your topic.

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Arrow pointing down.

↓ Start with Credo ↓

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Credo Reference offers hundreds of searchable reference books on a wide variety of subjects including business, history, science, social science, and humanities.

Start your search using the Credo search box above! 

↓ For more info on sociologists or theories ↓

While philosophy and sociology are two separate areas of study, they are also very much intertwined!

When you start learning about the primary areas, theories, and history of sociology, you’ll find that many of the early sociologists (such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Comte, Marx, and many more!) were prominent philosophers as well—so it may be helpful to search for information within the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

↓ Or start with Britannica ↓


Use Britannica to find articles, images/videos, timelines, dictionary entries, and primary sources on your topic. You'll also see 'Related’ tab at the top of every entry which has links to more items related to what you're reading.

↓ For biographies on sociologists ↓

Biography Reference Source provides thousands of reliable full-text biographies, including the complete full text of Biography Today and Biography, and narrative biographies not available in other databases.

You can browse biographies by genre (e.g., artists, authors, current world leaders, explorers, scientists, etc.), or just click the link below to go directly to a curated list of 162 different sociologists.