Librarian
What is background information?
Background information provides basic facts, history, descriptions and concepts about your topic. Use only the information that you find useful in starting your research. You can always return to your sources if you need more in-depth information as you get deeper into your research topic.
Recommended Databases for Anthropology
Identify articles in scholarly journals or popular magazines by looking up your search terms in one of the selected databases below.
You also can find a complete list of online databases organized by subject on the Library's A-Z List of Databases.
Use your Oakton username and password to login from a non-campus computer.
- Academic Search Complete EBSCO This link opens in a new windowProvides a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals - of which more than 7,300 are peer-reviewed journals.
- Bloomsbury Fashion Central This link opens in a new windowIncludes the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion online, an interactive timeline, a fashion photography archive, e-books, reference works, images, and current research in disciplines as diverse as anthropology, art history, history, sociology, geography, folklore, museum studies, theater, and cultural studies as well as fashion and textiles.
- Credo Reference - All Subjects Search This link opens in a new windowContains dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotations and atlases, plus a wide range of subject-specific titles.
- eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new windoweHRAF World Cultures contains ethnographic collections covering 281 cultures, including indigenous peoples and ethnic groups, as well as immigrant cultures in the U.S. and Canada. Comprehensive summaries cover topics such as economy, history and cultural relations, family and kinship, sociopolitical organization, and religion.
- Ancient and Medieval History Online This link opens in a new windowExplores the pre-modern world with in-depth focus on Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new windowGale eBook editions of multiple reference titles, including Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Encyclopaedia Judaica, and International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences.
- Grove Art Online (Oxford Art Online) This link opens in a new windowOxford Art Online provides access to Grove Art Online, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new windowDatabase of contemporary social issues with content structured to promote critical-thinking skills. It contains reference book titles, pro and con viewpoint articles, and a variety of periodicals, podcasts, reviewed Web links, images, statistical tables, charts, and graphs.
- Taylor & Francis eBooks This link opens in a new windowContains reference ebooks on engineering, chemistry, physics, nanotechnology, and biomedical science.