Animals
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Britannica Academic This link opens in a new windowBasic introduction to over 75,000 different topics, including encyclopedia articles, maps, news, definitions, and statistics. Includes a dictionary/thesaurus, media (photographs & selected audio/video files), famous quotations, country profiles, selected websites, and news articles.
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Science Reference Source - EBSCO This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for hundreds of science magazines, journals, reference books and high-quality videos. The database also contains science experiments, curriculum-aligned lesson plans, and a vast image collection. Includes access to the Science Reference eBook Collection.
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Science Online - Infobase This link opens in a new window
Presents a broad range of scientific disciplines through extensive definitions, essays, diagrams, biographies, and experiments.
Buildings
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Architecture & the Built Environment - Chicago RegionThe Chicago Region research guide from Oakton Library features this helpful overview of Chicago-focused architecture resources.
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Art & Design (Academic Video Online) - Alexander Street Press This link opens in a new window
This video collection features a diverse range of artists and their artforms, including but not limited to fashion, architecture, film, painting, and visual and fine arts.
Background information ... what do you know about your topic?
When you start a research project, you need to get a sense of what’s already been said (or written) about your topic. We call this kind of overview background information.
Examples of background information that can help kickstart your research include basic facts, key words, history, leading issues, descriptions, and concepts.
Think of background information as a research building block or foundation. Background information can help you locate suitable keywords for searching databases and identify more specific areas of your topic that you may want to research further.
Recommended background information databases
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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.
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Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Database 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.
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Help guide for Opposing ViewpointsThis is Oakton Library's in-house guide to getting the most out of the Opposing Viewpoints in Context database.
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CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Each issue examines a single "hot" topic with comments from experts, lawmakers and citizens on all sides of every issue. Includes charts, graphs and sidebar articles -- plus a pro-con feature, a chronology, lengthy bibliographies and a list of contacts.
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Help guide for CQ ResearcherThis is Oakton Library's in-house guide to getting the most out of the CQ Researcher database.
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A-Z Databases: Facts and Encyclopedias
Need more options for conducting background research on your topic?
Oakton Library has additional databases suitable for conducting research in a wide range of subjects.