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CREDO Reference is a collection of reference works, sources intended to provide quick facts facts, definitions, dates, or details on a topic. When you ask your phone a question and receive a answer back from Wikipedia you are consulting a reference work.
CREDO Reference compiles:
from world class scholars (unlike your phone, which consults any and everything on the web).
CREDO Reference is a great starting place for college level research. While your professor may not want you to use a source from CREDO directly in your paper or speech, it is a useful source to find quality books and peer reviewed articles that your prof will approve of.
When searching in CREDO it is best to search one term at a time, instead of a whole research question. Instead of searching
Why are polar bears endangered?
instead simply search
polar bears
Within many of the articles on this topic will be sections relating specifically to the various challenges facing polar bears.
Many of the results in CREDO Reference will include a list of sources at the end of entry page titled Bibliography, Sources for Additional Study, For More Information, or other similar wording. These sources include key books and journal articles, and are great launching places for in depth research on the topic. They are also available through the library!
Beside each citation is link labeled "Check catalog and other full text locations." When you click on this link it will look in the library's catalog / Everything search for the item. If we have it, a link or call number to the source will be noted. If not, simply request the item for free through interlibrary loan by selecting the item, then clicking the blue Request It! button.
The Mind Map in CREDO Reference provides a visual representation of your results with your search term(s) at or near the center and related terms radiating out on lines from there. When you mouse over a term a definition box pops up for that term. You may click on another term and the entire "map" shifts to move that term to the center and rearranges related terms around it.
This resource is great for developing keywords for your research topic.