Use reference books and articles:

Image, "Woman's head; seashore in background," from the NYPL Digital Gallery. No known restrictions on use.

Use the following online reference databases to find background information and overviews on a wide variety of topics. Unlike Wikipedia, you can see the academic authority of the author of the articles. You can use the references to find more resources and the information in the reference overview to help you identify important terms to search when looking for books or articles.

• TIP: Start with broad, general terms (example: "wildlife management," "wildfires," "drought") when searching reference works.

Subject specific reference materials.