LibGuides: AMS 311S: Technology, Science, and Pop Culture / Schneider : Reference and Background

Getting Started: Reference and Background Information

If you use Wikipedia as a first step in your research, you are already using background information to get started with research. Background information helps you:

pre-research your topic
learn more about theories and concepts
define terms
find key terms you can use to search for additional sources

These types of sources should be used for getting started with your research but not as scholarly sources for your bibliography.

Gale eBooks
Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. A database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources. Fully searchable across all files.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
Oxford Bibliographies Online
These bibliographies provide an authoritative guide to the current scholarship, expert recs and authoritative commentary on the best works available in the discipline covered, making them particularly useful for anyone beginning research.
SAGE Knowledge
Unlimited users.
Selected titles only. Platform for Sage book and reference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more. Only select book titles purchased by the UT Libraries are fully accessible.

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide

Science in Popular Culture by A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Publication Date: 2002
Handbook of Popular Culture and Biomedicine by Arno Görgen; German Alfonso Nunez, Heiner Fangerau (Editors)
Publication Date: 2018
This handbook explores the ways biomedicine and pop culture interact while simultaneously introducing the reader with the tools and ideas behind this new field of enquiry. From comic books to health professionals, from the arts to genetics, from sci-fi to medical education, from TV series to ethics, it offers different entry points to an exciting and central aspect of contemporary culture: how and what we learn about (and from) scientific knowledge and its representation in pop culture.
A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and TV Since 1930 by A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Publication Date: 2011
This text focuses on the dramatized portrayals of a particular group of historical figures--scientists, engineers, and inventors--that have appeared on American film and television screens. This volume analyzes individual portrayals, the public images of particular scientists and inventors, and the ideas about science and technology that, collectively, they represent.

Cast a Wide Net

Not finding any reference sources in the databases? Use the library search tool to cast a wider net and search across disciplines. Refine your results to show just background information sources by selecting "Reference Entries" under Resource Type.