Background Reading + Getting Started:
While we all use Wikipedia as a quick entry point for acquiring information and exploring a topic initially, but we cannot rely on this as an authoritative, stable resource of information. The library has many easy to use, authoritative, and reliable online encyclopedias and handbooks to help you get started with your research. Encyclopedia articles and bibliographies are amazing resources because they:
Contain introductory/contextual information and summaries of knowledge
Introduce and break down complex topics, theories, and other terms that may be new to you
Contain helpful bibliographic information (a much easier way to discover more resources!)
Bonus: easy to read, not that long, authoritative, updated, written by scholars in field
Research Tip: How to use Wikipedia wisely
Some Resources for Background Information:
HANDBOOKS
Handbooks are a great resource for locating best practices, research theories, names of authors, background material, overviews of topics, and good keyword terminology to use when you search databases for journal articles and other materials to inform and support your research.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
Encyclopedias available at the library are considered authoritative and reliable. The content is written by an academic for an academic audience, but the language is less esoteric and more descriptive. Encyclopedias are excellent starting points contextualize, introduce, and explain complex topics.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES
Bibliographies help you to fast track your own research. Published bibliographies will list and recommend journals, books, articles, and other resources on a specific topic, published by reputable scholars in that particular subject. Save yourself time searching by consulting these!
The Oxford Handbook of Latino Studies. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 2020.
Handbook Example:
Offers a wide-ranging exploration of the Latino experience in the United States. Twenty-five essays by leading and emerging scholars discuss and reconsider a variety of key themes and issues, including the Chicano Movement, gender and race relations, the changes in demographics, the tension between rural and urban communities, immigration, the legacy of colonialism, language identity and the controversy surrounding Spanglish, and meditations on popular culture and the lasting power of literature.
Relevant essay: "A Borderlands History of Latinx Cinema" by Paul A. Schroeder RodrĂguez
Online Bibliographies Resource:
Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies provides a path through the vast information thicket of cinema and media studies through the work of renowned scholars. It provides an organized, thoroughly peer-reviewed account of important books, articles, and Web sites on many sub-topics. Here a few relevant ones for this course: