IRIS 42: Information and Research Instruction Suite for two-year colleges

Subject Encyclopedias and Your Topic

Let's work through an example

coffee cupMmmmm... coffee! For a sample topic we'll explore the roots of coffee as a multi-million dollar business.

Over the next few pages, we'll look at a typical article in a subject encyclopedia.

The first thing to know: Unlike other books, subject encyclopedias are not meant to be read from beginning to end. The idea is to zoom right in on the relevant article.

The best way to do that zooming is use the index. It's usually in the last volume.

Look up coffee in the index (it's good to start with a broad, general word).

Here's what it looks like:

Look up your word in the index

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