Solano Community College Library: Sociology: Getting Started in Soc Research

What is PreSearch?

Presearch is the informal searching you might do on a topic before you start your deeper, more focused research. When you're doing your presearch you're finding background information on your topic and creating context for your topic and how you might want to approach it.

You can use ANY kind of presearch resources you want, including Wikipedia, as long as you keep in mind that presearch is informal and some of the resources that you use to educate yourself about your topic are not necessarily appropriate for a college-level paper.

Some other good places to start your presearch are Google, GoogleNews, and some of the library's "Getting Started" databases (encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference sources).

Reference Books (Encyclopedias & Dictionaries)

Encyclopedia of Sociology (online)
This classic reference has been updated to reflect many changes in society and in the field of sociology in recent years. Articles covering core issues such as race, poverty, violence, economics, pregnancy and abortion have been updated and expanded, and completely new articles have been written on topics such as the Internet, privacy and epidemiology. 2001 edition.
Gale Virtual Reference Library: Social Sciences
Solano's online collection of encyclopedias on a wide variety of sociology-related topics including family, race, gender, economics, class, and more

The Max Weber Dictionary by Richard Swedberg; Ola Agevall
ISBN: 9780804783415
Publication Date: 2016-09-07
Max Weber is one of the world's most important social scientists, but he is also one of the most notoriously difficult to understand. This revised, updated, and expanded edition of The Max Weber Dictionary reflects up-to-the-moment threads of inquiry and introduces the most recent translations and references. Additionally, the authors include new entries designed to help researchers use Weber's ideas in their own work; they illuminate how Weber himself thought theorizing should occur and how he went about constructing a theory. More than an elementary dictionary, however, this work makes a contribution to the general culture and legacy of Weber's work. In addition to entries on broad topics like religion, law, and the West, the completed German definitive edition of Weber's work (Max Weber Gesamtausgabe) necessitated a wealth of new entries and added information on topics like pragmatism and race and racism. Every entry in the dictionary delves into Weber scholarship and acts as a point of departure for discussion and research. As such, this book will be an invaluable resource to general readers, students, and scholars alike.
International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences by William A. Darity
ISBN: 9780028659657
Publication Date: 2007-11-09

Wikipedia as a PreSearch Tool

It's perfectly okay to look at a Wikipedia page to learn more about your topic when you're doing presearch, but you would not want to use this as a formal resource for your paper. What you can do is use Wikipedia's links and references to locate more authoritative and credible sources. In many cases you can find more authoritative resources, such as books and published articles from these references.

Search Wikipedia Now!