Browne Popular Culture Library

Getting started with popular culture research is not always easy, since a fair amount of it is interdisciplinary and it is often difficult to find information on more contemporary topics. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas to get started.

Reference Books

Reference books from the BPCL reference collection are very good places to start researching. Three of best are:

• St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture - popref E169.1.S674 2000 5 vols.
• Greenwood Guide to American Popular Culture - popref E169.1.H2643 2002 4 vols.
• Encyclopedia of American Culture Studies - popref E169.1.E625 2001 4 vols.

Consult the reference collection outline for additional reference books.

Article Databases

Two of the best article database with which to begin research are:

• Academic Search Complete
  Indexes scholarly journal, magazine, and newspaper articles on a wide variety of topics. Lots of full text available.
• MasterFILE Premier
  Indexes popular magazine articles mainly on a wide variety of topics. Lots of full text available.

See our Databases for Popular Culture Topics page for additional databases.

Research Guides

Review our research guides to see if your topic is already there and you can get started all that much faster.

Ask Us!

If you need additional assistance, please don't hesitate to visit the Browne Popular Culture Library's service desk to ask for help. You can also call at 419-372-2450 or email us.