Background sources give you a broad overview of a topic and suggest possible ways to refine a topic. They also include bibliographies for further reading that can be valuable as you build a bibliography of sources to read and consult during your research.
If your citation is a book, you will search Franklin from the Penn Libraries homepage.
Franklin will help you find the library in which the book is located, and the call number. You can search for a specific book by title, author, or ISBN. You can also do a keyword or subject keyword search to find books on a particular topic.
On the next page, click Catalog to limit your search results to eBooks, books, and other print material.
Other important resources for finding books:
If you have a complete article citation, search Franklin from the Penn Libraries homepage to find the full text of your article.
On the next page, click Articles+ to limit your search results to articles.
No luck? That doesn't mean we don't have access to the article - it could be available in print! Try searching the Catalog for the journal name as a next step.
Select Catalog and search using the journal name. If the library owns the journal, click on the journal name and confirm that they have the proper issue/volume/date by examining the item record page. If they do, you can request a scan of the article by selecting Digital Delivery (under locations where the journal is held).
