From the Two-Minute Tutorials Series by Cal State LA Library.
Sometimes you don't know enough about a topic to search effectively. Encyclopedias and other reference sources give concise overviews of topics that can help you get to know the topic so you can do better searches for in-depth and scholarly information. This includes:
The International Encyclopedia of Art and Design Education, 3 Volume Set
The Concise Dictionary of Art Terms by 
The Grove dictionary of art. From Renaissance to Impressionism by 
Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean art by 
Historical Dictionary of Renaissance Art by 
Encyclopedia articles written by professional writers to give concise and accurate overviews of a wide range of topics, people, places, and things.
Wikipedia is similar to other encyclopedias, except that the authors can be anyone instead of professional writers. This means that some writers are experts in the topic, and others are regular people like you and me.
Like all encyclopedias, Wikipedia should be used as a starting place for research and not as an authoritative source for your research projects.
This tutorial explains how to use Wikipedia as an exploratory tool and where it can appropriately fit in the research process.
By ClipInfoLit, Creative Commons license CC BY