While books may seem outdated in this electronic age, they're still an excellent place to begin your research.  Books offer a detailed overview of a topic and most will include an exhaustive bibliography of sources that the author used for their research which you might want to pursue.  Books owned by the Library are in both print and e-book format.  The "URI Libraries Search" platform on the Library's home page will list both.  Print books may be checked out.. E-books can be accessed online without being "checked out".

Reference books provide concise summaries of many detailed topics and are a good place to narrow down your topic.  They also provide bibliographies of where to look further. 

Once you have narrowed your topic, use "Libraries Search" to find books that are more focused on what you want to research.

For any books that the Library does not own, they may be obtained through interlibrary loan.  The "interlibrary Loan" page listed under "Services" on the Library web site explains how to use this service.