Reference Works
General Information

Generally attempt to summarize topics and/or assist in finding secondary literature. The purpose of these sources is to answer short questions, provide background information, and help you find other sources. Reference works come in an assortment of types on all subjects.

 

Strengths:

  • Good starting points for research, particularly in unfamiliar topic areas (disciplinary handbooks, subject encyclopedias)
  • Good sources for quick facts, contact information, or statistics (almanacs, directories, statistical abstracts)
  • Good for discovering new vocabularies (dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias)
  • Provide lists of information sources on a topic (indexes, bibliographies)

Considerations:

  • Usually tools for finding more in-depth information sources, rather than being sources themselves.
  • Normally are found in the library's reference section and cannot be checked out. (Some are linked to a library's web page and can be accessed from anywhere.)
  • To start serious research, you should know enough about your topic to talk about it for 1 minute without repeating yourself.
  • Target audience: All types

 Encyclopedia