Reference

Reference books are books used primarily for general, factual information on a specific topic.

Additional characteristics:

• Not for reading consecutively or cover-to-cover.
• Used in the library and not available to be checked out.
• May be a single volume or multiple volumes.
• Common to have no named authors, only editors.

Learn more....

 Reference books are tertiary sources. From: Source Reference

Back to Resource Types.

These are reference types most often used by students:

• General encyclopedias: Cover all topics from A-Z.
• Subject encyclopedias: Cover specific topics: historical events, time periods, themes, subjects, people, etc.
• Biographical Encyclopedias and Dictionaries: Cover people. 
• Dictionaries & Handbooks: Dictionaries define words; Handbooks define concepts.
• Atlases and Gazetteers: Cover geographical information, maps and text.

Additional reference types sometimes used by students:

• Yearbooks, almanacs, and supplements to encyclopedias: Published annually or periodically, good for statistics.
• Bibliographies: Lists of sources on a particular topic.
• Language dictionaries: Covers translations
• Directories: Lists of information.
• Concordance: An alphabetical index of all the words in a text.

Learn More...

  The difference between a general encyclopedia and a subject-specific encyclopedia. by Ms. Sinclair, TAS

The USIC & Library has reference books in both print and digital formats.

Print reference books are located in the area labeled Reference.  Print reference books have call numbers that begin with "REF," making them easy to identify in the catalog search results.

Digital reference sources (eReferences) are included in search results when using either a Bento Search or a Discovery Search. Some USIC eReferences are databases.  Some USIC eReferences are collections of individual eBooks. Link to specific USIC eReferences through the  A-Z Database List.  eReference do not have call numbers since they have no physical location.

The organization of a reference book or set of books is almost always described in detail at the beginning of the resource.  Here are three common arrangements for reference sources:

A-Z Order
Reference books are commonly organized in alphabetical (A-Z) order. This is true even when there are multiple volumes in a set such as a set of encyclopedias. You can see what alphbetical ranges are covered in individual volumes of a multi-volume set by looking on the spine of the book.
Note: If looking for a person, use their last name to locate them in an A-Z encyclopedia.

e.g.: Encyclopedia of World Biography

Theme, Time Periods, etc.
Sometimes reference books are organized by theme, time period, etc.

Dates or Historical Periods:
e.g.: Literature and Its Times

Themes / Information Type (Almanac, Biography, Primary Source.
The Index provides the volume name, volume number, and page number.

Index(es)
Some reference sources have one or more indexes at the end of the book or last volume. If the reference source has multiple volumes, an index entry will tell you the volume, page, and maybe the location on the page.


  e.g.: A Britannica entry looks something like "5-233-2b."  This directs you to volume 5, page 233, column 2 on the page, lower half of the page (A top, B bottom).

e.g.: The U.S. Immigration and Migration encyclopedia index tells you which volume to use and page numbers.

Reference have their own format for citations that is different from regular books. You are actually citing the entry or article that comes from the reference source, not the source itself (even though you include information about the book or database as well.) For this reason, if you are using a citation manager, use the "reference" template, not the book template.

Note: Editors and authors are not the same. When citing a reference source, do not enter the editors name in the autohor field.

See Citation Styles Guide for more information on citing reference.

Learn more....

  Difference between a reference book and a "book" when citing?   by Dr. Simeonidis, TAS
  Noodletools : Exporting a citation from EDS to Noodletools by Dr. Aiani, TAS