Reference books are encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and other specially organized books. They're useful for finding summaries, definitions, and quick facts about a topic.
Subject Encyclopedias
Subject encyclopedias are a great first source to use when you begin researching a new topic.
Written by experts, entries in scholarly, subject encyclopedias give you crucial background information on a topic including:
- History of a topic
- Definitions, statistics, & demographics
- Important researchers and scholars
- Keywords you can use in further searches
- References to other sources you can use to expand your research