Reference books are located on level 3. The Art Library and the Music Library have their own reference sections.
Reference books are useful for quick fact checking and for background information. As such, they remain in the building. Examples of reference books include: almanacs, atlases, dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias and indexes.
Reference sources are most useful when you are beginning to work on a topic and need to acquire some background knowledge about it. You may not end up citing them in your bibliography or Works Cited page, but they can help you to get started.
Selecting the type of sources for your research can begin with something as simple as tertiary sources (for example, encyclopedias) which provide background information on a particular subject or topic. If you are interested in learning about vaccines, an encyclopedia can provide details about the vaccine’s history (who developed it, where, how long ago, etc). Perhaps the developers of the vaccine, the associated sickness, and the time-period will direct you to books published by those researchers or news reports from publications of that time. Also, the names of the researchers, the companies, and any medical terms mentioned will be valuable pieces of information to collect and use later as “key terms” or keywords.
The following are a list of commonly found reference sources:
Almanacs
One volume summaries of current and historical facts and general knowledge.
Examples: World Almanac and Book of Facts, Guinness Book of Records
Atlases
Book of maps. There are many kinds of atlases — physical, political, statistical, historical.
Example: The Times Atlas of the World
Dictionaries
Alphabetical list of words and definitions. These can also focus on specific subjects.
Examples: Random House Webster's College Dictionary, The Dictionary of Celtic Mythology
Encyclopedias
Contain more extensive articles than do dictionaries. There are general encyclopedias such as The New Encyclopaedia Britannica and specialized encyclopedias, such as The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Indexes
Print and electronic collections to periodical literature.
Example: Book Review Digest
Other types of reference sources include:
Government documents and statistical sources are also considered reference. However, much of this information is available electronically.
The library also makes available e-reference books. Such e-reference books are located either as a link from the CUNY Catalog or listed among the Databases on our library homepage. To see these reference sources, select an option such as “Dictionaries” from the drop down menu listed as "Database Type".
