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Hist 301: Historian's Craft (Benes, Spring 2024)

Reference Sources

Reference materials are designed to provide overviews on a topic, or give recommendations on where else to find information, or to provide a short burst of general information on a topic. These materials include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, guides, and bibliographies. Our physical collection of reference materials are on the main floor, but most are currently online. NOTE: reference sources are often written by experts, but are not considered peer reviewed articles/chapters. They are meant to direct you to peer reviewed literature, not serve as a substitution for it.

NOTE: these are a starting point, not peer reviewed research materials.

These are some key reference resources:

Finding reference sources in the library catalog

In the library catalog, search your topic keyword in one box, then in the second search:

(Dictionar* OR encyclopedia OR handbook) 

Be sure to limit results to books and ebooks

You can also use a normal search for your topic, then limit your results to "Reference Entries"

Example: