Reference books provide background information on a topic, such as definitions of terms, key figures and events, and well written overviews. They can be a useful starting point for any research project, because they fill in missing knowledge about the topic or provide you with the language of the discipline.
Native residential schools in Canada : a selective bibliography
Residential Schools and Reconciliation : Canada Confronts Its History by Search selected dictionaries and encyclopedias from Oxford University Press:
Examples:
Click on the Sage icon and search Residential Schools, First Nations or racism.
