Skip to Main Content

HIST 369, U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction: Background

Reference Sources

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.

Why Use Reference Sources?

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.  UFV Library has many reference titles both in print and online to get you started.

[Video developed by University of Guelph. https://learningcommons.lib.uoguelph.ca/item/5-reasons-use-reference-sources; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ ]

Online Reference Collections

Oxford English Dictionary

"The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. "

Need help? Ask us!

Chat loading...

Featured Reference Books

Selected books from our electronic reference collection:

The University of the Fraser Valley is situated on the traditional territory of the Stó:lō peoples. The Stó:lō have an intrinsic relationship with what they refer to as S’olh Temexw (Our Sacred Land), therefore we express our gratitude and respect for the honour of living and working in this territory.

© , University of the Fraser Valley, 33844 King Road, Abbotsford, B.C., Canada V2S 7M8