"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. "
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/ ]
Reference sources 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. Your instructor will like these sources better than Wikipedia.
Examples of reference sources include: books, dictionaries, almanacs and encyclopedias. These sources are available in print and/or electronic formats.
Search selected dictionaries and encyclopedias from Oxford University Press:
Examples:
Search Sage Knowledge for indepth, authoritative background information on social sciences topics.
