A reference book is a summary source providing general information within a subject area. For this reason, reference books are good starting places for research. Why not just use Wikipedia? One reason is because reference books go through a rigorous publication process before they are ready for publication, whereas Wikipedia articles are crowd-sourced and may be written by non-experts. 

Our print reference collection has ~3,400 books, and our e-reference collection has an even larger number. The print collection is located on the 2nd floor in the blue compact shelves. Our e-reference collection features books from publishers Gale, Oxford, and Sage. 

We have a short tutorial that will help you become more familiar with our e-reference books, titled  "How to Get Started with Online Encyclopedias." Ask any librarian if you'd like to learn more about this special collection.