Defining "Reference"
Reference works are tertiary sources that provide background information, essentially a succinct overview of a topic. Use such works to clarify terms and concepts and to provide basic facts, statistics, and referrals to authoritative secondary sources. Reference works include:
- summary information
- definitions
- synonymous terms
- names associated with event
- dates and places
- data
- facts
- maps
- timelines
- bibliographies and further readings
- biographical information
- addresses and locations
Source: The Information-Literate Historian (c2013) by Jenny Presnell (Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, Miami University)
Selected Reference Works in Print
-
A Brief history of Afghanistan
by
Appendices include Bibliography and Suggested Reading by time period.
Call Number: Reference Collection DS356 .W34 2007ISBN: 9780816057610Publication Date: New York : Facts On File, c2007. -
The Contemporary Middle East: A Documentary History
by
Includes section on Afghanistan, contemporary primary source documents.
Call Number: Reference Collection DS42 .F44 2008ISBN: 0872894886Publication Date: Washington, D.C. : CQ Press, c2008. -
The Encyclopaedia of Islam
by
"Considered by academics to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies.... The most important and comprehensive reference tool for Islamic studies is the Encyclopaedia of Islam, an immense effort to deal with every aspect of Islamic civilization, conceived in the widest sense, from its origins down to the present day... EI is no anonymous digest of received wisdom. Most of the articles are signed, and while some are hardly more than dictionary entries, others are true research pieces – in many cases the best available treatment of their subject."
Call Number: Reference Collection DS37 .E523 Vol 1-12 plus IndexesISBN: 9004139745Publication Date: Leiden, Brill, 1960- -
Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures
by
v. 1. Methodologies, paradigms, and sources
v. 2. Family, law, and politics
v. 3. Family, body, sexuality, and health
v. 4. Economics, education, mobility and space
v. 5. Practices, interpretations and representations.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Call Number: Reference Collection HQ1170 .E53 2003ISBN: 9004132473 -
Historical Atlas of Islam
by
Call Number: Reference Collection G1786.S1 R9 2004ISBN: 0674013859Publication Date: Harvard University Press, 2004. -
Terrain Analysis of Afghanistan
by
Call Number: Reference Collection DS351.9 .T47 2003ISBN: 9780974297309Publication Date: Minneapolis : East View Cartographic, 2003.
