Reference Sources are used to locate general factual information on a particular topic. They usually are read for specific pieces of information, rather than from beginning to end. Reference sources can refer to encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, handbooks, indexes, atlases, and bibliographies. We have tried to link primarily to reference sources available digitally in this section. You can also browse reference sources through the IUB Virtual Reference Room or in the Wells Reference Reading Room. Materials in the Reference Room cannot be checked out, and thus must be consulted in-house.
In the Wells Library, you can find Toshiba printers in the Scholars' Commons and the Learning Commons on the first floor, as well as on the second, fourth, and fifth floors of the West Tower. For printing assistance and plotter printers, patrons should go to the fourth floor of the West Tower. Patrons with an IU login can use the My Print Center website to upload documents for printing. Please see the Printers and Technology page for more information.
You can make photocopies on the first and ninth floors of the East Tower, or scan documents to save in digital format in several locations in the East and West Towers. Government Information, Maps and Microform Services (East Tower, 2nd floor) has microform machines that can scan images from microfilm, microfiche, and microopaques.
The Scholars' Commons Digitization Lab is a high-end multimedia, multidisciplinary self-service lab dedicated to the digital conversion of materials, and the management and migration of born-digital objects in support of research needs and interests of Indiana University Bloomington's faculty and students. The Lab provides both large format high-speed flatbed and sheet-fed scanners for text documents and large-format flatbeds with transparency capability for photographs, slides, and negatives. It also includes ABBYY Fine Reader (a high-end OCR software). See more on the library website.
According to Bloomsbury Publishing, "companions are of interest to researchers, instructors and students. The Handbooks are a series of single-volume reference works which aim to map the parameters of a discipline or sub-discipline and present the 'state of the art' in terms of research."
Handbooks are concise reference works which provide practical information on a particular subject. While encyclopedias cover a wide range of topics, handbooks offer more focused analysis of a particular topic. Explore the following links for lists of handbooks in relevant fields:
Images: Book Covers(clockwise from top left corner) Gender: Sources, Perspectives, and Methodologies, edited by renée c hoogland; Gender: Laughter, edited by Bettina Papenburg; Gender: Love, edited by Jennifer C Nash; Gender: Time, edited by Karin Sellberg; Gender: Animals, edited by Juno Salazar Parreñas, Gender: God, edited by Sian Hawthorne; Gender: Nature, edited by Iris van der Tuin; Gender: War, edited by Andrea Peto; Gender: Matter, edited by Stacy Alaimo
Routledge Handbooks, Available as E-books
All handbooks listed below link to an e-book, available with IU Bloomington affiliation. These handbooks focus on a specific topic featuring contributions from experts in that field. Compared to companions and encyclopedias, handbooks tend to focus on a more specialized niche or sub-discipline. Explore below:
Enumerative bibliographies (also called compilative, reference or systematic) are lists of media (including books, film, etc.) which result in an overview of publications in a particular category. Enumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, or topic. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The bibliographies below can help offer an overview of the scholarship in a field and assist you in identifying relevant sources.
Source: Bibliography (Wikipedia)
For additional bibliographies, see the following: