Reference materials are materials that are used to reference basic information on a subject before researching it further. Examples are encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and so on. They also include important works relevant to a subject area that are used frequently and need to remain accessible to several people at a time. Each major subject area in the library has a Reference Collection (Social Sciences, Religion & Family History, Music & Dance, Humanities, Science, Maps, etc.). Materials in the Library's Reference collections do not check out, but are open and available for use while in the library.
In searching the library website, you may run across a record for a Reference item. Below is an example of what an online record for a Reference item looks like. The items highlighted by the purple boxes indicate that the item is part of a Reference Collection. If you need a copy that you can take out of the library, please use the "Request item" function and select "interlibrary loan" to see if the library can get a copy that can checkout for you.
