A reference is defined as a citation of a source of information (resource) such as a book or journal article. A reference "refers" to something else. When you create a bibliography for a research paper, you are listing all of your references (citations) to resources (books, journal articles, etc).
The Library's homepage has a section devoted to citation guides to assist students with creating references. We also have books that can assist you with this task.
A reference book is an item from the Library's reference collection. Items from the reference collection may only be used in the library. Reference books include dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, almanacs, atlases, and directories.
