...
- Encirclements of topics
- Humbly informative in supplying
- Names of key writers on a topic
- Open questions within a topic
- Bibliography
- Wanting your evaluation of them by
- Analyzing their structure (alphabetical or topical?)
- Reading their Preface or Introduction (an example of doing doing this critically: Encyclopedia of the Reformation)
- Identifying (all or some of these):
- The academic credentials of their editors and authors
- Their presumed audience
- Their currency
- Their purpose
- Their perspective
- Their scope
- Very often electronic these days (see Oxford, Gale, Credo--for Gale see under G for Gale Virtual Reference Library)
- Somewhat challenging to find on topic, but discoverable
- by using the library catalog (use Advanced option and limit by Materials to Reference Books)
- by using Summon (after any given search, limit under Content Type by Reference)
- by trusting the library to search for you: Reference Works
- by asking a reference librarian