Why are reference books in the background report instead of the final bibliography?
They don’t seem like finding tools do they? They are both fact and finding tools. You can use an encyclopedia or manual to learn facts about your topic and generate ideas for keywords. But even the specialized reference books are too elementary for the sophisticated level of research we’re pursuing. In our craft, reference works are more useful to find bibliographies (at the end of most entries), experts (authors of entries) and keywords (related topic suggestions). These uses make them finding tools, background resources, in other words.
