One of the most effective ways to find subject-specific reference books is to do a keyword search for your subject (as well as any synonyms or related terms for your subject) and then limit the results to the location of Reference. Here is a step by step example:

• Suppose that the subject you are looking for is women's issues. Keywords to use might include women, female, gender, and feminism.
• Do a keyword search in ALCUIN for these terms, linking them with "ORs" and truncating where relevant.
• In this search, for example, you would enter "women or female* or gender or feminis*". (For instructions on the use of Boolean operators and trunction, see How Do I Improve My Searching Techniques)
• Once you have the results of the keyword search, click the button at the top of the screen.
• For the box that says "WHERE Item is located:" select "L> Reference Coll" from the pull-down menu.
• Click the grey "Limit/sort items retrieved using above data" button at the bottom of the screen.
• Be patient. This may take a few moments.
• The results should end up being only reference books relevant to the original subject.
• If you have any questions, please ask at the Reference Desk.