Is there a definitive list of preferred references sources in each discipline?
No such list exists. Generally, the items selected for the reference collections of academic, research, or public libraries should prove useful. To get an idea of the types of reference sources that have been consulted and cited for various types of headings, you could look at the 670 and 675 fields of subject headings established since 1986 ( i.e., subject authority records with the prefix “sh 86” or later). Note: The SACO home page contains a “List of Web resources for use in preparing SACO proposals” (developed by Adam Schiff, University of Washington), which includes selected authoritative sources, especially in the fields of geographic names and natural history, that may be useful for authority research. This is a “work in progress” and participants are invited to send the URL of their favorite research site to aschiff@u.washington.edu for inclusion in the list.
