Today our topic of discussion is reference books.

Reference books

Sometimes you may have to take notes/comments from reference books for your studies. It is very important to know how to make best use of reference books and which reference books. In this lesson we will learn which are reference books, where to find them and how to deal with these books.

Objectives:

After you completing this lesson you will be able to:
identify which books are reference books
make effective use of a reference book

Situation :

In the libraries you will find two types of books that can be borrowed for a certain period and books/materials that cannot be taken out of the library. Reference books, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, bibliogra- phies, periodicals, magazines and journals belong to the latter type of materials.

Reference books are kept within the library because they have a special value for a lot of people. If these books are taken out of the library by a single person, many others, needing it will not find it there and thus will be deprived.

 

 

Reference books:

have a very wide coverage of information
are easy to use
present specialized information very concisely.

The reference books usually found in a library are:

Encyclopedias:

You will find many encyclopedias in a library on different issues/subjects. One best known encyclopedia is the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’. It contains short articles on specific subjects, written by authorities.

The articles in this encyclopedia are arranged alphabetically. Many contains cross-references and a brief bibliography. It is revised regularly to keep it up to date and a year-book is issued titled “Britannica Book of the year” which summerises important events and information of the previous year.

Other very well known and much talked about encyclopedias include: “Chambers Encyclopedia” and “Encyclopedia Americana”. Encyclopedias for specific fields e.g. medicine, literature, art and culture, music, religion, bank, science and technology are also found in the library.

Year books, Almanacs, Compilations of facts.
Year books are published annually. A typical example is the *Commonwealth Universities Year book’. This book sets out information about all the universities in the commonwealth including lists of the department and the faculty. ‘

The world of learning’ is a comprehensive up- to-date directory of educational, cultural and scientific institutions throughout the world. Other examples include ‘Who’s Who’ and the ‘Stateman’s year book.’ Yearbooks, Almanacs and Compilations of Facts can be consulted for miscellaneous facts and statistics.

 

 

Dictionaries:

One of the best known dictionaries is the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’. ‘Webster’s Third New International Dictionary’ published in America is also very well known. You will also find subject area dictionaries, for example dictionaries of medical terms, science and technology, literary terms, American writers, British writers and so on. Bibliographies: Bibliographies are alphabetical lists of books and articles dealing with a specific subject or a general area of study. They don’t contain facts but they indicate where to find the facts.

Atlases:

The Times Atlas of the World’ and the ‘Reader’s Digest Great World Atlas’ provide a comprehensive collection of maps including a lot of information on population distribution, major resources, sea routes, geology, climactic condition, astronomy, life in the sea, bird migration, the growth of civilization and so on.

 Periodicals:

Periodicals include, journals, magazines, bulletins and pamphlets that are published periodically – at weekly, monthly, or quarterly intervals. They contain much up-to-date information, opinion and numerous reviews on different subject areas.

 

 

Indexes and abstracts:

Indexes and abstracts can be found in the library’s reference section. Indexes are books, usually with a new volume each year, containing alphabetically ordered references to articles on given subjects. And abstracts are summaries of articles allowing you to know whether a certain article is important enough for your project and whether will be worth tracking down.

Special Encyclopedias, Reference works, Handbooks and General histories:

If you want more infomation about a field than you could find in a general encyclopedia article, you can consult a work that surveys the field or a significant portion of it. Such books are helpful both for locating a technical or historical fact and for acquiring a sense of the whole field before working on narrow problems.

Biographies

Names can be identified and lives studied from the biographies. Some of the well-known biographies include, ‘Chamber’s Biographical dictionary’, ‘Contemporary authors’, ‘Dictionary of American Biography’ and so on.

Review Questions : Answer the following questions.

1. Why can’t reference books be taken out of a library?
2. Give three examples of reference books.
3. What can be learned from a bibliography?
4. How do periodicals keep you up to date?
5. Give three examples of Encyclopedias on specific subjects.
6. Name three of the best-known periodicals.
7. Name three very well-known dictionaries