Areference work is adocument, such as apaper,book orperiodical (or theirelectronic equivalents), to which one can refer forinformation.[1] The information is intended to be found quickly when needed. Such works are usuallyreferred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in these works is informative; the authors avoid opinions and the use of the first person, and emphasize facts.[citation needed]
Indices are a common navigation feature in many types of reference works. Many reference works are put together by a team of contributors whose work is coordinated by one or more editors, rather than by an individual author. Updatededitions are usually published as needed, in some casesannually, such asWhitaker's Almanack, andWho's Who.
Reference works includetextbooks,almanacs,atlases,bibliographies,biographical sources,catalogs such aslibrary catalogs and art catalogs,concordances,dictionaries, directories such asbusiness directories andtelephone directories,discographies,encyclopedias,filmographies,gazetteers,glossaries,handbooks, indices such asbibliographic indices andcitation indices,manuals,research guides,thesauruses, andyearbooks.[2] Reference works, while traditionally printed, are often available in electronic form and can be obtained asreference software,CD-ROMs,DVDs, or online through theInternet.Wikipedia, anonline encyclopedia, is both the largest and the most-read reference work in history.[3]
In manypublic andacademic libraries, reference books are not available for borrowing.[4][5] Reference books may be consulted frequently, such as dictionaries or atlases, or very rarely, like a highly specializedconcordance. Because some reference books are in constant demand while others are used so infrequently that replacement would be difficult, they may be kept on-site and made available for photocopying or digital scanning instead of checkout.[6]
Analmanac (also spelled almanack and almanach) is a regularly published listing of a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information likeweather forecasts, farmers'planting dates,tide tables, and othertabulardata often arranged according to thecalendar. Celestial figures and various statistics are found in almanacs, such as therising andsetting times of theSun andMoon, dates ofeclipses, hours of high and lowtides, andreligious festivals. The set of events noted in an almanac may be tailored for a specific group of readers, such as farmers, sailors, or astronomers.
Annals (Latin:annāles, fromannus, "year") are a concisehistorical record in which events are arrangedchronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for anyhistorical record.
Anatlas is a collection ofmaps; it is typically a bundle ofmaps of Earth or of acontinent or region ofEarth. Advances inastronomy have also resulted in atlases of thecelestial sphere or of other planets.
Atlases have traditionally been bound intobook form, but today, many atlases are inmultimedia formats. In addition to presentinggeographical features andpolitical boundaries, many atlases often featuregeopolitical, social,religious, andeconomic statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it.
Bibliography (fromAncient Greek:βιβλίον,romanized: biblion,lit. 'book' and-γραφία,-graphía,'writing'), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study ofbooks as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (fromAncient Greek:-λογία,romanized: -logía). English author and bibliographer John Carter describesbibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is "the study of books as physical objects" and "the systematic description of books as objects" (or descriptive bibliography).
Abiographical dictionary is a type ofencyclopedic dictionary limited tobiographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, inWho's Who, or deceased people only, in theDictionary of National Biography). Others are specialized, in that they cover important names in a subject field, such as architecture or engineering.
Acalendar is a system of organizingdays. This is done by giving names to periods oftime, typically days,weeks,months andyears. Adate is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physical record (often paper) of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as acourt calendar, or a partly or fully chronological list of documents, such as a calendar of wills.
Periods in a calendar (such as years and months) are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of thesun or themoon. The most common type of pre-modern calendar was thelunisolar calendar, a lunar calendar that occasionally adds oneintercalary month to remain synchronized with thesolar year over the long term.
Achronicle (Latin:chronica, fromGreekχρονικάchroniká, fromχρόνος,chrónos – "time") is a historical account of events arranged inchronological order, as in atimeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler. A chronicle which traces world history is auniversal chronicle. This is in contrast to anarrative orhistory, in which an author chooses events to interpret and analyze and excludes those the author does not consider important or relevant.
The information sources for chronicles vary. Some are written from the chronicler's direct knowledge, others from witnesses or participants in events, still others are accounts passed down fromgeneration to generation byoral tradition. Some used written material, such ascharters,letters, and earlier chronicles. Still others are tales of unknown origin that havemythical status. Copyists also changed chronicles in creative copying, making corrections or in updating or continuing a chronicle with information not available to the original chronicler. Determining the reliability of particular chronicles is important tohistorians.
Acompendium (pl. compendia or compendiums) is a comprehensive collection of information and analysis pertaining to abody of knowledge. A compendium may concisely summarize a larger work. In most cases, the body of knowledge will concern a specific field of human interest or endeavor (e.g.hydrogeology, logology,ichthyology,phytosociology ormyrmecology), while a generalencyclopedia can be referred to as a "compendium of all human knowledge". The wordcompendium arrives from theLatin wordcompeneri, meaning "to weigh together or balance". The 21st century has seen the rise ofdemocratized, online compendia in various fields.
Aconcordance is analphabetical list of the principalwords used in a book or body of work, listing every instance of each word with its immediatecontext. Historically, concordances have been compiled only for works of special importance, such as theVedas,Bible,Qur'an or the works ofShakespeare,James Joyce or classical Latin and Greek authors, because of the time, difficulty, and expense involved in creating a concordance in the pre-computer era. A concordance is more than anindex, with additional material such as commentary, definitions and topicalcross-indexing which makes producing one a labor-intensive process even when assisted by computers.
Adictionary is a listing ofwords orlexemes—typicallybase forms—from thelexicon of one or more specificlanguages, often arrangedalphabetically (or byconsonantal root forSemitic languages orradical and stroke forlogographic languages), which may include information ondefinitions, usage,etymologies,pronunciations,translation, etc. It is alexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.
A broad distinction is made betweengeneral andspecialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a comprehensive range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whetherlexicology andterminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to besemasiological, mapping word todefinition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to beonomasiological, first identifyingconcepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instancebilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries ofsynonyms (thesauri), andrhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purposemonolingual dictionary.
Abusiness directory is a website orprinted listing ofinformation which lists businesses within niche-based categories. Businesses can be categorized by niche, location, activity, or size. Business may be compiled either manually or through an automated online search software. Online yellow pages are a type of business directory, as is the traditional phone book.
Some directories include a section for user reviews, comments, and feedback. Business directories in the past would take a printed format but have recently been upgraded to websites due to the advent of the internet.
Atelephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephonesubscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory. Its purpose is to allow the telephone number of a subscriber identified by name and address to be found.
The advent of the Internet,search engines, andsmartphones in the 21st century greatly reduced the need for a paper phone book. Some communities, such asSeattle andSan Francisco, sought to ban their unsolicited distribution as wasteful, unwanted and harmful to the environment.
Aweb directory or link directory is an online list or catalog ofwebsites. That is, it is a directory on theWorld Wide Web of (all or part of) the World Wide Web. Historically, directories typically listed entries on people or businesses, and their contact information; such directories are still in use today. A web directory includes entries about websites, including links to those websites, organized intocategories and subcategories. Besides a link, each entry may include the title of the website, and a description of its contents. In most web directories, the entries are about whole websites, rather than individual pages within them (called "deep links"). Websites are often limited to inclusion in only a few categories.
There are two ways to find information on the Web: bysearching orbrowsing. Web directories provide links in a structured list to make browsing easier. Many web directories combine searching and browsing by providing a search engine to search the directory. Unlike search engines, which base results on a database of entries gathered automatically byweb crawler, most web directories are built manually by human editors. Many web directories allow site owners to submit their site for inclusion, and have editors review submissions for fitness.
Anencyclopedia is areference work orcompendium providing summaries ofknowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided intoarticles or entries that are arrangedalphabetically by article name or by thematic categories, or, in the case ofonline encyclopedias, they arehyperlinked and searchable. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in mostdictionaries. Generally speaking, encyclopedia articles focus onfactual information concerning the subject named in the article's title; this is unlike dictionary entries, which focus onlinguistic information aboutwords, such as theiretymology, meaning,pronunciation, use, andgrammatical forms.
Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years and have evolved considerably during that time as regards language (written in a major international or a vernacular language), size (few or many volumes), intent (presentation of a global or a limited range of knowledge), cultural perspective (authoritative, ideological, didactic, utilitarian), authorship (qualifications, style), readership (education level, background, interests, capabilities), and the technologies available for their production and distribution (hand-written manuscripts, small or large print runs, Internet). As a valued source of reliable information compiled by experts, printed versions found a prominent place inlibraries,schools, and other educational institutions.
Agazetteer is a geographicaldictionary ordirectory used in conjunction with a map oratlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup,social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or continent. Content of a gazetteer can include a subject's location, dimensions of peaks and waterways,population,gross domestic product and literacy rate. This information is generally divided into topics with entries listed in alphabetical order.
Ancient Greek gazetteers are known to have existed since theHellenistic era. The first known Chinese gazetteer was released by the first century, and with the age of print media inChina by the ninth century, theChinese gentry became invested in producing gazetteers for their local areas as a source of information as well as local pride. The geographerStephanus of Byzantium wrote a geographical dictionary (which currently has missing parts) in the sixth century which influenced later European compilers. Modern gazetteers can be found in reference sections of mostlibraries as well as on the internet.
Aglossary (fromAncient Greek:γλῶσσα,glossa; language, speech, wording), also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list ofterms in a particulardomain of knowledge with thedefinitions for those terms. Traditionally, a glossary appears at the end of abook and includes terms within that book that are either newly introduced, uncommon, or specialized. While glossaries are most commonly associated withnon-fiction books, in some cases,fiction novels sometimes include a glossary for unfamiliar terms.
A bilingual glossary is a list of terms in one language defined in a second language orglossed bysynonyms (or at least near-synonyms) in another language.
Ahandbook is a type ofreference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. The term originally applied to a small or portable book containing information useful for its owner, but theOxford English Dictionary defines the current sense as "any book ... giving information such as facts on a particular subject, guidance in some art or occupation, instructions for operating a machine, or information for tourists."
A handbook is sometimes referred to as avade mecum (Latin, "go with me") or pocket reference. It may also be referred to as anenchiridion. In modern times, the concept of Vademecum classically applied to medicines and other pharma products extended to digital health products, using the term Vadimecum (with "di" instead of "de").
Anindex (pl.: usually indexes, more rarely indices) is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers ('locators') to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document or collection of documents. Examples are an index in theback matter of abook and an index that serves as alibrary catalog. An index differs from a word index, orconcordance, in focusing on the subject of the text rather than the exact words in a text, and it differs from atable of contents because the index is ordered by subject, regardless of whether it is early or late in the book, while the listed items in a table of contents is placed in the same order as in the book.
In a traditionalback-of-the-book index, the headings will include names of people, places, events, and concepts selected as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. The indexer performing the selection may be the author, the editor, or a professional indexer working as a third party. The pointers are typically page numbers, paragraph numbers or section numbers.
Alexicon (pl. lexicons, rarely lexica) is thevocabulary of alanguage or branch ofknowledge (such asnautical ormedical). Inlinguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory oflexemes. The wordlexicon derives fromGreek wordλεξικόν (lexikon), neuter ofλεξικός (lexikos) meaning 'of or for words'.
Linguistic theories generally regard human languages as consisting of two parts: a lexicon, essentially a catalogue of a language's words (its wordstock); and agrammar, a system of rules which allow for the combination of those words into meaningful sentences. The lexicon is also thought to includebound morphemes, which cannot stand alone as words (such as mostaffixes). In some analyses,compound words and certain classes ofidiomatic expressions,collocations and otherphrasemes are also considered to be part of the lexicon.Dictionaries are lists of the lexicon, in alphabetical order, of a given language; usually, however, bound morphemes are not included.
Alist is a set of discrete items ofinformation collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but lists are frequently written down on paper, or maintained electronically. Although lists may be made for entertainment, lists are "most frequently a tool".
Aphrase book or phrasebook is a collection of ready-madephrases, usually for a foreign language along with atranslation,indexed and often in the form of questions and answers.
Aready reckoner is areference book or page that presents commonly used calculations alongside their corresponding results, enabling rapid retrieval of answers. They were extensively employed in retail and by tradespeople prior to the widespread availability of inexpensive electroniccalculators, the adoption ofmetric weights and measures and the introduction ofdecimalized currencies in the 1970s.
Atextbook is abook containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch ofstudy serving to explain the subject. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions, as well as learners (who could be independent learners outside of formal education). Schoolbooks are textbooks and other books used in schools. Today, many textbooks are published in both print and digital formats.
Athesaurus (pl.: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is areference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar meanings to other words), sometimes as a hierarchy ofbroader and narrower terms, sometimes simply as lists ofsynonyms andantonyms. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
...to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed
— Peter Mark Roget, 1852
Synonym dictionaries have a long history. The word 'thesaurus' was used in 1852 byPeter Mark Roget for hisRoget's Thesaurus.
Aschedule (UK:/ˈʃɛdjuːl/,US:/ˈskɛdʒuːl/) or a timetable, as a basictime-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possibletasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of asequence of events in the chronological order in which such things are intended to take place. The process of creating a schedule — deciding how to order these tasks and how to commit resources between the variety of possible tasks — is called scheduling, and a person responsible for making a particular schedule may be called a scheduler. Making and following schedules is an ancient human activity.
Some scenarios associate this kind of planning with learninglife skills.Schedules are necessary, or at least useful, in situations where individuals need to know what time they must be at a specific location to receive a specific service, and where people need to accomplish a set of goals within a set time.
Auser guide, user manual, owner's manual or instruction manual is intended to assist users in using a particular product, service or application. It is usually written by a technician, product developer, or a company's customer service staff.
Most user guides contain both a written guide and associated images. In the case of computer applications, it is usual to includescreenshots of the human-machine interface(s), and hardware manuals often include clear, simplifieddiagrams. The language used is matched to the intendedaudience, withjargon kept to a minimum or explained thoroughly.
Ayearbook, also known as an annual, is a type ofa book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of aschool. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often has an overarching theme that is present throughout the entire book.
Manyhigh schools,colleges,elementary andmiddle schools publish yearbooks; however, many schools are dropping yearbooks or decreasing page counts given social media alternatives to a mass-produced physical photographically oriented record. From 1995 to 2013, the number of U.S. college yearbooks dropped from roughly 2,400 to 1,000.
An electronic resource is acomputer program ordata that is stored electronically, which is usually found on a computer, including information that is available on the Internet.[7] Libraries offer numerous types of electronic resources includingelectronic texts such aselectronic books andelectronic journals,bibliographic databases,institutional repositories,websites, andsoftware applications.[7]
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