Ready References and Dictionaries

1. Ready References and Dictionaries Jamie Kilgore & Courtney Black

2. Ready Reference Ready reference sources answer the major who, what, which, where, when and how questions.

3. Examples • Telephone Books – Toll-Free Phone Book USA • Almanacs – The World Almanac • Literary Synopses – Masterplots • Timelines and Events – Chase’s Calendar of Events • Etiquette – Emily Post’s Etiquette • Online – www.anywho.com

4. Evaluating When choosing ready reference sources for your library, consider their authority, scope, cost, format, availability, reliability, and comprehensiveness. Most importantly, select ready references that are current and accurate!

5. Dictionaries Dictionaries attempt to list all the words in a language along with their meaning, usage, pronunciation, grammatical provenance, and syllabication. Most types of dictionaries contain definitions and are arranged alphabetically.

6. Examples • General Dictionaries – Oxford English Dictionary • Specialized Word Sources – Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang • Thesauri – The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus • Quotations – Barlett’s Familiar Quotations • Concordances – Abingdon’s Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance • Style and Usage of Word’s – Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

7. Children’s Dictionaries – Student’s Dictionary • Bilingual Dictionaries – Cassell’s Latin Dictionary • Special Constituency – Oxford Large Print Dictionary • Subject Dictionaries – Black’s Law Dictionary • Online – www.yourdictionary.com

8. Evaluating When evaluating dictionaries authority and accuracy are very important. Other criteria for word sources are currency, cost, format, scope, comprehensiveness and value-added features.