Reference sources give concise introductions to topics and/or provide brief and specific information. Reference sources include encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs and fact books, biographical sources and geographical sources.
A reference tool can be used by itself as a source of information without the use of a second source of information. These are not the type of books you usually read from cover to cover. Instead you use them to locate an answer to a specific question.
To use any reference source effectively, the researcher must determine the source's purpose, scope and arrangement. Reference sources usually have an access component - such as an index - that helps the user find information elsewhere in the tool itself. It is important to look for indexes and other access keys in reference tools, although sometimes there is no need for an index because the entire tool is in alphabetical order (like a dictionary, for instance).
The reference tools in the library at Cleveland Community are shelved together and may not be checked out. This is how reference materials are treated in almost all libraries. Our reference collection contains many tools that will be useful in the course of your studies here. Also, the Internet has many online reference sources with valuable information. Do note, however, that some resources you can access in the library (or on campus) at the college require remote-access passwords if you are using them from home.
Almanacs and fact books are a great place to find facts and statistics on a wide variety of topics. These sources have very basic information, with little or no discussion or analysis of the facts they present. They cover a wide variety of topics, like statistics on population, sports, the economy, popular culture, or other areas. Government officials may be listed here, along with the dates of major events from history. As with other reference sources, these tools may be general, or specific to a particular field, group of people or era.
Almanacs and fact books, sometimes referred to as ready reference, are good places to look up a quick fact, but you would need to go elsewhere for in-depth information. You can use an almanac to find out who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1945 or how many pounds of potatoes were exported by Idaho last year.
Examples of almanacs and fact books are Information Please Almanac, World Almanac and Book of Facts, The African American Almanac,and Statistical Abstract of the United States. General almanacs and fact books are classified in the AY section of reference.
Biographical information (about famous people) can be found in many sources, including encyclopedias, yearbooks and directories. However, library collections also include dictionaries and indexes devoted exclusively to information about people. Information included in biographical sources usually includes the place and date of birth, details about the person's education and major work experiences, contributions to their chosen field, and date of death. Biographical sources vary as to how much detailed coverage provided.
These sources may include people from many subject areas, but are often specific to one field, like music, or geographic area, like a state or region. Biographical reference sources can tell you how old Dan Rather is or why Franklin Roosevelt was in a wheel chair. Examples of biographical reference sources are Almanac of Famous People, Great Lives From History, and People Who Shaped the Century. These general biographical sources can be found in the CT section of the library.
Other biographical sources can be found in particular subject areas of the reference collection. Some excellent examples are Dictionary of Scientific Biography, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and Great Artists of the Western World. Use the links below to find biographical information on the internet.
Language dictionaries, such as the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, can be used to find spelling, pronunciation, meaning, abbreviations, etymology, and other information about words. If you want to know what people in Alaska do with "hoochinoo," or if you'd like to find a synonym for "barbarian," you need to consult a book about words. (A dictionary or a thesaurus, respectively.)
The Oxford English Dictionary, an etymological dictionary, is considered the authority on the meaning and history of half a million words in the English language. Thesauruses allow you to locate synonyms; translation dictionaries such as the Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary provide references between languages; and special dictionaries such as the Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English and the Abbreviations Dictionary focus on words and meanings related to their specific topic.
General dictionaries and other references about words are located in the PE section of the reference collection.
General encyclopedias are among the most widely used reference sources and contain articles of varying lengths covering all fields of knowledge. General encyclopedias contain information related to history, arts, literature, science, and other subjects. Typically encyclopedias cover many topics but without going into a great deal of depth on any one thing. Encyclopedias are a good starting point for researching topics that you do not know much about or that are completely new to you. They can give you background information which can help when you move to more in-depth sources later. For instance, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Encyclopedia Americana have excellent introductions to "futurism" and "collective bargaining". General encyclopedias are classified in the AE section of the library.
Specialized encyclopedias may cover just one field, like literature, or even a sub-unit of that field, like contemporary literary criticism. Subject encyclopedias, such as Praeger Encyclopedia of Art, The Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance, Encyclopedia of Computer Science or International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, can be consulted for more detailed or technical information on a subject.
While most libraries have bound volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Americana, and other general and specialized encyclopedias, these great sources of information are now also available via the internet.
Geographical sources vary according to their purpose and the places covered. These sources provide a variety of information. One source may list all the roads in an area, while another covers historical events that took place there, and still another shows the kinds of plant life or businesses present there. Some sources cover very large areas, like the world or a whole continent, while others may have information only on a county or town.
The most familiar reference sources with information about places are altases - collections of maps. Because most atlases are very oversized, the Library at Cleveland Community College shelves them in a special collection at the end of the reference shelves. (Just look for the globe.) Other reference sources with geographical information include gazateers and geographical dictionaries and directories, such as Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, Columbia Gazateer of the World and Oxford Dictionary of the World. Geographical sources can be found in the G section of reference or on the internet at the following locations.