Reference Tools [2]

Gazetteer: A book contains an alphabetical list of names of places of relevant continent or country or region. It is a geographical dictionary or directory, as an important reference book for information concerning the geographical make-up, the social statistics and physical features, such as mountains, rivers, roads, population, literacy rate, etc. and also used in conjunction with a map. e.g. “The World Gazetteer”. See also Atlas.

Guidebook: A book that gives basic information or instruction for travellers or tourists. It provides detailed itinerary and a geographic location as a convenient travel guide. The guidebook supplies also essential information to migrants about an unfamiliar place, such as travel routes and travel conditions, a general description of the place and its residents, services for food and stay. e.g. “Australia travel guide”, “The Online Business Guidebook”.

Handbook/ Manual: A concise reference book usually providing generally specific information about one or more subjects. It is also known as a compendium for quick location of facts and ready reference. Some handbook provides longer entry of articles with bibliographies. It is often synonymous with “manual”. e.g. “Handbook on Drug and Alcohol Abuse”, “Ilford Manual of Photography”.

Indexes and Abstracts: A compendium which contains references to section of works, such as periodical articles, conference or research papers, but also other specific literature that is seldom found in library catalogues. The references are arranged in alphabetical order. The titles of articles are followed by the authors. It is easy to trace by volume, date of publication and page numbers which will lead to necessary information. For examples: “Applied Science and Technology Index”, H. W. Wilson; “Chemical Abstracts”, The American Chemical Society, etc.

 

Thesaurus: A thesaurus is a book that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning. It also contains synonyms and sometimes antonyms, as well as dependencies and other relationships to each other. It is in contrast to a dictionary which shows definitions and pronunciations. e. g. “Roget's thesaurus of English words and phrases”.

Who's Who: A book containing information about the name and position of the world's each richest or most famous person, especially in an organisation. The content of it list career and each and every personal data for each biography. It is published annually since 1849 and most recognised and respected works of reference. It is continually updated, the essential directory of living noteworthy and influential individuals, from all walks of life, worldwide. e.g. “Marquis Who's Who”.

Yearbooks: A book published yearly as a report or summary of collections of statistics or facts, charts, news events from that year, famous birthdays, and lists of Presidents or Prime Ministers. It is also known as  an “Annual”. e.g. “Asean Statistical Yearbook”, “The Statesman's Yearbook online”. See also Almanac.

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Reference Tools [1]

 

Reference 

Reference book is a citation work to which someone can refer for authoritative facts. It is also a compendium of information, usually of a specific type for easy reference. As a result of good formation, the necessary information can be manually searched in prompt action. Thus, a source of information is simply defined as a book or paragraph on which one can consult for useful facts.

What are reference tools? 

Those are sources of information i.e. books, periodicals, abstracts, databases, etc. that are used for the answer asked by anyone. Such publications may not normally borrowed, but consulted only on the premise of library. There are limited number of specific type in the different reference tools. They are as follows:

Almanac: A usually annual compendium of statistical, factual and general information, both current and retrospective. It is also a type of yearbook. Useful data and statistics relating to countries, personalities, events, subjects, weather, etc. are included and arranged by a given year. e.g. “Information Please Almanacs”.

Atlas / Map: Map is a plane representation of the earth’s surface, or a part of some, indicating physical feature, political boundaries, etc. [Harrod]. Atlas is a collection of maps or plates or other exhibits bound in a volume. [Shores]. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. e.g. “The Times Universal Atlas of the World”.

Dictionary: A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words of a language, or the terms of a subject, with explanations of their definitions, usage, etymologies, phonetics pronunciations and other information. e.g. “The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary”.

Directory: List of persons or organisations in alphabetical or classified arrangement. These include addresses and affiliations for individuals and officers and other data for organisations and business firms. [Gates] e.g. “International White and Yellow Pages” (www.wayp.com) 

Encyclopedia (Encyclopaedia): A reference work containing information on all subjects, or limited to a specific subject, usually in articles arranged in alphabetical order. There are two different types of encyclopaedia. Some are general, e.g. “Encyclopaedia Britanica”. Some are specific in subject, e.g. “Medical Encyclopedia”. Nowadays encyclopedia comes distinctly into two versions_traditional printed and modern digital format.

Government Documents: Publications published by a government agency, are classified as: (1) Records of government administration, (2) research documents for specialists, (3) confidential sources of information. Citing Government Documents are not always straightforward due to the the specific nature of government documents.

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Book in Useful Parts

Book has its structural parts that form as a body of a printed book. Readers had better know those parts for their convenience. Book lovers are genuinely interested in these parts.

Front cover: hardbound or softcover (paperback)_To put something over or upon, as to conceal.

Spine: binding that joins the front and back covers where the pages hinge, on which the call number is labelled and also the back part of the book that faces outward while shelving it right.

Endpapers: the leaves of paper before the title page and after the text. One part is fastened with the inside covers. They occur front or back in position. They also hold the text together and sometimes have with relevant information such as map.

Flyleaf: the blank leaf, one or more following the front endpaper and preceding the back endpaper.

Frontispiece: an elaborate illustration facing the title page of a book. The use is now obsolete.

Title page: The page at the beging of a book, usually containing the title, the author and the publisher of the book. It is no longer similar to frontispiece in modern usage. It may have a shorter title than the cover as well as it may shows condensed content of the whole text. However, no title occurs in incunabula (first printed book).

Copyright page: typically verso of title page where the copyright date is shown giving the cataloguing data such as copyright date, edition, ISBN, and brief history of the book.

Table of contents: a list of the contents of a book, arranged by chapter, section, subsection.

Dedication: it is the place where the author dedicates the book to somone.

Acknowledgments: a page where the author have the opportunity to thank those people who give their contribution to the book. This page is included as a front matter in Preface or before the Table of Contents,

Foreword: an introduction by someone other than the author, and it is usually a famous person. It precedes an author's preface, or it comes right after the table of contents.

Preface: an introduction to a book written by the work's author. A preface generally covers the story of how the idea for the book was developed, its intended purpose, and to what extent it covers the field. It is often followed by acknowledgements of persons who give help to the author during the time of writing.

Introduction: a writing by the author, or sometimes, the editor. It shows the full scope of a book. It also gives what the author's view is. It may guide the reader how he should stand on the way to reading. After scanning it one may know what fact-finding is and whether should read it or not.

Body: the text, the pages are usually numbered sequentially, and often divided into chapters,

the actual words of the book.

Appendix: usually extra material for helpful reference, i.e. a large table, materials that would distract if it were included as part of the main text. It may be one or more after the main text.

Glossary: a list of alphabetized collection of terms and their meanings often printed in the back of the book.

Index: an entry list of words or phrases of names and subjects in alphabetical order at the end of the book. It is associated with the reference pages by which readers can retrieve the necessary information of interest.

Bibliography: a list of reference books, articles etc. used by the author at the end of the text.

Colophon: A brief description of publication and printing data of a book relevant to the edition, in modern books usually located at the verso of the title page, but it was located at the end of the book in 15^th century.

Back cover: gives more information about the book and also same as the front cover.

After the interesting main parts, there is a partial part; moreover it is a useful thin marker, commonly known as bookmark. It is made of paper, card or narrow silk ribbons that attached to the edge of a book. Other materials become more common today.

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Book Beyond Its Format

The word book comes from Old English “bōc” which itself comes from the Germanic root “bōk”. It means a written work printed on various materials such as paper, parchment, stone, wood, digital media, etc. bound together. It has been also published for distribution to the public.

Books may also refer to works of literary thought. In librarianship, a book is called a monograph which is differentiated from the periodicals. Books may be bought from bookshops. Books can also be borrowed from libraries.

According to the estimation of Google in 2010, there were approximately 130 million unique books in the world. It's too large in number to read all. The 20th century had faced an information explosion. Thus an ever-increasing rate of publishing occurred. The Internet and the Electronic publishing create an easy way to book-production. So, new information has possibly less printing in paper books.

Today a book published in electronic format is known as an e-book (electronic book) or a digital book. It is an e-text that refers to a digital version of a conventional printed book. An e-book is usually made available through the internet. E-Books may be read either via a computer or by means of a portable e-book reader.

Nowadays many books may be produced digitally in a short period. But, most digital publications are not available to the public, and there will be no decline in the rate of paper book publishing.

As a diverse people, there are different selections in almost every category in life. Books give a great deal of variety in types of genres for people to enjoy. Everyone can make decision on book selection of what he likes. However, one can consider the book whether it leads to good or bad.

It is very important to know that each and every book would not be of value to someone. Some books are adopting bad attitude to life. According to the ALA,

“Not every book is right for every person, but providing a wide range of reading choices is vital for learning, exploration, and imagination.”

If one reads the books of priceless he will be much more in intellect. But, care must be taken how to use optimistically and not to do acts of terrorism by means of such knowledge. This intellectual deviation is very dangerous.

Each book has more or less latent power that develops in human brain. Finally it is important to get good result for everyone. Due to the various reasons i.e. political, religious, racial, controversial etc. some books are banned by the authority of government or society. The intellectual persons should read those banned books today.

A banned book is one that has been censored by an authority. In the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18 states “Everyone has the right to freedom thought, conscience and religion”; Article 19 states “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression”. However, should the right to freedom for anyone not be reasonable and fare?

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Fearful Phobia

Wide range of possibilities make phobia to exist. And so, it is more 

common than other anxiety disorders. Phobia vary according to the 

fear, such as:

Achluophobia: fear of darkness

Acrophobia: fear of heights

Agliophobia: fear of pain

Agoraphobia: fear of situations (crowded area, open space)

Aviophobia: fear of flying

Bacteriophobia: fear of bacteria

Brontophobia: fear of thunder and lightning

Carcinophobia: fear of cancer

Chiraptophobia: fear of being touched

Claustrophobia: fear of confined spaces

Didaskaleinophobia: fear of going to school

Dysmorphophobia: fear of deformity

Elurophobia: fear of cats

Enochlophobia: fear of crowds

Gamophobia: fear of marriage

Gerascophobia: fear of growing old

Haemaphobia: fear of blood

Homophobia: fear of sameness

Iatrophobia: fear of visiting to the doctor

Lachanophobia: fear of vegetables

Mysophobia: fear of germs

Necrophobia: fear of death or dead things

Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

Ornithophobia: fear of birds

Paedophobia: fear of children

Pediophobia: fear of dolls

Sciophobia: fear of shadows

Scoleciphobia: fear of worms

Social phobia: fear of social situations

Trypanophobia: fear of injections

Xenophobia: fear of strangers or foreigners

Zoophobia: fear of animals.

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