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ENCYCLOPEDIA
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Covers knowledge or branches of knowledge in a comprehensive, but summary
fashion; useful for providing facts and giving a broad survey of a topic;
important assets are the expertise and authority of its contributing writers
and a simplified format and arrangement of information.
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DICTIONARY
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Contains a selection of the words of a language or discipline, usually
alphabetically arranged, giving information about their meanings, pronunciations,
etymologies, forms and other usage. Identification and verification of
spelling and pronunciation are the most common uses for a dictionary.
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CHRONOLOGY
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Lists events in order of their occurrence. Chronologies may be general, or they
may focus on a time or subject. Some chronologies include indexes to the
content, while others are simply a date by date list of events.
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YEARBOOK/ALMANAC
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Often used for the same purpose - to review events and/or developments
of a given year by country or subject area. Brief compilation of specific
facts.
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HANDBOOK
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Gives a brief survey of a subject - sometimes serves as a how-to-do-it
manual.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Lists sources of information on a given subject - an indirect reference
tool.
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INDEX
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Indirect finding tool for the contents of journals, magazines and newspapers,
material in collections, and for even more specific categories of information.
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DIRECTORY
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Lists addresses and affiliations for individuals, and addresses, officers,
functions and similar data for organizations.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
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Provide information about the lives of people - appear in a variety of
formats and levels of subject coverage: factual data or evaluative essay,
comprehensive or selective, current or retrospective, every need is satisfied.
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GEOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
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Atlases and maps are the main source of geographical information, covering
questions on physical, political, historical, economic divisions of the
earth, and sometimes extending to queries on earth in its larger context
of space and the related area of astronomy. Gazetteers and guidebooks are
the "dictionary" and "encyclopedia" of "places".
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STATISTICAL SOURCES
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Offer important factual information that can support an argument - concerned
with the collection, classification, analysis and interpretation of numerical
facts or data.
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