Jamie Kilgore &

Courtney Black

Ready reference sources answer the major who, what,

which, where, when and how questions.

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

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!

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.

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

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

When evaluating dictionaries authority and accuracy are very

important. Other criteria for word sources are currency, cost,

format, scope, comprehensiveness and value-

added features.