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Working With Reference
Click on the reference source you want to know more about. _____________________________________ * An atlas is a reference book for geography. In an atlas, you will find maps, tables of information, legends and keys. Places are usually indexed in the back, and may include a page number, a reference number on the page like H-8, or a latitude or longitude location.* Atlases which are to big to fit on the shelves may be found on top. * Maps are a plane representation of the Earth or sky and may tell you different things. Some are road maps, which include the roads, railways, and rivers. Others are topographical maps which show land features such as mountains and rivers. Some physical maps will have pictures that show you what each country manufactures, what the temperature is, or other information. To read these, look at the bottom of the page for a KEY or LEGEND. Find the picture and it will show you what it means.
* Almanacs are published yearly and can be relied upon for up-to-the-minute facts and figures. Interesting information included might be calendars of weather forecasts, lists, charts, population tables, and facts about countries and cities. The one-volume format makes an Almanac quick and easy to use and the ones with indexes make finding the information easy. We have the World Almanac and the World Almanac For Kids in our reference section. The Internet has several very interesting ones: Daily Almanacs - bring you history one day at a time * A dictionary is an alphabetical list of words and what they mean. A dictionary will also tell you what part of speech the word is, how to pronounce it, the correct spelling, how to use it in a sentence, and may have tables of other information (such as weights, measures, proper names) in the back or front. You may also find them on the Internet. Webster Search Form is a good site. (Be sure to click the BACK button to return to this page!). You can find dictionaries in many languages, and dictionaries which include English and another language. Our foreign language dictionaries are in the R423's. Little Explorers Picture Dictionary * An encyclopedia is a set of books that contain information on many subjects. Because the amount of information cannot all be put into one volume, it is divided into many smaller books. Each book is called a volume. The volumes in each set are arranged in alphabetical order to make it easier to find the information. They also may be numbered. * Our library has several sets of encyclopedias. Many of these sets have a whole volume just for the index and it is usually the last volume. In World Book Encyclopedia, it is Volume 22. * For encyclopedias, the best place to look first is ALWAYS the INDEX. Even though you will find information about Bears in the B volume, you may find out even more by looking in the index first. * The index lists subjects in alphabetical order. There are bold black guide words at the top of each page which tell you the first subject on each page. That keeps you from having to look at the little words on all of the pages. When you get to the guide word which is very close to your subject, stop and start looking on that page. * When you find your subject, the index lists the volume and page like this: In World Book -- C:182 (this means volume C, page 182) In the Science Encyclopedias -- 20:1285 (this means volume 20, page 1285) * Encyclopedias also help you by listing related subjects to look up at the end of each article. Sometimes they list other books you can borrow to read more about your subject. * Encyclopedias are kept in the Reference Section. They usually stay in the library but may go to the classroom for short periods of time. * We have several CD-ROM encyclopedias.
* A thesaurus is an alphabetical list of words, similar to a dictionary. However, this reference lists synonyms or other words you can use in place of the word you looked up. For example, you can look up scared, and the thesaurus will give you frightened, alarmed, panicky, terrified, and several others. Roget's Thesaurus is one of the most popular - we have it in "R" 423. Roget's Internet Thesaurus (be sure to click the BACK button to return to this page!).
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