Guide to the Study and Use of Reference Books : A Manual for Librarians, Teachers and Students (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Guide to the Study and Use of Reference Books: A Manual for Librarians, Teachers and Students

Besides cyclopedias and dictionaries which give direct aid, the reader will have to consult more elaborate treatises for further information. Bibliographies are guides to these. A know ledge of bibliography, therefore, forms an important part in the preparation of the student. The most useful reference department will include bibliographies of special subjects along with the cyclopedias of those subjects. It is to be regretted that books belonging to the class Bibliography are as a rule kept in the cataloger's room or the librarian's office, not in the reference department where they would be useful to the public. In a large library, such an important printed catalog as that of the Peabody Institute Library should by all means he kept where the public can have easy access to it, even if it is necessary to duplicate such a work.

This manual will also serve as a guide in the selection of reference books for a library. The prices given are the publishers' prices, and the lowest price is usually quoted. Books can often be obtained at a discount or picked up from time to time at auction or second-hand stores at a much reduced price. Reference books are expensive, and few libraries can afford to keep up with new editions or even with recent authorities. In many cases new editions are not worth the cost. They are frequently made from the same plates as the earlier editions, with slight alterations, not of sufficient importance to warrant the expense involved in their purchase. A suggestive list of one hundred reference books for a small library will be found at the end of the volume.

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