Evaluation of encyclopaedias, Humanities

Assignment Help:

Evaluation of Encyclopaedias

A good and useful collection of general and special encyclopaedias form the backbone for the reference work in any library. The strong collection of general and special encyclopaedias in English and other languages ensure efficient reference service in a library. In this section, we will discuss various check points which can help in the selection and assessing the value of encyclopaedias before the acquisition for the library.

It is a very expensive venture to produce an authoritative set of encyclopaedia as it involves overall planning, engaging subject experts to write articles, competent indexers to provide layout artists, exhaustive index, and photographers for providing apt illustrations, accurate printing, efficient editorial and proof reading, adequate advertising through reviews in journals catalogues and announcement leaflets to booksellers, distributors, librarians etc. All these cannot be done cheaply. Reputed publishers recognise this fact by their experience in the field of publishing encyclopaedias and incur considerable expenditure to produce an authoritative work so as to earn the profit in turn. The prices of the authoritative sets of encyclopaedia are quite high, as the publishers have to meet with the expenses of high cost of production. Therefore the librarians have to make careful selection of the encyclopaedia and judicious expenditure depending upon the avail-ability of funds and space. Again, the librarian has also to consider the needs of the reader. They must be used intelligently to obtain the maximum benefit. It is not possible to make a perfect and complete encyclopaedia, as it is difficult to include all the existing information: Hence, the librarian should assess their value and find out their merits and demerits before acquiring them.

The main checkpoints for evaluating and analysing encyclopaedias are :

a) Authority

b) Scope and purpose

c) Treatment

d) Arrangement

e) Format

f) Revision

g) Limitation

h) Special features


Related Discussions:- Evaluation of encyclopaedias

Handbooks, Handbooks, Manuals, Guide-books We have a very large group ...

Handbooks, Manuals, Guide-books We have a very large group of ready reference sources consisting of handbooks, manuals, source books and guide books. It is difficult to disti

Authorship, Authorship   Having seen the predominance of author catalog...

Authorship   Having seen the predominance of author catalogue, we need to know what constitutes authorship in the context of cataloguing. It is seen above that AACR-2 regards a

Non conventional indexing model - citation indexing, NON CONVENTIONAL INDEX...

NON CONVENTIONAL INDEXING MODEL - CITATION INDEXING Another unique indexing model was developed by Eugene Garfield in early 1960's. The model is non conventional in the sense

Define conflicts of interest, Define Conflicts of Interest?  Conflict o...

Define Conflicts of Interest?  Conflict of interests is a situation in which two or more interests are not at the same time realizable. It is the disagreement among public obli

Historical branch of bibliography, Historical This branch of bibliogra...

Historical This branch of bibliography deals with the history of making books. It covers the history of printing, writing materials and binding, etc. The printed document fr

Presentation of indexing and abstracting periodicals, Presentation The...

Presentation The important consideration in the matter of presentation of entries in indexing and abstracting periodicals is of maintaining uniformity and consistency in rende

International yearbooks - general, International Yearbooks - General I...

International Yearbooks - General International yearbooks of a general nature are very handy, authentic and reliable manuals of descriptive and statistical information about e

Yearbooks and almanacs, Yearbooks and Almanacs They are referred to tr...

Yearbooks and Almanacs They are referred to trace varied information about each country. They are compiled to cover important developments, activities and statistics in seve

Define risk-benefit analysis, Define Risk-Benefit Analysis?  Risk benef...

Define Risk-Benefit Analysis?  Risk benefit analysis is a method that helps the engineers to examine the risk in a project and to verify whether a project should be implemented

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd