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

Theory of rational choice, Theory of Rational Choice- Economics plays a vas...

Theory of Rational Choice- Economics plays a vast role in human behavior. i.e., people are frequently motivated through money and the probability of making a profit, estimating the

Public relations, Public Relations Public Relations(PR) is an activity...

Public Relations Public Relations(PR) is an activity, unrolling the building up of relationships through communication to inform, solve conflicts and/or to enhance understandi

Essay , assignment urgent humanities

assignment urgent humanities

Informational almanacs, Informational Almanacs Informational almanacs ...

Informational Almanacs Informational almanacs are basic general almanacs. They depend heavily on government sources for statistical information. They follow the same pattern

Buddhism in the chinese state, Buddhism in the Chinese State Full int...

Buddhism in the Chinese State Full integration of Buddhism Fully integrated into local economy. Provided essential cultural coherence, was the source of economy and one way

Entries in a dictionary catalogue, Entries in a Dictionary Catalogue   ...

Entries in a Dictionary Catalogue   In a Dictionary Catalogue we normally provide.  Main Entries (under the author or title; if the author is not known; authorship is dif

Objectives of a library catalogue, Objectives of a Library Catalogue   ...

Objectives of a Library Catalogue   Charles Ami Cutter described the objectives of a library catalogue in 1876 when he published the first edition of his book Rules for a Dicti

Common paterns for conducting operational research, in around 1500 words , ...

in around 1500 words , describe the commonly used pattern of conducting operational research in the field of health , give illustration to describe the common pattern.

Meteorology, Meteorology- It is the interdisciplinary scientific study of t...

Meteorology- It is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the environment. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not arise

Cataloguing process, CATALOGUING PROCESS   A library catalogue consists...

CATALOGUING PROCESS   A library catalogue consists of various entries prepared for the documents acquired for the library. There are two types of entries in the library catalog

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