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

Glossary, Glossary The word `glossary' originates from the Latin word...

Glossary The word `glossary' originates from the Latin word `glossarium' meaning `a collection of words peculiar to a field of knowledge'. Each entry in a glossary is known

Export tread, resons of poor performing in india of export tread

resons of poor performing in india of export tread

Explain the two types of risk, Explain the two types of Risk?  i. Perso...

Explain the two types of Risk?  i. Personal Risk: An individual, who is given enough information, will be in a position to decide whether to take part in a risky activity or no

Postulate-based permuted subject indexing (popsi), Postulate-Based Permuted...

Postulate-Based Permuted Subject Indexing (POPSI)   Postulate-based Permuted Subject Index (POPS!), designed by Ganesh Bhattacharyya at the Documentation Research and Training

Author catalogue, AUTHOR CATALOGUE   As a student of library science, y...

AUTHOR CATALOGUE   As a student of library science, you can now appreciate that librarianship is basically concerned with creating systematic records of bibliographical items.

Gross inequality of american society, In contrast, English people encounter...

In contrast, English people encountering each other by chance were typically reserved,  from  fear  that a casual acquaintance - struck up when  travelling abroad for instance - wo

Theodore Roosevelt possible photo, I have an old tin type photo that I thin...

I have an old tin type photo that I think looks like a young T. Roosevelt and his wife. Who can I ask to look at it to see if they agree with me or not?

RESEARCH METHODS AND STATISTIS, Identify a research report published by a r...

Identify a research report published by a reputable agency and evaluate the following: 1) The problem that was addressed 2) The key findings 3) Method used 4) Analysis carried out

Man without inner life, the man without inner life is slave to surrounding

the man without inner life is slave to surrounding

Typed cyclostyled form, Typed Cyclostyled Form   Revised version of bou...

Typed Cyclostyled Form   Revised version of bound register form came into existence due to the typewriter and cyclostyling machine. The entries are typed. Multiple copies (up t

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