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

Subject indexing models and their principal features, Subject Indexing Mode...

Subject Indexing Models and Their Principal Features   A number of subject indexing models have been designed and developed in the past hundred years or so, many of which are i

Leadership, System Admin Max Points: 6.0 If identity and personality are ...

System Admin Max Points: 6.0 If identity and personality are positioned as a set of personal, social, or organizational definitions, in what ways might personality and identity p

Professional directories - library management, Professional Directories ...

Professional Directories The past four decades have witnessed the growth of national, international, and local professional associations whereby scholars of a particular field

Define acceptability of risks, Define Acceptability of risks?  A risk i...

Define Acceptability of risks?  A risk is acceptable when those affected are usually no longer apprehensive about it. Doubtfulness depends mostly on how the people take the ris

Coverage by kind of documents - indexing periodicals, Coverage by Kind of D...

Coverage by Kind of Documents I & A periodicals are also devoted to specific kinds of documents such as periodical articles, patents, theses, conference proceedings, translati

Aacr-2r - rules for choice of heading, AACR-2R   In AACR-2R under 'Choi...

AACR-2R   In AACR-2R under 'Choice of Name' there are 19 rules of which four are about pseudonyms. Since pseudonyms are dealt with in Unit 12, we will leave these four rules fr

Evaluation of encyclopaedias, Evaluation of Encyclopaedias A good an...

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 collectio

Political psychology, Political Psychology -This Psychology is "An applicat...

Political Psychology -This Psychology is "An application of what is identified regarding human psychology to the study of politics." This psychology is an interdisciplinary academi

Procedure for implementing to prevent accidents in mines, In August 1994, e...

In August 1994, eleven miners were killed in an explosion in the underground coal mine at Moura in Queensland, Australia. The mine was owned and operated by BHP Coal. A commission

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