General Reference Sources 

The dictionaries, encyclopaedias, yearbooks, almanacs, etc.,  and sources which we have studied in previous Block of this course can be categorised as general reference sources. All these reference books in their own right serve as information sources for geography. But, they also contain a lot of other information relating to other areas. 

Take the case of encyclopaedias. They  contain useful information regarding countries, states, cities, etc. Maps of different countries also find place in  them. Similarly, yearbooks and almanacs, dictionaries, statistical sources,  etc., provide descriptive and statistical information on  different countries and can be easily classified as geographical information sources. Biographical information sources contain useful biographies of geographers  and cartographers. But, the scope of all these sources goes beyond geographical information. Therefore, they are  called general reference books containing useful geographical data.