Should
the term reference material be abandoned or kept for non borrowable print
resources?
I had a look at the university of Santo
Tomas library (that came up in my google search, and a university library
seemed a good place to start). Their
definition stated that reference materials were sources of information used for
answering enquiries in a library, not normally lent, but consulted on the
premises. The list of resources was
extensive and included the usual dictionaries, encylcopaedias and atlases, but
also almanacs, guide books, year books,
handbooks, manuals, pamphlets, journals, phone directories (and
directories of all kinds), biographies, genealogies, pathography (which I’d
never encountered before) and world globes.
So much that I hadn’t considered, but on reflection did belong in the
reference category. (http://library.ust.edu.ph/pages/reference.html).
So this library has stayed with a
definition that describes hard copy.
Nonprint/online/digital resources have a separate section, which looks
equally comprehensive.
I quite liked that idea. Especially now I have a greater understanding
of how huge the reference material part of a library could potentially be. To me it seems that it deserves a category of
its own. Or perhaps digital resources,
accessible from multiple locations could be a sub category of some kind.
Everytime I think I have this sorted out in
my head, I have a new thought which makes me uncomfortable again. There are some resources which have both hard
copy versions and digital. Are they both
reference material? Is it ok to call
them Reference materials and Online/Digital Reference materials? I hope so, that’s what I want to do.
WIKIPEDIA
I actually really like Wikipedia, and I
think it’s important to have discussions about it in the classroom, if only so
students know it is not “the last word on a subject”, so that they understand
that it is a community endeavour, with many contributors, who may or may not be
either authoritative, or accurate.
I’ve often used it to start a search of my
own on something (something non academic, that I wasn’t submitting for a
university assignment), and I have a voice in the back of my head warning me
against believing everything I read there.
I have edited a page or two of my own on
Wikipedia, for my own amusement, and my contribution was edited out again
within 12 hours. I have other friends
who have made contributions of a more serious nature, which were also edited
out, despite their veracity. So although
it is a community project, it is not a free for all.
DICTIONARIES
My main reason for wanting print versions
of dictionaries, is so students can maintain the skill of searching for
something alphabetically. I was
assisting an ESL student last week, and showed her that the words at the top of
the pages of the dictionary were significant (being the first and last words on
the particular page). Some of her peers
overheard this, and were amazed by it, they hadn’t been told or made that
connection before, and it made a difference to the efficiency of their
searches.
As far as specialized dictionaries go, I
was interested to discover that there are dictionaries that can be used by
those whose first language isn’t English – dictionaries of phrasal verbs (Oxford), and Macmillans Collocation
Disctionary. I imagine that they would
be very useful for some students.
English can be a strange, twisty, turny kind of language, with many
inexplicable things in it, not covered by a regular dictionary.
A thesaurus
is a specialized dictionary of synonyms, and I love my thesaurus, very useful
in the classroom.
Additionally for the classroom:
-
dictionary of maths terms, there are print versions
of this, but I found this online one which also looked helpful http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/RR/glossary/middle/glossaryab.html
-
I would like a dictionary of grammar terms, and I found this which I
think would be useful - http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html
ATLASES
Australian
Online Atlas
Owl and Mouse is a nice looking site, and
it is great for American resources, with printable maps, and puzzles. Sadly, Australia and New Zealand are largely
ignored, with the Australian map not even marking the states on the large map.
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/online-atlas-oceania.htm
I started looking at atlapedia, but it
crashed. There was a lot of clicking
involved in finding what you wanted, which was frustrating, and although I
think the maps might have been better than Owl and Mouse, and there was a lot
of additional information (general) about each country, it was clunky to use. And it crashed and wouldn’t load, so I moved
on to something else.
http://www.atlapedia.com/
World Atlas looks great, but it isn’t free,
the fee is not prohibitive though.
http://www.worldatlas.com/
The Historical Atlas of the Twentieth
Century is fascinating reading.
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/20centry.htm
