1. Reference Materials

2. Types of Reference Materials
Almanac
Atlas
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Internet
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Periodical Index

3. Almanac
An almanac is a book of brief facts, figures, and information on many different topics or a specialty topic.
Published annually

4. Facts that may be found in an almanac:
Weather information
Sports Records
Zip codes
Famous People
State government officials
State marriage laws
Presidents
Internet directory
Country information
State information

5. Types of Almanacs World Almanac Blackbirch’s Kids Almanac of Geography
Sports Illustrated Almanac
American Civil War Almanac
Kidbits
Farmer’s Almanac

6. An Atlas is a book of maps.
Types of Atlases
Atlas of the Earth
Atlas of the Ancient World
Satellite Atlas

7. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is a widely-distributed collection of quotations.
You can search by:
author
time period
key words

8. A Dictionary is a book or online resource that provides:
Definitions
Spelling
Pronunciations
Syllables
Etymology
Parts of Speech
Guide Words

9. Things in the Dictionary
Sample sentence given
Synonyms - words that mean the same
Antonyms - words that mean the opposite
Idioms – for example, “He was a bull in a china shop.”

10. Types of Dictionaries Some dictionaries are specialized.
Biographical Dictionary
Geographical Dictionary
Scientific Dictionary
Student Dictionary
Rhyming Dictionary
Many other types

11. An encyclopedia is a book or set of books containing brief articles on various topics.
Alphabetical
List of other sources
Staff of writers
Has an index
Great starting point in research
Don’t confuse with a wiki, i.e., Wikipedia.

12. Encyclopedia Information
Encyclopedia Brittanica
Animal Encyclopedia
North American Biographies
World Book
New Book of Knowledge
Grolier’s Online

13. A periodical index lists information by subject or author.
List of Magazine Articles
Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature
000 GENERALITIES
100 PHILOSOPHY & PSYCHOLOGY
200 RELIGION & MYTHOLOGY
300 SOCIAL SCIENCES
400 LANGUAGES
500 NATURAL SCIENCES & MATH
600 TECHNOLOGY
700 THE ARTS
800 LITERATURE
900 GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY
EBSCO Host

14. EBSCO is an online subscription of access to books, journals, and magazines.
Use the link from the SHMS library
Username: Lcpsm
Password: middle

15. A thesaurus is a book of synonyms and antonyms.
Rhyming words
To find a better or different word choice