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A reference work is a compendium
Compendium

A compendium is a concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of knowledge. A compendium may summarize a larger work. In most cases the body of knowledge will concern some delimited field of human interest or endeavour , while a "universal" encyclopedia can be referred to as a compendium of all human knowledge....
 of information, usually of a specific type, compiled in a book for ease of reference
Reference

A reference is a relation between Object in which one object designates by linking to another object. Such relations as these may occur in a variety of domains, including logic, computer science, time, art and scholarship....
. That is, the information is intended to be quickly found when needed. Reference works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read cover to cover. The writing style used in these works is informative; the authors avoid use of the first person, and emphasize facts.






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Encyclopedia


A reference work is a compendium
Compendium

A compendium is a concise, yet comprehensive compilation of a body of knowledge. A compendium may summarize a larger work. In most cases the body of knowledge will concern some delimited field of human interest or endeavour , while a "universal" encyclopedia can be referred to as a compendium of all human knowledge....
 of information, usually of a specific type, compiled in a book for ease of reference
Reference

A reference is a relation between Object in which one object designates by linking to another object. Such relations as these may occur in a variety of domains, including logic, computer science, time, art and scholarship....
. That is, the information is intended to be quickly found when needed. Reference works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read cover to cover. The writing style used in these works is informative; the authors avoid use of the first person, and emphasize facts. Indexes
Index (publishing)

An index is a list of words or phrases and associated pointers to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document. In a traditional back-of-the-book index the headings will include names of people, places and events, and concepts selected by a person as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the boo...
 are commonly provided in many types of reference work. Updated edition
Edition

In printmaking, an edition is a number of prints struck from one plate, usually at the same point in time. This is the meaning covered by this article....
s are published as needed, in some cases annually
Annual publication

An annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a magazine, comic book or comic strip published yearly. For example, a weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to the regular publication....
.

In comparison, a reference book or reference-only book in a library
Library

A library is a collection of information, sources, resources, books, and services, and the structure in which it is housed: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual....
 is one that may only be used in the library and not borrowed from the library. Many such books are reference works (in the first sense) which are usually used only briefly or photocopied from, and therefore do not need to be borrowed. Keeping them in the library assures that they will always be available for use on demand. Other reference-only books are ones that are too valuable to permit borrowers to take them out. Reference-only items may be shelved in a reference collection located separately from circulating
Library circulation

Library circulation or library lending comprises the activities around the lending of library books and other material to users of a lending library....
 items or individual reference-only items may be shelved among items available for borrowing.

Examples of reference works:
  • Almanac
    Almanac

    An almanac is an annual publication containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar. Astronomy data and various statistics are also found in almanacs, such as the times of the rising and setting of the sun and moon, eclipses, hours of full tide, stated festivals of church es, terms of...
     - a tabulation of information in specific fields, often by date
  • Atlas - a set of maps, often of geographical locations
  • Book by category
    Book by category

    A Book by category is one kind of reference book in ancient China.*First appeared in Cao Wei for the emperor Cao Pi.*During Song Dynasty Extensive Records of the Taiping Era and Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era,Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau....
     - books listed in their category
  • Citation index
    Citation index

    A citation index is an index of citations between publications, allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents....
     - lists which publications cite other publications
  • Concordance
    Concordance (publishing)

    A concordance is an alphabetical list of the principal words used in a book or body of work, with their immediate contexts. Because of the time and difficulty and expense involved in creating a concordance in the pre-computer era, only works of special importance, such as the Bible, Qur'an or the works of William Shakespeare, had concordance...
     - a list of every word in a book, and where it is used in that book
  • Dictionary
    Dictionary

    A dictionary is a book of Alphabetical order listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of alphabetically listed words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon....
     or Lexicon
    Lexicon

    In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes....
     (the latter generally provides more grammatical analysis) - an alphabetical listing of words and their definitions
  • Directory
    Directory (databases)

    Generally, a directory, as used in computing and telephony, refers to a repository or database of information which is heavily optimized for reading, under the assumption that data updates are very rare compared to data reads....
     - a list of reference
    Reference

    A reference is a relation between Object in which one object designates by linking to another object. Such relations as these may occur in a variety of domains, including logic, computer science, time, art and scholarship....
    s, used for ease of locating their subject
  • Encyclopedia
    Encyclopedia

    An encyclopedia is a comprehensive written compendium that holds information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
     - a comprehensive compendium
  • Gazetteer
    Gazetteer

    A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or Directory , an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas....
     - a geographical dictionary
  • Grammar
    Grammar

    Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
     - a book in which aspects of the grammar of a language can be looked up
  • Handbook
    Handbook

    A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. A vade mecum or pocket reference is intended to be carried at all times....
     - a manual which summarizes a subject
  • Mathematical table
    Mathematical table

    Before calculators were cheap and plentiful, people would use mathematical tables —lists of numbers showing the results of calculation with varying arguments— to simplify and drastically speed up computation....
    s - a tabulation of mathematical results
  • Periodical index - a list of topics for a periodical publication
    Periodical publication

    A periodical publication, or just periodical, is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly....
    , organized by date
  • Scientific tables - a tabulation of scientific results
  • Telephone Directory
    Telephone directory

    A telephone directory is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory....
     - a book with residence and business listings
  • Thesaurus
    Thesaurus

    A thesaurus is a work that contains synonyms and sometimes antonyms, in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations....
     - a list of words with similar, related, or opposite meanings