Reference Work

In comparison, a ''reference book'' or ''reference-only book'' in a Library 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 items or individual reference-only items may be shelved among items available for borrowing.

''Reference work'' may also refer to the work that Librarians perform at a Library Reference Desk .

Examples of the first type of reference work:

Almanac

Atlas

Citation Index

Concordance

Dictionary or Lexicon (the latter generally provides more grammatical analysis)

Directory

Encyclopedia

Gazetteer

Handbook

Mathematical Table s

Periodical Index

Scientific Table s

Thesaurus

See also: Wikipedia's List Of Reference Tables

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Reference Work