Chapter 15: Almanacs, Yearbooks, and Handbooks
The online version of the Time Almanac is known as
Information Please Almanac
Specialized almanacs examples include
International Motion Picture Almanac, Almanac of American Politics, Cities Ranked & Rated, Library and Book Trade Almanac, Sports Illustrated Sports Almanac
Astronomical and Meteorological Data Almanacs include
Old Farmer's almanac, Farmer's Almanac
Christopher Columbus used
Perpetual Almanac
A common handbook around the home is
Physicians Desk Reference
The most famous American almanac is
Poor Richard's Almanack
Hobby handbook examples include
Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy, Complete Book of the Olympics
A free government handbook is
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Two print almanac examples are
The World Almanac and Book of Facts and Time Almanac
Country and Regional Almanacs include
Whitaker's Almanack, Cambridge Fact-finder, Canadian Almanac & Directory
Statistical Tabular and General Information almanacs include
World Almanac Book of Facts, New York Times Almanac, Information Please Almanac
Almanacs for children include
World Almanac for Kids, factmonster.com, Time for Kids Almanac
Handbooks generally cover
a limited area of knowledge and can be used to gain in depth knowledge about a specific topic
To evaluate almanacs/yearbooks/handbooks and manuals consider
accuracy, indexing, documentation of original source of the information, comprehensiveness, uniqueness, format and currency
The terms handbook and manual are used
almost interchangeably
Print almanacs are usually updated
annually
Almanacs are
collections of facts, statistics and lists gathered together in a convenient format for easy reference
Disadvantages of online almanacs include
confusing interface, poor search options, and annoying advertisements
Yearbooks are most useful for
giving an overview of trends that occurred in a particular year
Famous First Facts is a
handbook
Guiness World Records is a type of
handbook
Style manuals and citation guides are also considered
handbooks
Most almanacs are broad
in geographic coverage and subject coverage
Credo Reference
is an online handbook that contains more than 475 full text reference sources
Two categories of sources are available online
open source (free) and subscription
Yearbooks regularly index
personal names
Almanacs are full of bits of data on a wide spectrum of topics while yearbooks
provide more in depth information on a specific topic
Manuals provide
step by step instructions on how to do specific tasks
Masterplots causes much debate among librarians and
summarizes the plots of major literary works while offering critical assessments of those works
Because of the broad range of factual material in almanacs they are frequently used for
trivia contests
The NYPL Desk Reference is a
type of handbook that compiles information frequently requested at reference desks
Titles frequently used for ready reference include
Emily Post's Etiquette, Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior, Robert's Rules of Order, Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Legal Researcher's Desk Reference, and Hoover's handbooks
Film students will be interested in
Halliwell's Who Who in Movies, IMDB, and Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide
Almanacs first appeared in
16th and 17th centuries as calendars
American newspapers began to publish almanacs in
19th century
Examples of books of days handbooks include
American Decades, Chase's Calendar of Events, Folklore of World Holidays, and Today in History
General yearbooks include
Brittanica Book of the Year, Facts on File World News Digest, Europa World Year Book, Statesman's Yearbook, online World Factbook
The most important handbook of the physical sciences is
CRC Handbooks
The diagnostic manual for psychiatry is
DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)