An encyclopedia, general or specialized, is a good source of
information. Since an encyclopedia gives an overview of a subject, it is
essential for a student writing a paper to refer first to an encyclopedia to
get a general background which will provide him/her with a good start
on the paper. This will also enable the student to narrow down the topic
of research.
Some of the encyclopedias available at Bethlehem University Library
include:
Encyclopedia Britannica consists of 32 volumes divided as follows:
V. 1 – 12 Micropedia: Ready Reference, includes
short articles.
V. 13 – 29 Macropedia: Knowledge in Depth,
includes longer articles.
2 Index volumes
1 volume Propaedia: Outline of knowledge.
This arrangement makes Encyclopedia.
Britannica one of the best general
encyclopedias.
Encyclopedia Americana
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics
International Encyclopedia of Education
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
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* Dictionaries
A dictionary is a reference work which gives the meaning of words,
their origin, and the way they are pronounced.
A
dictionary
may be:
Monolingual:
listing words and their meanings
in the same language e.g.,
Webster's Dictionary of the
English language
Bilingual: lists words in one language and
gives their meaning in another.
e.g., A1-Mawrid English-Arabic
Dictionary
Multilingual: lists words and their meanings in
two or more languages e.g.,
Dictionnaire Trilingue: ArabeFrancais-Anglais
There are also dictionaries that list the terms of a subject and their
meanings, e.g.:
A Dictionary of the Physical Sciences
A Dictionary of the Social Sciences: English-French-Arabic
*Biographical Dictionaries
These dictionaries give information on the lives of important
people. There are 3 major types of such dictionaries in relation
to the people included:
People in general, international in scope.
e.g., Dictionary of International Biography
People in general but of the same nationality.
e.g., Who's Who in the Arab World
People belonging to a profession or a certain field of
knowledge
e.g., Dictionary of Scientific Biography.