Fullerton, California--College students use technology constantly. They text-message friends, compile playlists for their iPods, and are whizzes at updating their MySpace profiles. But when it comes to one kind of work they are required to do in college--namely, academic research--they can be inept. Too often, college officials say, students rely…

This paper is a content analysis of three general encyclopedias, "Encyclopedia Americana" (EA), "Encyclopaedia Brittanica" (EB), and "World Book Encyclopedia" (WBC), which quantifies the treatment of the occult. Entries are selected from each by starting with the article "Occultism" and tracing all…

The tradition of independent study is traced from classical antiquity to the 20th century. Particular attention is given to the example of such persons as Descartes, Rousseau, Goethe, and Franklin, and to the role of encyclopedias, libraries, and correspondence study in furthering self-education. Nine references are included. (LY)

Problems discussed include difficulty of keeping pace with the "knowledge explosion" and rapidly changing social attitudes, higher production costs vs. declining sales, consumer dissatisfaction with sales tactics, and intellectual snobbery towards the product. Trends are the single volume edition, improved sales techniques, and publisher…

Describes a class activity designed to teach students in grades five and six the importance of using an encyclopedia index. (MES)

Part of a continuing series. (DD)

(A related article is LI 502 879.) (2 references)

(A related article is LI 502 878.)

Suggests that a librarian may help stimulate the use of reference materials by putting them on book trucks and wheeling them to the class that requests them. Describes the system used for overnight check-out of such materials. (RW)

Discusses the Brazilian Sign language digital encyclopedia, which contains a databank of 5,600 signs glossed in Portuguese and English, along with descriptions and illustrations of their signed form. (Author/VWL)

For the first time since its initial publication in 1905, the much-imitated "Petit Larousse" dictionary/reference book has a true competitor in Hachette's "Le Dictionnaire de notre temps", a new dictionary reflecting modern French usage. (MSE)

Analyzes the description of letterpress printing technology in the "Encyclopedie" of Diderot and d'Alembert. Examines how the authors distilled information about mechanical arts from craft culture, the shop, and traditional apprenticeship practices. (SK)

As electronic resources for scholarship proliferate, more and more scholars turn to their computers rather than to print sources to conduct their research. The decentralized distribution of these new model works can make it difficult to fully appreciate their scope and number, even for university librarians tasked with knowing about valuable…

This second annual encyclopedia summary updates the American Library Association's (ALA) evaluation of 10 sets and analyzes the deletions and additions made to each encyclopedia within the context of each publisher's revision plans. The board looked specifically for significant changes in purpose, arrangement, content style, general quality, and…