The word "reference" comes from the verb "refer", which means to turn to for aid or information. Thus any person or thing referred to for these purposes is a reference. A book which is consulted for aid or information on a topic, a theme, an event, a person, a date, a place, or a word is a reference book. In this sense the entire library is a reference collection, because it was selected, organized, and arranged for study and reference.
However, in any library there are some books which are consulted more frequently than others for certain kinds of information; there are books which, because of their organization and arrangement, lend themselves to quick and easy use; and there are other publications which were planned and written to be referred to for pieces of uniformity rather than to be read completely. In most libraries these kinds of materials are brought together in one room or area and constitute what is called the reference collection, the reference room, or the reference department. The use of these materials is restricted to the library. Questions may be answered completely from the resources in the reference collection or a given source may only indicate other books and materials which the information seeker must consult for the full answer to his question.
It should be clear, then, that the reference collection, room, or department is not a separate library within itself but is only one of the many parts of the total library that the student will use in his search for material.
The term "reference book" has come to mean a specific kind of publication which has been planned and written to be consulted for items of information, rather than read throughout. It contains facts that have been brought together from many sources and organized for quick and easy use, either in an alphabetical or chronological arrangement or by the use of detailed indexes and numerous cross references.
If a student is to use reference books effectively and advantageously, he must develop a facility in using them independently. He acquires Ibis facility as he learns, what reference books are, the kinds that are available, the types of questions each kind will answer, and how each book is arranged.
There are two types of reference books: (1) those which contain the needed information such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, biographical dictionaries, atlases (地图册), and gazetteer (地名词典); and (2) those which tell the user where the information can be found, such as indexes and bibliographies. These two types of reference books are of two classes: general or specialized; the latter are referred to in this text as "subject" reference materials.
General reference books are those which are broad in scope, not limited to any single subject, but useful for all, or for many, subject areas. The kinds of general reference books, according to their form and the material which include, are dictionaries, biographical dictionaries, directories, atlases, gazetteer, and bibliographies.
Each kind of reference book is designed, to do specific things. Theoretically, a given reference book does the specific things it is planned to do better than any other reference book can do them; thus it should be consulted first for the kind of information it covers, even though other reference books may include some of the same information. For example, a dictionary or an encyclopedia may give information about a geographical location, but a gazetteer, which is designed for the sole purpose of providing information about geographical names and places, is the first place to look for information concerning a geographical location. In a library the area where reference materials are located is called ______.