Dictionaries and reference books

[From EDline, Thread [2j], 10 Nov 1996; updated 20 June 2004]

AACR 2 (Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed, 2002, CILIP)
Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations Dictionary. Gale Research Inc, 1996
Atlases (Times Concise and Times Atlas, millenium edition)
BAPLA (picture libraries) handbook
Black's Law Dictionary (American)
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Butcher's Copy-editing Handbook
Cambridge Encyclopedia (ed. David Crystal)
Cassell's Encyclopaedic Dictionary (8 vols., 1902--1903)
CBE Style Manual
Chambers Biographical Dictionary
Chambers Dictionary of Science and Technology
Chambers Dictionary of World History
Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary *
Chicago Manual of Style
Collins Dictionary of Quotations (1995)
Collins English Dictionary (1979)
Collins Gem Dictionary of English Spelling and Hyphenation
Concise Dictionary of National Biography
Concise Oxford Dictionary (1990)
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Geography
CUP's Dictionary of Scientific Style and Format
Dictionary of Printing and Publishing (Peter Collin)
Dictionary of Scientists (Miller) CUP
Encyclopaedia Britannica (online or CD-ROM/DVD)
Encyclopaedia, any one-volume (for when you don't want to switch the computer on)
Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thinkers
Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought
Fowler's Modern English Usage
Grolier's Academic American Encyclopaedia (on-line)
Handbook of dates for students of British history (ed. C.R. Cheney, 2nd edn rev. M. Jones, Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks. no.4)
Hart's Rules (superseded by the Oxford Guide to Style)
Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Porter)
Le petit Larousse (concise encyclopaedia)
Microsoft Bookshelf (CD-ROM)
Microsoft Computer Dictionary
Mozley & Whiteley's law dictionary (English)
Names of persons: national usages for entry in catalogues (Saur, 1996)
National Dictionary of Biography
New Chamber Biographical (good for popular, current people)
New World College Dictionary (3rd ed) (for American English and proper nouns)
Old reference books
Ordinary dictionaries covering English, American and a range of other languages
Oxford Classical Dictionary
Oxford Companion to Art
Oxford Companion to British History
Oxford Companion to English Literature
Oxford Companion to Philosophy
Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors
Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors
Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations
Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Oxford Guide to Style (supersedes Hart's Rules)
Oxford Minidictionary of Spellings and Hyphenation
Oxford Names Companion
Oxford Paperback Reference dictionaries series
Oxford Reference On-line service
Oxford specialized dictionaries (law, medicine,etc)
Oxford Writers' Dictionary
Oxford-Duden German Dictionary
Pan/Macmillan concise encyclopaedia
Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory
Penguin Paperback dictionaries series
Phaidon Dictionary of Twentieth Century Art
Philip's World History Encyclopedia
Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry (Mills et al.), 2nd ed (Blackwells, 1993)
Reader's Companion to Twentieth Century Writers
Roget's Thesaurus
Royal Society report on Quantities, Units and Symbols
Scientific Style and Format (CUP)
SIdeline mailing list archive
Strunk and White's Elements of Style, 4th ed
Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists
Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
Times Atlas of the World (Comprehensive edn)
Times Atlas of World History
Timetables of History (Simon & Schuster)
United Nations' list of country names (Terminology Bulletin no. 345, 1993)
Webster's American dictionary
Webster's New World College Dictionary (3rd ed)
Whitacker's Almanack (various dates; old editions also very useful - very useful for politicians/heads of state etc)
Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal (Official word list of the Dutch language, pub. by Sdu) - not a dictionary, simply a list of all words that exist in the Dutch language
World Reference Atlas (Dorling Kindersley, 1998 - though the most recent edition has a different name, something like 'Desk Reference')
Writers' and Artists' Yearbook (various dates)

Notes

Wordsworth Dictionary of Science and Technology (1995) is the same as the Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary (1988)

Dis-recommendations

Oxford Dictionary of Computing
Penguin Concise Columbia

With thanks to the following who have proposed titles:

Paul & Liz Atkinson, Josephine Bacon, Lionel Browne, Derek Copson, Caroline Diepeveen, Frances Grant, Auriol Griffith-Jones, Jill Halliday, Chuck Hollingworth, Gavin Ireland, Jane Kerr, Ian Kingston, Naomi Laredo, Sue Lightfoot, Mandy Macdonald, Janet McKerron, Leigh Priest, Merle Read, Christine Shuttleworth, M Sarah Wickham, Caroline Wilding

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