Library 150 Reference Analysis

1
Library 150 Reference Analysis

• Marianne Holt
• Dewey 2xx
• Week 3
• Winter Quarter 2003

2
Call Number and Bibliographic Citation

• R 291.1 COT WaAuMBM
• Cotterell, Arthur
• The Macmillan illustrated encyclopedia of myths
  and legends
• New York
• Macmillan
• C1989

3
Arrangement

• The book is laid out in three sections.
• The first section contains how myths and legends
  started in cultures around the world.
• The second section is the characters in A-Z order
  and concepts interspersed throughout.
• The third section consists of a Micropedia.

4
Indexing

• Table of contents
• Alphabetical index
• The bold type numerals in the index designate
  entries in the A-Z section.
• Numerals in italic refer to the Micropedia.

5
Scope

• The first section covers a multitude of myths and
  legends and how they fit into the life of the
  different cultures.
• The second and third sections list alphabetically
  all of the figures and what domain they ruled.

6
Currency

• The book was first published in 1989 and was
  reprinted in 1995. The book is current.

7
Intended Purpose

• This book is for anyone with an interest or need
  to learn about the origins of mythology.

8
Physical Format

• Available only in book form.

9
Special features

• Symbols are used to represent the different
  cultures throughout all three sections of the
  book.

10
Credentials of Author

• From the back dust jacket flap-
• Arthur Cotterell is Principal of Kingston Upon
  Thames College of Further Education. He is the
  author of A Dictionary of World Mythology, editor
  of an Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations, and
  has written several books on the civilizations of
  East Asia.

11
Personal Impression

• I was disappointed that there were not more
  illustrations in the A-Z and Micropedia sections.
  
• I also became frustrated with the symbols used to
  represent the different cultures. I had to keep
  flipping back to the contents page to identify
  the symbols.

12
Examples typifying reference uses

• Students preparing their ancient civilization
  reports typically have to find information on
  religion or mythology. This includes
  illustrations and why their culture believed in
  the gods and myths.
• I used the Greek god Zeus as an example research
  project. The books entry contained information on
  his domain in Greek mythology as well as the
  background of his life from birth to his marriage
  to Hera.
• There were no illustrations of Zeus.

13
World Wide Web Search

• I tried Google, www.google.com, and Ask Jeeves,
  www.ask.com, using the term Zeus. This produced
  totally unrelated hits. I changed the term to
  Greek mythology. The sites were relevant, but I
  had to mouse around in several sites to collect
  the information contained in the book.
• I then went to Encarta, www.encarta.msn.com, and
  did a search for Zeus. Encarta contained a family
  tree and illustrations along with the article.
  This proved to be the best source for information
  on the web. It was also a better source than the
  book.