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Quick ReferenceAlmanacsAnnuals
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• Just the facts maam!
• quick, ready or direct reference
• facts or short answers to factual questions which
  can be found in a few minutes in various
  resources intended to answer such questions
• typical quick answer reference resources are
  one volume, manageably-sized factbooks
• recent editions may be kept near or at a
  librarys information and telephone reference desk

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• Just the facts maam!
• quick, ready or direct reference
• almanacs
• annuals
• dictionaries
• directories
• handbooks
• one-volume encyclopedias
• statistical abstracts

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Almanacs
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Almanacs

• perpetual calendar, Kalendarium, broadsheet
  calendars, annuals from 16th century
• weather, wit and wisdom
• mix of the practical and fallacious
• prognostications, advice and fictional prophecies
  
• the peoples encyclopaedia

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Almanacs

• almanac as calendar with ecclesiastical
  festivals, saints days and astronomical phenomena
• mix calendar, agricultural, horticultural,
  fishing, hunting, astronomical, and tidal
  information in with homilies, philosophical
  thoughts, humor and brief geographical or
  national facts
• ephemeral in format and content, reflect an older
  definition and tradition of almanacs

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Almanacs

• standard almanac for library and home use no
  longer predicts weather or makes prophesies, but
  is a collection of useful data and statistics
  relating to time, calendars, countries,
  personalities, events, and a wide variety of
  subjects
• at the desk reference almanac is general in
  content and not limited to a specific subject
• most useful when a few facts without explanation
  are wanted

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Almanacs

• brief historical information which may not be
  found as readily in any other source
• emphasis on recent and current information
• lists (sports, major world battles or disasters,
  prize winners, etc.), statistics (many from
  official government and other reputable sources)
• some of the information is standard and
  relatively unchanging, and some requires annual
  revision
• date on the cover or the title is the date of
  publication and not the prevailing date for
  currency of the content

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Almanacs

• some material may be for the future (scheduled
  events in the year, international meetings,
  centenaries, sports venues)
• most both national and international, other
  events and trends in one country

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Almanacs

• standard almanac offers concise synopses for
• events (chronology of previous year, itemized
  major recent news, political happenings)
• people (obituary list of leading figures in all
  fields, identification of leading personalities
  across various disciplines)
• major developments (breakthroughs and advances in
  science, technology, medicine and politics)
• national queries and countries (information on
  the nation as a whole plus an outline of other
  countreis)
• directory queries (addresses, titles, and
  sometimes names in government, corporations are
  provided especially for places such as govt
  departments commonly requested)

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Almanacs

• standard almanac offers concise synopses for
• statistics (in lists or tables bulk of an
  almanacs or abstracts information) on sports
  (important sports records and their holders,
  trophies and winners), on awards and prizes
  (little information about the award or prize
  itself, but holders or winners are identified),
  other tabular information (any topic imaginable
  in a rank or chronology from history, space
  exploration, disasters, big companies, best
  selling music, most expensive movies, etc.)
• national statistics (any census-type information,
  socioeconomic, political, etc.)

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SCHEDULING AN ALMANACS PUBLICATION EDITORIAL
PRODUCTION MARKETING
Fall (November) ready for sale promotion Janua
ry review content cost quotes add?
delete? start research, compilation February
set deadlines all sections setting begins start
on new edition late Spring two week
deadlines galleys received cover
design advertising late Summer / Fall
mockups print run set indexing page
proofs Fall rush pages index
contents publication final checks promotion
cover checked print ON SALE
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Annuals
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Annuals

• annual yearbooks issued by many countries and
  larger or smaller units like areas, states,
  regions
• for countries without such publications, UNESCO,
  or commercial publishers Europa World Year Book,
  Statesmans Year-Book fill a gap (information on
  a countrys history, government, economics,
  resources, education and directory items)
• encyclopedia yearbooks update the main set and
  cover world events of the previous year, people,
  feature articles, special articles, short
  articles, columns

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Annuals

• different from almanacs or abstracts
• encyclopedia yearbooks update sets (not
  miscellany of brief facts, a statistical
  abstract, a source book or other directory-type
  resource although they have some of this
  information)
• although defined by time, they are less timely
  than almanacs in terms of publication schedule
• for comprehensive and coherent understanding
  rather than brief facts -- meant to be read