Are you sure about the meaning of your search terms? To get a definition of your search term – look it up in dictionaries and encyclopedias, especially those that are subject specific. There you can also get tips about alternative search terms. Many searches fail because of misspellings or mistranslations.
In dictionaries
you can get anything from short definitions to more extensive articles. Dictionaries can have a general content or include specific subject areas, e.g. compare Encyclopedia Britannica to ADAM Medical encyclopedia.
In Swedish there are different words for language dictionaries and other dictionaries like for example medical or general dictionaries. In daily speech the association is often that an encyclopedia consists of many volumes. An encyclopedia generally has the ambition to give a comprehensive overview of all knowledge, either generally or in a specific subject.
On the Library web page you can find a great number of electronic dictionaries (language) and encyclopedias.
Language dictionaries
can be general or subject specific. They describe the words, and they can be in one or several languages. The purpose of language dictionaries is to describe language as opposed to the aim of the encyclopedia: to describe the world. A glossary or word-list is more a register of words than a description of them.
Technical/specialist dictionaries
If the database you are searching uses English search terms it is important that you use the correct English term when searching. Technical dictionaries are a useful aid for this purpose.
A thesaurus
is a catalogue of terms in a certain subject field. It can also be a catalogue of the descriptors or key words used to describe documents in a database.
An index
is a catalogue or register of the contents in a book or a database.
Try looking up words in the different types of dictionaries and discover the difference:
Dictionary (subject specific)
Technical dictionary
| Word-list | Svenska akademiens ordlista |
| Dictionary (language) | Oxford English Dictionary Online |
| Dictionary (subject specific) | The Concise Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary |
| Technical dictionary | The Oxford Business French Dictionary |
| Encyclopedia | Encyclopaedia Britannica |
| Subject specific encyclopedia | McGraw-Hill AccessScience |
| Thesaurus | Library of Congress Subject Headings |
| Subject specific thesaurus | Compendex |
Film aboutsearching in Oxford Reference online (with sound):
Search for subject specific information in McGraw-Hill:
Search Britannica Online:
Eva Norling
2005-06-21
