This article is about a kind of publication. Reference work may also refer to the work that librarians perform at a library reference desk. The reference desk or information desk of a Library is a public service desk where professional Librarians provide library users with direction to library

A reference work is a compendium of information, usually of a specific type, compiled in a book for ease of reference. A compendium is a concise yet comprehensive compilation of a body of Knowledge. In general a reference is a relation between objects in which one object designates by linking to another object That is, the information is intended to be quickly found when needed. Reference works are usually referred to for particular pieces of information, rather than read cover to cover. The writing style used in these works is informative; the authors avoid use of the first person, and emphasize facts. Indexes are commonly provided in many types of reference work. An index is a list of words or phrases ('headings' and associated pointers ('locators' to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document Updated editions are published as needed, in some cases annually. In Printmaking, an edition is a number of prints struck from one plate usually at the same point in time An annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a Magazine, Comic book or Comic strip published yearly

In comparison, a reference book or reference-only book in a library is one that may only be used in the library and not borrowed from the library. A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution Many such books are reference works (in the first sense) which are usually used only briefly or photocopied from, and therefore do not need to be borrowed. Keeping them in the library assures that they will always be available for use on demand. Other reference-only books are ones that are too valuable to permit borrowers to take them out. Reference-only items may be shelved in a reference collection located separately from circulating items or individual reference-only items may be shelved among items available for borrowing. Library circulation or library lending comprises the activities around the lending of Library books and other material to users of a Lending library.

Examples of reference works:

• Almanac - a tabulation of information in specific fields, often by date
• Atlas - a set of maps, often of geographical locations
• Book by category - books listed in their category
• Citation index - lists which publications cite other publications
• Concordance - a list of every word in a book, and where it is used in that book
• Dictionary or Lexicon (the latter generally provides more grammatical analysis) - an alphabetical listing of words and their definitions
• Directory - a list of references, used for ease of locating their subject
• Encyclopedia - a comprehensive compendium
• Gazetteer - a geographical dictionary
• Handbook - a manual which summarizes a subject
• Mathematical tables - a tabulation of mathematical results
• Periodical index - a list of topics for a periodical publication, organized by date
• Scientific tables - a tabulation of scientific results
• Thesaurus - a list of words with similar, related, or opposite meanings

ALMANAC is the name of a major Breast cancer trial The Acronym stands for "Axillary Lymphatic Mapping Against Nodal Axillary Clearance An atlas is a collection of Maps typically of Earth or a region of Earth but there are atlases of the other planets (and their satellites in the solar system A Book by category ( is one kind of Reference book in Ancient China. A citation index is an index of Citations between publications allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents Use in linguistics Concordances are frequently used as a tool in Linguistics that can be used for the study of a text such as comparing different usages A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions Generally a directory, as used in Computing and Telephony, refers to a Repository or Database of information which is heavily optimised In general a reference is a relation between objects in which one object designates by linking to another object An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge A gazetteer is a geographical Dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names (see Toponomy) used in conjunction A handbook is a type of Reference work, or other collection of instructions that is intended to provide ready reference Before Calculators were cheap and plentiful people would use mathematical tables &mdashlists of numbers showing the results of calculation with varying arguments&mdash to simplify A thesaurus is a book that contains Synonyms and sometimes Antonyms, in contrast to a Dictionary, which contains Definitions and Pronunciations

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