One way that I found that was effective to to illustrate the difference (a
very real one...you are NOT off base here) was as follows:
I picked a typical subject for a report, and printed or xeroxed a copy of
the pertinent article from 1.) Compton's, 2.) World Book, 3.) Britannica,
and 4.) a specialized encyclopedia and presented these and discussed them
with the faculty or department. The difference in coverage, authority,
cross references, and bibliographic citations became instantly apparent, as
it should when you compare apples and oranges <G>. I also stressed that
the library ALWAYS guided the students to multiple sources, pointing out
that it was very rare indeed when a teacher would accept only one source
for a paper or project. I also tried to work in the cost effectiveness of
specialized encyclopedias vs. individual books on all the included topics
when compared to our dwindling budgets. This almost always worked. If the
teacher was adament, we tried to work with them, pointing out areas or
topics where we were shy on resources and suggesting alternate topics we
*could* cover in depth.
Mark Williams
Consulting Librarian
Professional Services for Conferences, Districts, Workshops
markwilliams@makaw.net
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