howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
I remember doing a school project and having to catch a bus into town and go to the reference library in the hope that a book I wanted would be there, would be available and could be found. I watch my children doing similar things by sitting at the computer and think how lucky they are to have all this knowledge and information at their fingertips.
This is a consequence of the information revolution we are living in and we will have to get used to it.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the problem with the internet is that it is too easy to gain a quick answer without necessarily really understanding the issue.
i find that information i glean on here tends to get forgotten quickly, whilst ploughing through a reference book means that i have learned a lot more.
there is a place for both, i hope that books survive.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
To add to that the internet has the problem of being self-edited, meaning that the 'facts' gained may very well just be one persons (or groups) opinion and important details could be missed out for a variety of reasons. With a good book you do get a list of sources that you can check out. obviously there are often numerous entries on the net but how many really get past the Wiki ones?
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
For starters:
A Dictionary of Abbreviations
The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology
The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar
The Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language
A New Dictionary of Eponyms
The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English
The Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms
The Concise Dictionary of Linguistics
The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
The Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes
The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction
The New Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors
The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style
Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage
The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang
The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins
The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion
All available online.
It's the same stuff but a different form of access.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
those are all factual mark, the problem is of websites set up by people who think they know everything but don't.
unless people try to access every webpage on the subject they are interested in they can end up with wrong info.
this is especially true of anything medical.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
I used to have a lot of reference books that I used a lot when setting the pub quiz, I have never opened them since I got the computer.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
Howard, I always look at several sites if hunting out medical facts so that must be better than the large BMA encyclopedia I used to use.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
be wary of downloading pub quizzes and answers from the net jan.
last time i was quizmaster at an event, there were 3 that were blatantly wrong(just the ones that i spotted).
example:- who wrote "the godfather" answer francis ford copolla.
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
Howard, I no longer have to write the pub quiz thank goodness, much to much hastle checking the answers and getting the wording correct. Luckily nobody ever challenged the answers so I must have got them right.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
I used to love going down to the local library and not forgetting of course my favourite, 'the British Library' trawling through dusty reference books wearing white gloves to protect the tomes of ages past
