“Quick Reference” Almanacs Annuals

1. “Quick Reference”AlmanacsAnnuals

2. Just the facts ma’am! 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 library’s information and telephone reference desk

3. Just the facts ma’am! quick, ready or direct reference • almanacs • annuals • dictionaries • directories • handbooks • one-volume encyclopedias • statistical abstracts

4. Almanacs

5. 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 people’s encyclopaedia

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. Almanacs • standard almanac offers concise synopses for: • statistics (in lists or tables; bulk of an almanac’s or abstract’s 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.)

12. SCHEDULING AN ALMANAC’S PUBLICATION EDITORIAL PRODUCTION MARKETING Fall (November)ready for sale promotion January 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

13. Annuals

14. 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, Statesman’s Year-Book fill a gap (information on a country’s 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

15. 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