Lesson 5 Oxford Reference Collection

English Dictionaries and References:
The Oxford Dictionary and thesaurus
I tried to find all the words possible to use other than promote, foster - not a lot of help, at least with words that would work in the context I would use it for.

The Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion

Gives the most commonly used allusions with a modern English explanation.

Interestingly, it was only first published in 2001, and is in its 3rd edition.

I tried hurdy gurdy man, floosie, steeplechaser, Jacobite

First to show up with any results was Luddites, "A group of early 19th-century English textile workers who believed that the introduction of new machinery was threatening their jobs. They responded by breaking up the machines. The name derives from a workman called Ned Ludd, nicknamed King Ludd, who …"

I kind of expected to have a complete explanation, which didn't happen.

I next tried The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology

and looked to find out about the word plebiscite;  It brought up plebeian, from Roman times.

Next I tried the American Dictionary of Current English and put in plebiscite.  Three responses, the first being "the direct vote of all the electors of a nation, etc., on an important public question.  But the other two were explicable and applicable, which made no sense to me why they popped up.

Next I tried quotations, using all of the offerings
Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations
The Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?  (Albert Einstein)

When a great adventure is offered, you don't refuse it. (Amelia Earhart)

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." (Winston Churchill)

No results for any of the quotes, all of which I've found easily online.  However, these books of quotations are another means to locating a quote you're hunting for, and sometimes that means really digging.

In the Bi-lingual Dictionaries,

In the Oxford Business French Dicitonary (English-French), I put in computer, which brought up ordinateur, a masculine noun, the correct term.  I wasn't so certain about the pen-based computer, whatever that is, being ardoise électronique and was a feminine noun (?)


In the Oxford Business Spanish Dictionary (English-Spanish), it gives computadora (feminine and used in the Americas) and it gives ordenador (masculine and used in Spain). It also has pen-based computer, fifth- generation computer, and Teletex output of price information by computer.

Logging into the Oxford Visual Dictionary, I tried the following without results:

patents
kites
horses
housing

I did se some interesting things to view using the following words

rodents
backpackers gave me camping equipment which had illustrations of things you'd take camping with you
rainbow gave me precipitations: stormy sky, but it did have an illustration that included a labeled rainbow

In the Oxford World Flags, I looked at Morocco, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and Yemen, Uzbekistan, each of which shows the flag and generally, has information about that flag.

In the Oxford World Maps, it says "This title now includes over 775 maps, with locator, physical and political maps for each country, over 120 island maps, state maps for North America, Canada, and Mexico, and more than 100 city maps."  However, I tried the following cities, and I didn't hit a one that was in the database!  (Venice, Saigon, Durbin, Adelaide, Seattle, Dallas, St. Louis, Orlando)

One thing I don't like in all of these, is that the default for the Quick Search boxes is always the whole of Oxford reference, not the specific data base. As a result, all searches would bring up much but irrelevant information because I'd be quick to hit the go button and not change the default button to instead "Search this book."  Annoying!

I would have liked Timelines to use with history classes.  I didn't find, on short perusal, anything I'd say was missing from the five I looked at (ancient world, art and architecture, early America, United States and Australia).  I liked the aspect that clicking on the event took you to another database with detailed information about the event, along with an author's name, and the citation information (this is such a good thing to have for students!).

Under Encyclopedias, there is a link to the A Guide to Countries of the World.  This is useful because the state library no longer is subscribing to Gale's Facts on File Countries and Cultures, and will be discontinuing the Gale Facts on File World News Digest in July which covers the past 70 years of news worldwide. Students who have to do country reports could utilize both of these, and now I know where to send them if need be.

I did a quick search on Eleanor of Aquitaine, something a normal encyclopedia should have an individual description.  The only things that came up were Louis VII (her first husband), Louis VI (her father-in-law), Henry II (her second husband), and Anjou (which Henry ruled after his marriage to Eleanor).  I wasn't impressed!  and when I clicked on Links for this Subject, assuming I was going to get other places I might more likely find information on Eleanor, I got a list of totally unrelated places like Amnesty International Annual Report, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Chatham House, CIA The World Factbook, etc.  To me, this link should not be labeled as it is, rather, it should say something like Full List of Links for Encyclopedia - Other Databases

Discovery Exercises:
1.Go to the H's and find the entries for the term habeas corpus. How many dictionaries have entries for this word?  six
2. What is the purpose for these links? Go to the link for the Guide to Grammar and Writing. What popular song is used to illustrate nouns?
According to the Help explanation:
The Links button is context-sensitive. If you are on a book-level page for The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, or if you are looking at an entry from this book, the links page will take you straight to a list relevant to that book.

If you are on a subject-level page, the Links button will take you to the relevant subject-level links page, showing a list of relevant links for that subject.

To move back from a book-level links page to the subject-level links page, or to the global links page listing all subjects, use the Subject or Global links on the green second-level menu bar.

Oscar Hammerstein II,
lyricist of "My Favorite Things"
from The Sound of Music

Commentary: I don't see how these links connect with the "Book" you are looking at or the subject.  However, there might be things I'd use them for, knowing that they exist, but I'd go to that resource directly as possible.

3. Click on the first link for examples of boats and ships. How many examples are given? Fourteen

4.  …the link for English Language Reference. How many titles are offered in this category? Eighteen

5. …click the link to the Bilingual Dictionaries. Choose one of the dictionary titles. Enter a word in the search box. List the options available to process the information on the results screen.

The Pocket Modern Welsh Dictionary (English-Welsh)
search term:  computer
cyfrifiadur (plural -on ) masculine
(From The Pocket Modern Welsh Dictionary (English-Welsh) in Bilingual Dictionaries)

OPTIONS to process the information?  I'm guessing at this because the request makes no sense to me as worded:

Reorder these results alphabetically (might help with a very long list)
Help
how many results per page do you want to see at one time?
Print Search results
Email Search results
Widen Your search
Search Tps

6. Enter the word "abolish" in the search box. What is the quote from John Locke?
The end of law is, not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom.

Browse to the word "abolish." Follow the links for abolish and describe how these results differ from the general word search results.
abolish: abolish or restrain - Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
link takes you to more quotes by John Locke but not necessarily having anything to do with the word abolish per se.  There is a quote on serfdom, on how men can error, on how experience gives knowledge, and sixteen others.
On the sidebar, there are "Read more about " John Locke " in other titles" with a listing of other books you can link to and read more.

7.  ,,,Maps and Illustrations. Do a search for "Syria." What type of maps are available? There is an area map showing Syria in relation to other countries in the Middle East region.  There is a physical map, and there is also a political map.

8.  …Encyclopedias. Do a search on Syria. Explore the links to the World Encyclopedia and A Guide to Countries of the World. Consider the difference between the two resources. The encyclopedia entry is very factual information someone giving the standard country report would use - boring!  The Guide however has much subjective information, like "While Bashar has proved less repressive than his father, he has been no less effective at retaining firm control. The secret police are omnipresent, and human rights workers or dissident bloggers can be imprisoned for ‘weakening the national spirit’. "  Might be true but I'd want to confirm with other sources the comments.  Someone from Syria might totally disagree with this assessment.  It does have some bits of information similar to the encyclopedia.

According to the introduction for A Guide to Countries of the World, what is the purpose of this source?

Each entry gives a brief history and outlines contemporary social, economic, political and religious issues….fully up to date…ideal for students and teachers of geography, politics, economics, world religions, and world history at all levels...

Well, it is the publisher putting out the blurb!

9.  From the Oxford Reference home page click in the Quick Search Box.
Search for the term "recycling." How many entries are in the results screen? one for the verbena,  thirteen just for recycling, and twenty-five total for anything to do with recycling.

Explore a few of the topics from the the Refine by Subject list.  When would this type of refinement be useful?
Sometimes you search because you don't know what exactly you're looking for.  E.g., recycling in the Visual English Dictionary in Maps & Illustrations gives all kinds of words associated with the act of selectively sorting waste at a sorting plant, which is part of the process of recycling.
Sometimes we use the same word for totally different meanings or connotations.  recycling and crustal composition deals with science and the process of the rigid outer layer of the Earth above "the Moho," which separates the underlying mantle from the crust.  (found in the Oxford Companion to the EArth in Pre-History)
Recycling of Deposits (A Dictionary of Finance and Banking in Economics & Business) references a run on a bank, where there is a demand by depositors for their money that's held by the bank.  Wishing to avoid a panic and thus a run on their own banks, the bank that is ailing might ask for help in shoring up its deposits through loans by these other banks.
When you click on this link, recycling of deposits, there are additional entries in the sideboard to look at that might help with more research

10. Using HTML coding, add a search button or some other javascript widget to your blog page:

I added a widget from Goodreads.  Click on Aldean's Bookshelf: Read (top of widget) and you'll see 81 listed.