There are some terms used to describe books, some materials have specific meaning. They will be discussed here. It is important for students to know what is what in a library.

FICTION & NON-FICTION BOOKS

Fiction: Literature in the form of prose, especially novels, that describes imaginary events and people. In simple words, fiction is an event, stories, circumstances, etc. in which the author composed using his imagination.

Examples: Novels, Poems, Stories, etc.

Novel: An invented prose narrative that is usually long and complex and deals especially with human experience through a usually connected sequence of events

Gulliver’s Travels (Genre: Adventure)

Sherlock Holmes (Genre: Detective/ crime)
(Genre: Genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature.It describes the style and focus of the novel. Genres give you blueprints for different types of stories.)

Poem: A composition in verse. Songs and lyrics are also poem in simple words.

Story: Story is an account of incidents or events. In other words, story is a fictional narrative shorter than a novel.

Short stories for Children

Non-Fiction: Informative or factual rather than fictional. In simple words, non-fiction means something that is true, based on facts which is not composed by someone.

Examples: Science, History, Travel books,Manuals, Newspapers, Encyclopedia, Biography, etc. which are based on facts.

Science: Science is the study of the nature and behaviour of natural things and the knowledge that we obtain about them.

History: A history is an account of events that have happened in the past.

Biography: A biography of someone is an account of their life, written by someone else. (if a person/author is writing his/her own life story, it is called autobiography)

Biography of Abraham Lincoln, written by Anthony Moss

Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, written by Himself

REFERENCE BOOKS

Reference books are those intended to be consulted for information on specific matters. In other words, a library book that may be used on the premises but may not be taken out

Examples: Encyclopedia, Atlas, Dictionary, etc.

Encyclopedia:  A work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles arranged alphabetically often by subject. Encyclopedia can be of Science, History, Space, Animals, etc. dealing with different subjects.

Science Encyclopedia

History Encyclopedia

Atlas: A bound collection of maps often including illustrations, informative tables, or textual matter.  In simple words, it is a collection of maps of different countries. Atlas can be of world, country, state, and so on.

World map

Dictionary: a reference book listing alphabetically terms or names important to a particular subject or activity along with discussion of their meanings and applications. Eg. Oxford Dictionary, Collins Dictionary, Illustrated Dictionary, etc.

There are different types of Dictionary such as Bilingual dictionary (eg. Hindi to English, English to Hindi, English to Assemese Dictionary, and so on), Etymological dictionary (dictionary dealing with words development/origin), Glossary (list of words for a particular subject or field, mostly found at the back of a text book), and so on.

Oxford English Dictionary

Bilingual dictionary ( Hindi to English Dictionary)

 Glossary ( mostly found at the back of a book for some particular words)

Yearbook: a book published yearly as a report or summary of statistics or facts, such as Panorama yearbook, India Yearbook, etc.

YearBook: India 2020

Manorama Yearbook 2020

#WORK: Write the definitions of Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Reference Books in your copy.

References (The following online dictionaries can be used to search words meanings and others)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/science