Reference books are dinosaurs that don’t know they’re dead. Once the Brahmins of library books, they have been marginalized. That they don't circulate is a strike against them. Their expense can make them less desirable acquisitions. The internet easily out-performs them in the case of ready reference. Austere and humorless, some are weighed by intimidating bulk or voluminism through aiming for relentless comprehensiveness.
Yet they must have a few sentimental friends in the publishing or library or scholarly world, for otherwise their extinction would be official.
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