A bibliography is an overview of (almost) all publications in some category:
- works of some author
- publications about some specific subject
- publications published in some specific country
- publications published in some specific period
- publications mentioned in, or relevant to, a particular work (a bibliography of this type, sometimes called a reference list should normally appear at the end of any paper in scientific literature)
A bibliography tries to give a complete overview of the (important) literature in its category.
This is opposed to a library catalog, which only describes items actually found in the library.
However, some national libraries' catalogs also serve as national bibliographies,
as (almost) all publications of this country are contained in the catalogs.
Bibliographies can be sorted in several ways, similar to library catalogs.
Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. Creating these blurbs, usually a few sentences long, establishes a summary for and expresses the relevance of each source prior to writing.
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