The reference shelves in your local library are stocked with numerous books filled with scholarly topics, trivial facts, comprehensive sets on various topics, and many books dealing with compilations of names, addresses and phone numbers. Here are a few.

“Encyclopedia of Associations” is a guide to more than 23,000 national and international organizations including trade, business and commercial; legal; cultural; health and medical, athletics and sports; chambers of commerce; fan clubs and many more. The scope of these volumes includes national nonprofit membership associations; international associations; local and regional associations; non-membership associations; for-profit associations, and in the index, defunct and untraceable associations.

“State Yellow Book” is a who’s who in the executive and legislative branches of the fifty state governments. This publication is updated four times a year.

“The Congressional Directory” includes information about the vice president, members of Congress, with biographies, office listings (both Washington D.C. and state offices), and district descriptions, arranged by state. It also includes all standing committees of the Senate and House of Representatives and every department of the United States government with names, phone numbers, and e-mail and snail-mail addresses.

“Congressional Staff Directory” gives rosters, officers, members, committees and sub-committees, and caucuses and task forces for the Senate and House of Representatives. It has information on committees, offices and agencies of Congress, congressional staff biographies, and information on congressional districts for 14,000 counties and cities and their districts.

“Contemporary Authors” provides information on approximately 145,000 writers in a wide range of media, including: current writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama, whose works have been issued by commercial publishers, risk publishers, or university presses; prominent print and broadcast journalists, editors, photojournalists, syndicated cartoonists, graphic novelists, screenwriters, television scriptwriters, and other media people; notable international authors; and literary greats of the early 20th century whose works are popular in today’s high school and college curricula and continue to elicit critical attention.

“Colorado Revised Statutes” are the laws of the State of Colorado. These volumes are updated every year, and all three branches of your Summit County Library have copies in Reference.

“Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2012” is a comprehensive collection of statistics on the social, political and economic organization of the United States. It is designed to serve as a convenient volume for statistical reference and as a guide to other statistical publications and sources. You can find statistics on population, education, elections, federal, state and local government finances and employment, agriculture, manufacturers, transportation, and banking, finance and insurance plus many more subjects.

These and many more volumes are waiting in the reference collection at your local library. Come browse and see what treasures you can find.