These are other reference materials on CD.

Several CD publishing houses have developed Jewish books.

Some collections help people search for word or phrases in Jewish religious texts. It might have a large collection of Jewish religious texts.

Others include responsa and search mechanisms about Jewish law.

Still others might have collections of Jewish religious texts with which a person could read on screen, but they don't do much in addition to being on CD format.

Before selecting these books, ask whether you would like to use them.

But what do you do when you want to look up a specific word and it is not in the dictionary? Or if you need a new explanation for something which is not listed or an expression or you want to know how a particular word fits in to a particular place. This is an issue for translators, not for any dictionary at all. It’s entirely possible that your dictionary will not be able to help in issues such as this. In such cases, it is recommended that you refer to the information in the Hebrew Translating group. That group regularly deals with issues such as these.

Translators from around the world help each other as questions are posed and answers are presented to tough questions relating to moving information from one language to another. Since the time of the Tower of Babel, there has been a need for translators to help each other, to help people who do not speak a particular language understand the language spoken by another group of people.

On the Hebrew Translating group, we have a magnificent resource for people who actually do have enough dictionaries, but they need resources for which a dictionary will never help. It goes beyond the book, beyond the CD, beyond the typical online resource, and beyond all of the dictionaries – online, CD, or paper – which a person might want to have.

Any subscriber poses a question to the group, within a short time, answers come in from other subscribers who are also professional translators, an expert in these Jewish languages from around the world. They make suggestions as to the proper term or expression to use in the other language. Sometimes, after a suggestion is made, other subscribers suggest improving on that suggestion with other possibilities of their own based upon their own experience. A discussion may well ensue, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of a particular way translating a particular word.

By the time the discussion is completed, there is no question that the user who asked the best possible translation, used in the clearest and most effective way. He will have been able to “discuss” his particular word or words with the finest of people throughout the world. He will be able to know that other translators and people who are experts in words have given it their thought and hundreds of other translators have gotten together virtually throughout the world and agreed upon a single translation for a particular concept.

There is no possible way that this translation could have been done any better than to consult with this many experts this wide range of experiences throughout the world. Thus, when we consider the possibility of the reference book for a home library, you can look at the text based books, CDs, and the online materials. However, this new method of getting information about a particular word goes well beyond the book and no matter what its format. Any person who wants to have access to information in his home, especially Jewish information, will want to have the option of this additional stronger feature which is now available to give the best possible most updated and clearest information for anybody who wants to be able to get information.

Thus, although this series of articles is about maintaining a book collection in your homes, especially Jewish homes, we must realize that there is now this additional possibility which does indeed go beyond the collection in a home and is also useful for people who want to get more information than that which could ever be available in any dictionary or in any encyclopedia or any other reference book.