Its objective is to include all major and historical dictionaries for 275 languages. The dictionaries chosen often cite sources of information about words, quote at length to show how a word is or was used, suggest word origins, and are likely to retain some value whatever else is published. Dalby's introduction clearly explains arrangement, terminology, and bibliographic details. Unlike Walford , which arranges entries in five broad language groups, languages are in alphabetical order, with standard arrangements of subgroups when there are more than six dictionaries per language.
Languages crossing national boundaries include subgroups by region and by dialect.
Main-entry titles are in the original language as part of the detailed bibliographic description. Also useful are brief descriptions of each language and in several cases their alphabets with transliterations. Indexing covers personal names and titles, referring to entry numbers. Compared with Guide to Reference Books, annotations tend to be longer for less common languages but shorter for major ones. Dalby, librarian at The London Goodenough Trust for Overseas Graduates, is also more critical of dictionaries' weaknesses.