Basics of Information Sources in Reference Services

Overview of basics in Reference Services for Libraries

1. Information
Sources
LIS 223a
Allana Delgado
July 11, 2017

2. Topics:
•Information Sources
•Source Type or Fact Finders
•Control-Access-Directional Type of Source
•Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Information Sources

3. What is Information?
•Information can be things that we
derive from study, experience, or
instruction
•We receive information from specific
events gathered by communication
or news
•Information can also come our way
through facts, data, or statistical
information

4. Where can we find
Information?
•Your own senses
•The people around you
•Television
•Radio
•Newspapers
•Magazines & journals
•Internet
•Books

5. Information Sources
•In the Reference Librarians’
daily activities, the librarian
relies on reference books
which are carefully
identified and assigned to a
special section of the
library

6. Control-Access-Directional
Sources
Bibliography - first class or form of reference source,
broadly defined as a “systematically produced list of
records”
•Control. The bibliography serves as a control device for
the compiler and the user. The bibliography is prepared
through research, identification, description, and
classification

7. Control-Access-Directional
Sources
•Access. Once items are controlled, individual items are
organized for easy access to facilitate use. Access types of
reference works can be broadly defined as bibliographies.
Kinds:
•Bibliographies of reference sources or literature of a
subject
•The library catalog or the catalogs of many libraries (union
lists)
•General systematic enumerative bibliographies, which
includes various forms of bibliography
•Indexes and abstracts

8. Control-Access-
Directional Sources
•Direction. Bibliographies
do not give answers, but
only direct or point the user
to the sources of answers

9. Source Types/Fact finders
•These sources can give answers to questions, or are
typical sources of information such as:
•Encyclopedias - contains informational articles on
subjects in every field of knowledge usually arranged in
alphabetical order. Ex.: Encyclopedia Britannica, World
Book Encyclopedia
•Fact sources - they are used to look up factual material
for quick reference, such as yearbooks, almanacs,
handbooks, manuals, and directories. Ex.: World
Almanac, Statesman’s Yearbook

10. Source Types/Fact finders
•Dictionaries - deals with all aspects of words: definitions,
spellings, pronunciations, etymologies. Ex.: Websters
Third New International Dictionary
•Biographical sources - contains information on persons
distinguished in a particular field. Ex.: Who’s Who
•Geographical sources - information about places and
may include details on its history, society, and culture.
Includes gazetteers, dictionaries of place names,
guidebooks. Ex.: The Times Atlas of the World

11. Primary, Secondary, &
Tertiary Information
Sources

12. Primary Sources
•Primary sources are original
materials on which other
research is based
•They present information in its
original form, neither interpreted
nor condensed nor evaluated by
other writers
•They are usually the first formal
appearance of results in the print
or electronic literature

13. Examples of Primary
Sources
scientific journal articles
proceedings of Meetings, technical reports
dissertations or theses (may also be secondary)
patents, sets of data, such as census statistics
diaries, autobiographies
interviews, surveys and fieldwork
letters and correspondence, speeches
newspaper articles (may also be secondary)
government documents
photographs and works of art
original documents, Internet communications

14. Secondary Sources
•describe, interpret, analyze and evaluate the primary
sources
•comment on and discuss the evidence provided by
primary sources
•are works which are one or more steps removed from the
event or information they refer to, being written after the
fact with the benefit of hindsight

15. Examples of Secondary
Sources
biographical works
commentaries
history
journal articles
monographs
newspapers
review articles
works of criticism and interpretation

16. Tertiary Sources
•materials in which the information from primary and
secondary sources has been "digested" - reformatted and
condensed, or summarized to put it into a convenient,
easy-to-read form.
•works which list primary and secondary resources in a
specific subject area
•works which index, organize and compile citations to, and
show you how to use, secondary (and sometimes
primary) sources.

17. Examples of Tertiary
sources
almanacs and fact books
bibliographies (may also be secondary)
dictionaries and encyclopedias (may
also be secondary)
directories
guidebooks, manuals, etc.
handbooks and data compilations
indexing and abstracting tools used to
locate primary & secondary sources
textbooks

19. Guessing Game

20. Today’s Activity
•Find dictionaries and encyclopedias in the Reference
Section (1 General and 1 Subject-Specific for each).
Observe its format and contents and describe it.
•Title, place of publication, publisher
•Purpose of work
•Arrangement
•What you observe about the source