Types of Information Needs

"Seminar Presented on Types of Information Needs"

1. Seminar on Types of
information need


Presentation by

Shivakumar G.T.
II M.L.I. Sc
Dos in L.I.S
Manasagangothri

2. TYPES OF INFORMATION
Need
•Published works
•Unpublished works

3. Published works
•Government publications
•Journals
•Newspapers
•Monographs and textbooks
•Reference works
•Audio Visual
•Electronic media

4. Government publications
Official publication issued by a
government publishing facility
Examples:
•Statutes
•Acts
•Government gazette
•Debates of parliament (Hansard)

5. Journals
•A journal is a periodical, which
generally contains material relating to
research
•Appears at regular intervals – weekly,
monthly, quarterly
•Content varies and can include
editorials, articles, book reviews, etc
•They do not necessarily have the word
“journal” in the title, e.g.
South african medical journal
New scientist

6. Newspapers
•Newspapers: issued either daily,
weekly or monthly
•Contain news, opinions,
advertisements and other subjects
related to current affairs
•South African newspaper articles
indexed by SAMedia and available for
searching under Databases

7. Textbooks / Monographs
Publications that deal comprehensively
with a specific subject

8. Reference Works
•Dictionaries (e.g. Dorlands medical
dictionary, Oxford english dictionary, Dictionary
of medical syndromes)
•Encylopaedias (e.g. Encyclopaedia of
bioethics, Encyclopaedia of occupational health
and safety)
•Biographies (e.g. Medical sciences
international who’s who)
•Yearbooks (South African yearbook,
Yearbook 2001 United Nations)
•Address books (The World of Learning
2001)

9. Audio Visual Media
Other media such as audio
cassettes or videos

10. Electronic Media
Information that is electronically
available
•CD Rom programs (eg. Heart sounds &
murmurs, Procedural skills…)
•eBooks (Textbook of pediatrics, The 5-minute
consult, Harrison’s textbook of internal
medicine…)
•eJournals (Lancet, British medical journal)

11. Unpublished works
•Human sources
•Dissertations / Theses
•Reports
•Grey literature
•Information on the Internet
•Email

12. Human sources
•Lecturers
•Colleagues
•And others

13. Dissertations / Theses
•Research work prepared as part of an
academic course for a higher degree
•Copy usually made available in library of
university

14. Research / Progress reports
Written description of a
completed research project or an
interim progress report

15. Grey literature
Information that is not available through
the normal book selling channels such as
reports, manuscripts and patents

16. For the retrieval of
information
Secondary information sources to
retrieve information
•Bibliographies to find books
(eg. Bookfind, Books in Print)
•Indexes to find journal articles
(eg. Medline, African Health
Anthology)

17. How to retrieve information in the
library
•Use the library catalogue (UP
Explore) to find out what books,
journals, electronic media have
been purchased and are
available in the library

18. Why library training?
•Feel like this when
it comes to looking
for information in
the library?

19. Conclusion
Libraries, many of their resources and
services, and the information experts who
work in libraries appear to be increasingly
less visible in a universe of abundant
information, but without data we could
not say with any certainty how extensive
this apparent shift has become. The
Perceptions of Libraries and Information
Resources report provides this data.

20. Thank you