Media and Information Literacy

LESSON GUIDE NO. ____

Types of information sources
Information can come from virtually anywhere media, blogs, personal experiences, books,
journal and magazine articles, expert opinions, encyclopedias, and web pages and the type
of information you need will change depending on the question you are trying to answer. Look at
the following sources of information. Notice the similarities between them.

Type Information Use Examples

A magazine is a to find National Geographic

collection of
articles and information or Ebony
images about opinions about Sports Illustrated
diverse topics of popular culture People
popular interest
and current to find up-to-date
events. Usually information about
these articles are current events
written by
journalists or to find
scholars and are general articles
geared toward the for people who
average adult.
Magazines may are not
Magazine cover very necessarily
"serious" material, specialists about
but to find
consistent the topic
scholarly
information, you
should use
journals.

A journal is a when doing Journal of

collection of
articles usually scholarly Communication
written by research The Historian
scholars in an to find out what Journal of the
academic or
professional field. has been studied American Medical
An editorial board on your topic Association
reviews articles to to find Lancet
decide whether
they should be bibliographies
accepted. Articles that point to
in journals can other relevant
cover very
specific topics or research
Academic
journal narrow fields of
research.
 A database when you want Academic Search
contains citations
of articles in to find articles Complete (a general
magazines, on your topic in database)
journals, and magazines, Compendex (an
newspapers. They
may also contain journals or engineering database)
Database citations to newspapers ABI/Inform (a business
podcasts, blogs, database)
videos, and other
media types.
Some databases
contain abstracts
or brief
summaries of the
articles, while
other databases
contain complete,
full-text articles.

A newspaper is a to find current Roanoke Times

collection of
articles about information New York Times
current events about Suddeutsche Zeitung
usually published international,
daily. Since there
is at least one in national and
every city, it is a local events
Newspapers great source for to find
local information.
editorials,
commentaries,
expert or
popular opinions

A library catalog to find out what Virginia Tech's library

is an organized catalog is called
and searchable items the library Addison.
collection of owns on your
records of every topic
item in a library
Addison
and can be found to find where a
on the library specific item is
home page. The located in the
catalog will point
you to the location library
of a particular
source, or group
of sources, that
the library owns
on your topic.
 Books cover when looking Nash, Gary B. ed. The
virtually any
for lots of American People:
topic, fact or
fiction. For information on a Creating a Nation and a
research purposes, topic Society, 1990.
you will probably
to put your topic Silverstone, Roger,
be looking for
books that in context with ed. Visions of
synthesize all the other important Suburbia, 1997.
information on
Books issues Smith, J. T. Roman
one topic to
support a to find historical Villas: A Study in Social
particular information Structure, 1997
argument or
to find
thesis.
summaries of
Libraries organize research to
and store their
book collections support an
on shelves called argument
"stacks."

Encyclopedias are when looking African-American

collections of
for background Encyclopedia (subject
short, factual
entries often information on a encyclopedia)
written by topic Encyclopedia
different
when trying to Americana (general
contributors who
are find key ideas, encyclopedia)
knowledgeable important dates World Book (general
about the topic.
or concepts encyclopedia found
There are two online)
types of Gale encyclopedia of
Encyclopedia
encyclopedias:
general and genetic
subject. General disorders (subject
encyclopedias encyclopedia found
provide concise
overviews on a online)
wide variety of
topics. Subject
encyclopedias
contain in-depth
entries focusing
on one field of
study.
 The Web allows to find current lcweb.loc.gov (The
you to access
information Library of Congress)
most types of
information on the to find wikipedia.org (a wiki)
Internet through a information www.vt.edu (Virginia
browser. One of
about companies Tech
Web site the main features
of the Web is the to find
ability to quickly information
link to other
from all levels
related
information. The of government -
Web contains federal to local
information
to find both
beyond plain text,
including sounds, expert and
images, and video. popular opinions

The important to find

thing to do when information
using information about hobbies
on the Internet is
to know how to and personal
evaluate it! interests

http://www.lib.vt.edu/help/research/info-sources.html

Print - Diaries - Letters - Speeches - Patents - Photographs - Newspaper articles - Journal

articles - Theses and dissertations - Survey Research (e.g., market surveys, public opinion
polls) - Proceedings of Meetings, conferences and symposia - Original Documents (i.e. birth
certificates, wills, marriage licenses, trial transcripts) - Records of organizations, government
agencies (e.g. annual reports, treaties, constitutions, government documents) Electronic
Internet E-mail communication Communication in Listservs Interviews (e.g., telephone, e-
mail) Video recordings (e.g. television programs) Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs)
Web sites Communications through social networking applications (e.g. Face book, blogs,
RSS, U- tube etc.) Others Artifacts (e.g. coins, plant specimens, fossils, furniture, tools,
clothing, all from the time under study) Works of art, architecture, literature, and music (e.g.,
paintings, sculptures, musical scores, buildings, novels, poems). A newspaper article reporting
the bomb blast in Abuja, Nigeria, during the celebration of the countrys 50th Independent
Anniversary. Note: The types of information that can be considered a primary source may vary
depending on the subject discipline, and how the material is being used. For example: A
research article in a peer-reviewed journal that proved the effectiveness of a newly developed
vaccine for the prevention of HIV virus would be a primary source, however, A magazine article
that reports the development of a new vaccine for the prevention of HIV infection would be
regarded as a primary source. Information in a magazine article that reports a study of how
compact fluorescent light bulbs are presented in the popular media could be considered a
primary source [3]. Grey literature Grey literature is also important primary source material(s)
not available through the usual systems of publication (e.g. books or periodicals) and distribution
[11]. Examples are: Conference proceedings, data exchange, environmental impact statements,
oral presentations, market research reports, online documents, oral presentations and working
papers.