Types of Information Sources in the Library Ewata Thompson ewatths@yahoo.com; http://ewatths.blogspot.

com/ With literacy and printing of literate materials comes the attendant problem of storage, protection from harm and theft, as well as retrieval of the stored materials. It is of importance to state that storage of material has gone from keeping books in a safe place to storing, protecting or guiding materials not necessarily books alone but other materials. As it is, the library has become repositories and access points for print, audio, and visual materials in numerous formats, including maps, prints, documents, microform (microfilm/microfiche), audio tapes, CDs, cassettes, videotapes, DVDs, video games, e-books, audio-books and many other electronic resources... in the case of the ancient societies, clay tablets in cuneiform scripts, papyrus (Wikipedia, 2011) and producing them on demand whenever they are needed. Searching for information in the library could become the proverbial looking for a needle in a haystack if care or skill is not applied. This is because the library houses lots and lots of information and getting what one wants could be a daunting task unless you know how to go about it and where to look. This brings us to the issue of what the library is and how to use its facilities. What is the library? Islam (2004) defines it as: a learned institution equipped with treasures of knowledge maintained, organized, and managed by trained personnel to educate the children, men and women continuously and assist in their self-improvement through an effective and prompt dissemination of information embodied in the resources. This definition tells us the role of the library is to help members of the society children, men and women develop themselves intellectually through the provision of services provided by skilled (trained) personnel. If the men and women are not trained in library duties we must state that what we call library duties have evolved into a science as it is now called library science it would not be easy getting anything out of the library as the share volume of the resources there would be too much for a lay man to handle. To get a vivid picture of what we have in mind here will be to see what happened in the cartoon, Barbie The Swan Lake. There was a particular scene when the main character, Odette, had to look for The Book of Forest Lores and how the keeper of the library had to rummage through the whole library scattering in the process the whole place before finally getting the book. To the Wikipedia (2011), the term library is a collection of sources, resources, and services. This tells us that apart from the materials (resources) kept there; the library also provides services to the users. In the same way, the Wikipedia adds a secondary meaning to the library as it says it is "a collection of useful material for common use. Just like that of Islam (2004), libraries assist in their self-improvement. The functions that the modern libraries perform have

moved away from the tradition lending books to a more embracing one of sharing cultural values and so much more. The Microsoft Encarta (2009) says In addition to maintaining collections within library buildings, modern libraries often feature telecommunications links that provide users with access to information at remote sites. This is the virtual library that has come to replace the traditional library. Here the library does not belong to any particular location as users need not go to the library but now comes to them. The materials in the library are no longer the physical materials but have been converted into virtual electronic materials that users can see or access in the comfort of the homes or anywhere they have internet access. Types of Library The American Library Association (2011) classifies library into: academic, school and public libraries. The type a library belongs to is influenced by the source of its funding. Thus, the Wikipedia states that the library is: ... organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. Academic libraries serve colleges and universities, their students, staff and faculty. Larger institutions may have several libraries on their campuses dedicated to serving particular schools such as law and science libraries.... Public libraries serve communities of all sizes and types. Wherever you live, there's bound to be a local public library nearby! As the name implies, public libraries serve the general public, "from cradle to grave" as more than one public librarian has been heard to say. Public libraries often have departments that focus on areas of service, such as youth, teens and adults. School libraries are usually part of a school system, and serve students between Kindergarten and grade 12... (http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/librarycareerssite/typesoflibraries.cfm).

In classifying the library, on the other hand, the Wikipedia has more options as it classification is divided into categories by several methods: By traditional professional divisions: Academic libraries, Public libraries or public lending libraries, Research libraries, School libraries, special library By the entity (institution, municipality, or corporate body) that supports or perpetuates them: academic libraries, corporate libraries, government libraries, such as national libraries, historical society libraries, private libraries, public libraries, school libraries, special libraries. By the type of documents or materials they hold: data libraries, digital libraries, map libraries or collections, picture (photograph) libraries, slide libraries, tool libraries By the subject matter of documents they hold: architecture libraries, fine arts libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, aquatic science libraries, theological libraries Because no single library can contain the information sought by every potential user, different types of libraries exist to serve different needs. Libraries fall into six basic categories: i. public libraries, which serve all members of the general public;

The Encarta on the other hand has different classifications as it says:

ii. school libraries, which serve students and faculty through the high school level; iii. college and university libraries, which serve students and faculty in higher education; iv. research libraries, which serve the needs of advanced scholars; v. special libraries, which serve various organizations, industries, and governmental agencies; and vi. government libraries, which serve governmental departments and agencies, and often the general public as well (Microsoft Encarta, 2009). Resources in the Library The University of Illinois at Springfield (2006) in talking about the types of resources of the library classified the types of information sources of the library are: primary, secondary sources, books, periodicals, scholarly, non-scholarly, reference, general books, print, electronic (http://library.uis.edu/findinfo/types.html). primary: this is the type of information that is got firsthand from the source of the information. This includes information that the person or people involved provided themselves. They include: biographies or firsthand accounts of an incident. secondary sources on the other hand are different from primary in the sense that they are not provided firsthand but they are comments, analyses or criticisms of the primary sources. If someone reviews or writes a criticism of that autobiography, then that's a secondary source for your life. Or if someone writes a biography of you, that would also be a secondary source (University of Illinois at Springfield (2006)).

Books and periodicals are written information but they defer in the area of time of occurrence as periodical come out at certain period of time (periodically). Books there different types of books stand alone books and series. They include: monographs, bibliographies, collection of essays or articles etc. ... monographs are "written once," or are books that stand on their own, rather than being part of a series. The information in monographs tends to be comprehensive information on a general topic, or at least more general than what is found in articles (University of Illinois). Periodicals include: newspapers, magazines, and journals. It is of note to state that items covered in periodical are more specific rather than general. A fuller explanation will be: o Newspapers usually offer articles that are factual accounts of events, but they can be an analysis of trends or issues as well. Newspaper articles usually aren't written by experts in the field and don't offer suggested readings or sources of where they got their information. Newspaper articles are great for current events and primary source material. o Popular magazines are the least scholarly and are mainly for entertainment. Articles tend to offer general tips or advice, or interviews with celebrities. Examples: Good Housekeeping, GQ, People, Road & Track, Vogue, etc. o Trade magazines are those published by associations and/or aimed at practitioners in a particular field, offering mainly practical, how-to articles, or news useful to the field. If the magazine looks like it might be scholarly, but the articles within are clearly not, then it's probably a trade magazine. Examples: Advertising Age, Computerworld, Progressive Farmer, etc.

o News magazines are more similar to newspapers, in that they offer factual, current events news and analysis. Examples: Economist, Maclean's, Newsweek, Time, etc. o Opinion magazines only offer analysis of issues and trends, sometimes with a political agenda. Examples: Christianity Today, The Nation, National Review, New Republic, etc. o A journal is the name given a periodical that is scholarly in nature. Articles are written by researchers or academics and should offer citations to sources consulted. How a particular article winds up in the journal depends on the kind of journal it is. o A peer-reviewed journal accepts manuscripts and farms them out to other experts in the field to judge the article, usually without the name of the author. The article is then critiqued and is either accepted, sent back to the author for revisions, or outright rejected. o Other journals do not accept unsolicited manuscripts, rather they recruit particular individuals and ask them to contribute an article. So while this type of journal isn't peer-reviewed, it is very selective and just as prestigious to be published in. o And some journals aren't quite as rigorous as the two above. The works are scholarly, but article proposals are judged in-house by the editor or the editorial board, rather than peer-reviewed (University of Illinois). scholarly materials are best classified by who the writers (authors) are and their credentials or pedigree. Writers or authors of scholarly materials since they are academic writings will provide the sources (referencing) that they got their materials from. This is one very useful source that materials can be classified into whether they are scholarly or not. (add materials from academic writings about referencing) At the same time scholarly materials most often have commentaries or criticisms written about them. To a certain extent you can judge this also by the publisher. As a rule, university presses almost always publish scholarly works, while other presses may or may not (University of Illinois). non-scholarly materials are the opposite of the scholarly as they do not meet the criteria set to measure scholarly material. They include newspapers, magazines, some autobiographies and biographies. reference and general collection: Another dichotomy in information sources are reference sources vs. general collection books. Reference works are those resources that you only want to "refer" to a small section of the work, either to find a quick fact, or to get a general overview of an issue. The information sources found in the reference collection vary widely, but here are some common ones. o Encyclopedias are the best sources for reading an overview of a topic. There are both general encyclopedias, which try to summarize all knowledge, and subjectspecific encyclopedias, which focus only on a general topic like health or the environment, and offer overviews of aspects of the general topic. The entries within encyclopedias can range from a paragraph to 30 pages. Most subjectspecific encyclopedias will also offer a short bibliography or suggestions for further reading.

o Dictionaries offer shorter definitions and summaries of terms. Like encyclopedias, dictionaries can be general or subject-specific. Also, just to make it even more confusing, some reference works are entitled Dictionary of something, but are in fact encyclopedias in terms of scope and length of the entries. o Handbooks/Manuals/Guides are works that offer quick facts, formulas, equations, or names and addresses for a particular subject. o Atlases offer information in cartographic form. While you may think of atlases as just offering maps of countries or U.S. states, some atlases describe historical events or social issues in map form, e.g. the changing borders of European countries, or the percentage of people in poverty around the world. o Almanacs offer quick facts, either for all subjects, e.g. The World Almanac and Book of Facts, or subject-specific, e.g. The Almanac of Illinois Politics. o Statistical compilations describe issues with numbers. Some are general in scope, the best known being the Statistical Abstract, but there are some that only cover a general subject, such as criminal justice or economics. Most statistical compilations are published by state, federal, or international agencies, and may then be found in the Government Publications area, rather that Reference. print and electronic resources since the invention of the computer, material preparation and presentations have taken different dimensions. Rather than the conventional printing of materials on paper we now have books that are in electronic forms such as audio books and the likes. Libraries all over the world too have conformed to the changes and have adapted their materials and resources to this. It started with the conventional catalogue a cabinet containing many drawers filled with index cards that identified books and other materials been replaced by adoption of electronic catalogue databases (often referred to as "webcats" or as online public access catalogs, OPACs), which allow users to search the library's holdings from any location with Internet access. For example the centuries old Encyclopaedia Britannica that used to be in many volumes and will occupy a sizeable amount of space are now in compact or DVD discs and installed on the PC for continuous use in the convenience of the users homes or offices rather than the conventional libraries. As it is now, publishers themselves, though initial wary of electronic formats now package the electronic versions with purchase of print copies.

Organization of Resource in the Library As mentioned earlier the library contains a vast array of resources or information that is available at the tips of the library users. These resources would be of no use if they are not properly organised. Due to the share volume of the information available in the library, librarians have developed systematic procedures to organize their collections in ways that provide users with convenient and logical access to materials nearly all libraries use some type of system to catalogue, or index, their collections Encarta. As a result of this, it is very important that users of the library, we must have a basic understanding of the common types of catalogues and the principles of classification to easily find the information they need. To look for resources in the library, the first point of call of the library user is the catalogue. A library catalogue is an index to the librarys collection that enables a user to find materials.

Library users can determine whether the library owns the materials they need by searching through catalogue records Encarta. From the catalogue, the user may know if the library has the material(s) required and most often the number of copies of such material that the library has. The catalogue is structured in such a way that it lists each particular material (item) in the library in such a way that the user can conduct a search through a title of a book or work, the topic that the work is about, the author of the work etc. Catalog records typically list the items author, its title, its subjects, the date it was published, the name of its publisher, and other information. In addition, the catalog record contains the items call number, a combination of letters and numbers used to classify the work. The call number also indicates the items location in the library. For example, a book on architecture is classifiedand arranged in the librarywith the librarys other books on architecture (Encarta). The Encarta lists the different types of catalogues we have as: book catalogues: list the holdings of the library in a catalog in book form card catalogues: entries are printed on cards that libraries arrange alphabetically in drawers. A card catalog usually contains three types of cards for each item in the librarys collection. The first type has the authors name or other persons or institutions that contributed to the work on the top line, the second has the title of the book or other item on the top line, and the third has the subject of the item on the top line. microfiche catalogues: images. A microfiche catalog allows libraries to store vast amounts of catalog information in much smaller spaces than printed catalogs require. Whereas book catalogs and a few card catalogs list complete entries only under the authors name, all entries in a microfiche catalog are usually complete. This means that each entry will contain the items author, its title, its subjects, its call number, the date it was published, the name of its publisher, and other information. computerized catalogues: often referred to as online public access catalogs (OPACs) or online catalogs, computerized catalogs were first introduced in libraries in the early 1980s. Online catalogs provide broader access to a librarys collection by allowing more sophisticated searching of the catalog. (to include pictures of the catalogues for emphasis)

Locating Information Sources in the Library However locating the resources mentioned above, could be daunting as mentioned earlier without proper guidance or direction. The University of Illinois at Springfield (2006) makes the following suggestions, in looking for a particular format of information: When would you want to find one type versus another? There are no cut and dried answers to that, and you will probably want to explore lots of different formats, to get different aspects of your topic. But as a generalization: If you want a one or more page summary or background information, try an encyclopedia. If you are looking for a more comprehensive analysis of your topic, look for books.

If you are looking for more detailed analysis on some aspect of your topic, look for articles. If you are looking for an objective account of an event, look for newspaper articles. If you are looking for more obscure or esoteric information, pop culture topics, or historic primary documents, look for websites.

To make storing, retrieval and searching for materials easier, librarians have developed a classification method to group materials into categories. The classification is done on the aspect of human knowledge that the material sought is from. As in: 000 Generalities 500 Natural sciences and mathematics 100 Philosophy and psychology 600 Technology (applied sciences) 200 Religion 700 The arts; fine and decorative arts 300 Social sciences 800 Literature and rhetoric 400 Language 900 Geography and history The University of Queensland Library makes the following claims to help sourcing information and resources in the library Periodicals Scholarly Non-Scholarly Reference General Collection Print Electronic Official Publications documents published by national governments and intergovernmental organisations (e.g. EU, UN, IMF) Working Papers pre-publication research papers Conference Papers research papers presented at conferences

There are four types of libraries: public (as in your local library, often funded by city/county/state), school media centers (the libraries that cater to students in K-12 schools), academic (libraries at public and private universities and institutions of higher learning), and special libraries (libraries that deal specifically with special items like legal or medical resources, or libraries that are part of institutions dedicated to the study of special subjects). Academic library Hybrid library Data library Digital library Presidential library Print room Private library

Proprietary library Public library

Library References Islam, S. K. M. (2004). The role of libraries and education. Information Society Today. Vol. 1 (1). Cited in Adio, G. & Olasina, G. (n.d.). The role of library in educational development. Retrieved 24 May, 2011 from: http://www.unilorin.edu.ng/publications/olasinage/THE%20ROLE%20OF%20LIBRAR Y%20IN%20EDUCATIONAL%20DEVELOPMENT.pdf American Library Association (2011), Types of library. Retrieved June 17, 2011 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/librarycareerssite/typesoflibraries.cfm. Brookens Library - University of Illinois at Springfield (2006). Getting started: Types of information sources. etrieved June 03, 2011from: http://library.uis.edu/findinfo/types.html The University of Queensland Library (2011). Types of information sources. etrieved June 03, 2011from: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/types_information_sources.htmlUniversity of London Research Library Services (n.d.). library research skills tutorial. Retrieved July 21, 2011 from: http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/tutorial/libraries/catalogues2.asp. Wikipedia (2011). ibrary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library. etrieved June 03, 2011 from: