Provides an overview of various types of sources of information along with how to evaluate them

1. Sources of Information
L.A.Jayatissa

2. What is information?
• “Data presented in readily comprehensible
form to which meaning has been
attributed within a context for its use. In a
more dynamic sense, the message
conveyed by the use of a medium of
communication or expression. Whether a
specific message is informative or not
depends in part on the subjective
perception of the person receiving it.
(continued in next slide)

3. What is information?
• ..More concretely, all the facts,
conclusions, ideas, and creative works of
the human intellect and imagination that
have been communicated, formally or
informally, in any form.”(Dictionary for library and
information science)

4. What is information?
• The term “information” is used with a variety of
meanings. Some identify it with communications
over transmission lines, measured by the
statistical properties of signals; some identify
with recorded facts; some with the content of
texts; some with the experience stored in the
human mind. Information is a property of data
resulting from or produced by a process
performed on the data.(World encyclopedia of library and
information sciences)

5. What is information?
• “An assemblage of data in a
comprehensible form recorded on paper
or some other medium, and capable of
communication” (Harrod’s librarians’ glossary)
• Basic ingredient of scientific research,
decision making…

6. Why do you want information ? For your
• teaching
• studies
• background knowledge
• research
• publications, presentations etc.

7. •Your time is the most
important non-renewable
resource
•To make avail more time
increase efficiency
•Familiarity of information
sources
•Where to look?
•Where to start?
•How to retrieve?
•How to store?
•Your Information skills
(Information Literacy)

8. Select
right
source
There can be more than one source
Ability to locate the most appropriate
source among the available
Ability to start from the appropriate page

9. Earlier Forms : The Clay Tablet

11. Earlier Forms : The Papyrus

14. Basic Types of Sources of
Information
•Primary sources
•Secondary sources
•Tertiary sources

15. The Primary Sources
• Firsthand testimony or evidence
concerning a topic under investigation
• Primary sources include the published
original reports of research and scientific
investigations
• New knowledge or new interpretations
of old knowledge
• Constitutes the latest available information

16. The Primary Sources
• Periodicals (Academic journals, Learned
periodicals, magazine, serial, bullatin ??
• Monographs
• Conference proceedings
• Theses and dissertations
• Patents

17. The Primary Sources (unpublished sources)
• Correspondence, Letters, Interviews
• Laboratory notebooks, Diaries
• Opinion polls, surveys, Census data
• Memos, e-mail messages
• Manuscripts, recordings, photos

18. Periodicals
• Known as journal, bulletin, advances …,
review …, trends … etc.
• Published by learned societies,
• Necessary to update one’s own
knowledge
• You can determine present conditions etc
and determine experimental techniques,
methods, results under similar conditions

19. Periodicals
• Types of primary periodicals
– Popular / news
– Scholarly / professional
• Popular / News periodicals
– General audience
– Commercial publishers
– Authors not identified; staff writers
– Informal easy to understand language

20. Periodicals
• Popular / News periodicals
• Brief, non-technical articles; graphics and
photos etc
• No bibliographies, footnotes etc.
• Examples: Time, Newsweek, Readers Digest

21. Periodicals
• Main medium of transmission for new
knowledge gathered from research
– Presents findings of research
– Current state of ongoing research
– Research reviews
– Short communications
– Book reviews, announcements etc.

22. Periodicals
• Appears periodically with a regular pattern
i.e., weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bi-
monthly, quarterly etc.
• Formats
– Print journal
– Electronic or online journal
– Print + electronic journal

23. Periodicals
• Contains
– Full papers
• Title
• Author(s)
• Abstract
• Keywords
• Text
• References

24. Periodicals
– Short papers, brief reports
– Communications : publication of preliminary
results or findings
– Reviews
• Refereed journals
– Articles submitted are read and evaluated by
a subject expert
• Non-refereed journals

25. Periodicals : Access Levels
• Table of contents (TOC)
– TOC’s of almost all e-journals are freely
accessible
• Abstract
– Most of the abstracts are available free of
charge
– Some abstracts are sufficient for the
information need

26. Periodicals : Access Levels
• Full Text
– The complete text of the article
– Freely accessible for free journals
sites/databases and subscriptions payment
– May be downloaded in PDF or HTML versions
• Further references
– A shortcut to connected literature

27. Periodicals : Table of Contents

30. Parts of a Journal Article
Title
Author details
Abstract
Keywords
Body of the
article

31. Books and Monographs
• Book :“A collection of leaves of paper,
parchment, or other material, in some way
affixed to one another, whether printed ,
written or blank…” (A.L.A.Glossary)
• Monograph : A systematic and complete
treatise on a particular subject”
• Concept of ‘publication’

32. Books/monographs vs. periodicals
• Time lag between the production of new
knowledge and reaching the end user
• Quantitative aspect : information content
• Nature of publication : one item vs.
continuous stream of publication
• Acquisition vs. subscription

33. Conference proceedings
• Concept of conferences, seminars,
colloquiums, etc.
• Forums to bring about new findings,
discoveries etc.
• Meeting places to share experiences
• Excellent opportunities to find partners

34. Conference proceedings
• Proceedings of conferences, congresses,
seminars, symposia, workshops
• Presentation of on-going research to get
other people’s view
• Held at institution / national / regional /
international level
• Papers / abstracts from a conference are
collected and published together

35. Conference proceedings
• Publication
– At the time of event or after the event
– Before the event – ‘preprints’
– Limited publication on most occasions
• Good source to find out about current
research
• (note : what are the conferences,
congresses, seminars we conduct here?)

36. Theses and Dissertations
• Reports of in-depth investigations
• Carried under the control of universities /
higher educational institutions
• Findings of research done in connection
with a higher degree
• Availability in print/online publication
mode?
• Dissertation Abstracts International

37. Patents
• A legal document
• Issued to the first person who invents /
develops certain technology/method etc.
• Specifications/descriptions/details of
products/materials/services etc.

38. Secondary Sources
• Compiled from primary sources
• Arranged according to some definite plan
• “Worked-over” knowledge
• Organize primary literature in a
convenient, accessible form
• Repackage the primary sources
• Guides the researcher to primary sources

39. Secondary Sources
• Periodicals : Review journals i.e., Annual
review…, Advances in …etc.
• Indexing and abstracting services
• Reference books such as encyclopedias,
dictionaries, bibliographies, handbooks,
tables
– Encyclopedia Britannica …

40. Indexes
• Provides information on articles contained
in primary sources such as journals
• Lists citations containing bibliographic
information about each article along with
subject keywords or descriptors
• Entries usually appear under relatively
specific subject headings or subject
descriptors / keywords arranged in
alphabetical order

41. Indexes
• In the other form of indexes entries
arranged under highly specific
classification numbers
• Citation indexes – a step away from
traditional indexes

42. Abstracting services
• Bibliographic citation of an article +
summary of the text
• Indicative and informative abstracts
• Examples : Chemical Abstracts, Physics
Abstracts, Dissertation abastracts

43. Bibliographies
• “a systematically produced descriptive list
of written or published records”(Krishan Kumar)
• National bibliographies
• Subject bibliographies
• Commercial bibliographies
• Bibliographies appearing at the end of
scholarly books, chapters of books,
articles etc.
• With or without annotations

44. Encyclopedias
• General encyclopedias
• Subject encyclopedias
• Print, electronic and online versions
– Encyclopedia Britannica, Grolier
Encyclopedia, Wikipedia
– Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology..

45. Dictionaries
• Monolingual
• Bilingual
• Multilingual

46. Tertiary Sources
• Aid the user in both the primary and
secondary sources
• Directories : Example : Fergusons
Directory
• Any directory which you have used nn
locating information?

47. Tertiary Sources
• Certain types of bibliographies
– Union catalogues
– Union lists of periodicals
• Library (web) OPACs
• Guides to the literature
• Lists of research in progress

48. Tertiary Sources
• Guides to libraries and sources of
information
• Guides to organizations

49. Evaluation of Sources of
Information
• Suitability
– Breadth of article, website, etc.
• General works, overviews of topics
• Specifically focused items on one aspect (Thesis)
• Breadth vis-à-vis Expectation
• Coverage of right time period
– Audience
• Too elementary or basic materials
• Too technical or clinical materials

50. Evaluation of Sources of
Information :Suitability
• Breadth of coverage (article, website,…)
– General works, overviews of topics
– Specifically focused items on one aspect
(thesis or dissertation)
– Breadth vis-à-vis expectation
– Coverage of right time period

51. Breadth of coverage
D
E
P
T
H
Evaluation of Sources of Information

52. Too clinical material
Too elementary or basic material

53. Evaluation of Sources of
Information: Audience
• Too elementary or basic materials
• Too technical or clinical materials
• Groups
– Students
– Teachers
– Researchers
– Professionals
– General public

54. Evaluation of Sources of
Information :Timeliness
• Year of publication
• Difference between new edition and
reprint
• Half-life period
• Computer science or medicine vs. archaeology
• Timeliness vs. subject field

55. Evaluation of Sources of
Information Timeliness
• Timeliness vs. type of information source
• Journal article
• Thesis
• Book
• Encyclopedia
• Timeliness vs. your information
requirement

56. Evaluation of Sources of
Information : Authority
• Who is the author; his academic
credentials or reputation
• What else has he written
• Who is the publisher
– University press; learned society; reputed
publisher; unknown organization; author
himself
• Publication itself (e.g. , Encyclopedia
Britannica, Nature)

57. Evaluation of Sources of
Information : Objectivity
• Author’s point of view
• Arguments
• Sponsorship
• Bias or neutrality

58. Evaluation of Sources of
Information : publication Category
• Primary sources
• Secondary sources
• Tertiary sources

59. Evaluation of Sources of
Information Other criteria
• Documentation, appendices, bibliography,
web links
• Illustrations, accompanying materials (cds,
dvds, maps etc. )
• Format and presentation
– Black & white vs. colours
– Worked out exercises etc.
• Cost

60. Evaluation of web sources
• Is there an author?
• Is the site sponsored by a group or an
organization
• Is there any bias or prejudices evident in
the literature?
• How credible and authoritative are the
facts / data
• Is the website updated recently?

61. Evaluation of web sources
• Format (pdf, HTML, Text file…)
• Links (inward and outward)

62. Unpublished Literature
• Problems in locating unpublished sources
– Accessibility
– Awareness ; Bibliographic information
– Conclusiveness
– Outside the mainstream of scientific literature

63. More sources on the Internet

64. Other Sources
• The Invisible College
– Teachers, Supervisors
– Other professionals
– Other colleagues
• Chat groups, Email groups…
• Social networking sites; Face Book,
Twitter, Linked in…

65. Important issues
• Intellectual property law and copyright
• Citation practice
• Plagiarism
• Publishing of findings – opportunities and
benefits

66. Thank you
My contact phone : 2911918
Email : librarian@kln.ac.lk