NAME OF FACULTY: COMMERCE

DEPARTMENT: INFORMATION SYSTEMS

MODULE CODE: HCS 135

MODULE NAME: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

LEVEL AND SEMESTER: LEVEL 1.1

STUDY HOURS OR CREDITS/ APPROXIMATE COMPLETION TIME………………………

NAME OF LECTURER ………………………………….

CONTACT DETAILS OF THE LECTURER …………………………………….

 MODULE OUTLINE

SECTION A- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)

- Definition of basic terms: data; information; program; information technology
- Computers:
- Advantages of computers
- Computer uses
- Different types of computers systems
- Computer generation

COMPUTER HARDWARE
- Definition of computer hardware
- Types of input devices
- Types of output devices
- Types of storage devices
- Computer ports
- Computer memory

COMPUTER SOFTWARE
- Definition of computer software
- Types of computer software
- Factors to consider before buying computer software

COMPUTER NETWORKS
- Reasons for networking
- Types of networks
- Hardware requirements for networking
- Network topologies
- Factors t consider when selecting a network topology

INTERNET
- Internet terminology
- Uses of the internet
- Limitations of the internet
- Information browsing
- Services of the internet
- Types of internet connection
- Requirements for connecting to the internet

SECURITY AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN IT

- Security challenges associate with IT
- Ethical issues associated with information technology
- administrative control
- societal implication
PRACTICAL SESSIONS

Students will be taught on how to use the following applications:

MS-Word

MS-Excel

MS- Powerpoint

GOOGLE CLASS

- First Login
- Join a Class with a Class Code
- Student’s View: The Stream
- Student’s View: Announcements & Questions
- Student’s View: Assignments
- Student’s View: Turn In Assignments
- Student’s View: Assignment Details
- Student’s View: Unsubmit Assignments
- Student’s View: All Assignments
- Google Calendar Integration
- Google Drive Folders
- Google Classroom Navigation:
- Google Classroom Homepage:
 SECTION B- INFORMATION LITERACY

OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION LITERACY

This topic introduces students to the concept of information literacy. An attempt will be made
to define information literacy, explain the importance of information literacy and identify
what the information literate person is able to do.

THE CONCEPT OF INFORMATION

This topic introduces students to the concepts of information. An attempt will be made to
define information, discuss its characteristics, categories, types and formats. The various
sources of information are also described.
-Information defined
-Characteristics of information
-Categories of information
-Types and formats
-Sources of information

ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION
The topic covers the definitions of the terms and why information organise. It also discusses
how information resources are organised in the library.
- What is organisation?
-What is information organisation?
-Why organise information

INFORMATION ACCESS TOOLS

The topic describes the various aids in finding information. The students should know the
tools that they are expected to use to find information
- indexes and abstracts
- bibliographies
- catalogues
- web search tools
-online journals
-e-books
-institutional repository
-LANTEEAL

REFERENCE SOURCES
The topic will define reference sources and give the categories and types of reference sources
- Reference sources defined
- General and subject specific reference sources and
- Categories and types of reference sources

PERIODICALS
Definition of periodicals, it will also give the various types of periodicals, the role of
periodical literature in research and finding journals, newspapers and research papers in the
M.S.U library.
- Define periodical literature
-Types and uses of periodical literature
-Role of periodical literature
-Finding journals, newspapers and research articles in the M.S.U libraries
- Evaluating articles in periodicals.

ELECTRONIC JOURNALS AND DATABASES

The use of electronic journals and databases found in the M.S.U library is highlighted and
also the definitions of terms under the topic are given
- How to formulate a search strategy
- Simple and advanced searches

- Evaluating internet information.

 introduction to online journals (e-journals);

MODULE AIM
This module enables students to understand the basic concepts of IT. Specifically the module
aims to develop:
- An understanding of fundamental concepts concerning computer hardware and software
- Computer skills related to the use of computer applications such as word processing,
spreadsheet, database and multi-media presentations and internet based applications which
involve working with email and learning how to browse the web
- A basic knowledge of information literacy which would enable students to:
i) access information efficiently and effectively
ii) evaluate information critically and competently
iii) use information accurately and creatively

Module Assessment
This module is divided into 2 sections that is IT Section and Information Literacy Section.
For each section the continuous assessment constitutes 15% of the final mark giving a total
30%. The continuous assessment will include at least 2 tests and at least 2 assignments in
each section. The final examination will cover both sections and will constitute 70% of the
final mark. To pass a student must obtain at least 50% (both sections combined)
SECTION A: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

UNIT ONE: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Today’s world is an information-rich world and it has become a necessity for everyone to
know about computers. Information technology- refers to hardware, software, databases,
telecommunication technologies and other information processing technologies that
manipulate data resources into useful information products like reports, financial statements.
Consider the example of a person who goes into a banking hall to inquire his balance. That
technology they would use to create, store, manipulate and communicate information is what
is referred to as INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. Closely related to information technology
is an Information system, which refers to the set totality of requirements for handling
information within an organization. It can also be considered as an organized combination of
people, hardware, software, communication networks and data resource that collects,
transforms and disseminates information in an organization. An information system can be
manual (i.e. paper work) or informal (word of mouth); however, the aspect of the module is
specifically computer-based information systems that use information technology.

1.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you would be able to:
a) Define a computer
b) State the three operations of a computer in their sequence
c) familiarise yourself with advantages and disadvantages of computers
d) identify the uses of computers in your field of study
e) identify different types of computers
f) recognise the four types of microcomputers
g) state the five generations of computers

1.3 DEFINITION OF TERMS

a) Data can be defined as a representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in a
formalized manner, which should be suitable for communication, interpretation, or
processing, by human or electronic machine. Data is represented with the help of
characters such as alphabets (A-Z, a-z), digits (0-9) or special characters (+,-,/,*,<,>,=
etc.)

b) Information is organized or classified data, which has some meaningful values for the
receiver. Information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based.

c) A computer program is a sequence of instructions written using a Computer

Programming Language to perform a specified task by the computer.
Computer: is an electronic device that can perform activities that involve Mathematical,
Logical and graphical manipulations. In particular, a computer is an electronic device which
works under the instructions of stored programmes, automatically accepting result or output
of that processing. Generally, the term is used to describe a collection of devices that function
together as a system. It performs the following three operations in sequence.
 It receives data & instructions from the input device
 Processes the data as per instructions.
 Provides the result (output) in a desired form.

1.4 ADVANTAGES OF COMPUTERS

The characteristics of computers have made them so powerful and universally useful.
Following are certain advantages of computers:
a) High Speed
 Computer is a very fast device.
 It is capable of performing calculation of very large amount of data.
 The computer has units of speed in microsecond, nanosecond, and even the
picoseconds.
 It can perform millions of calculations in a few seconds as compared to man who
will spend many months to perform the same task.
NB: The speed rate of the computer depends on its processor.
b) Accuracy
 In addition to being very fast, computers are very accurate; the errors come in the
computer due to inaccurate human input
 Computers perform all jobs with 100% accuracy provided that the input is correct.
 Thus, the computer is never creating a mistake; it shows the error if the user gave the
wrong data to the computer.

c) Storage Capability
 Memory is a very important characteristic of computers.
 A computer has much more storage capacity than human beings.
 It can store large amount of data.
 It can store any type of data such as images, videos, text, audio, etc.
d) Diligence
 Unlike human beings, a computer is free from monotony, tiredness, and lack of
concentration.
 It can work continuously without any error and boredom.
 It can perform repeated tasks with the same speed and accuracy.
e) Versatility
 A computer is a very versatile machine.
 A computer is very flexible in performing the jobs to be done.
  This machine can be used to solve the problems related to various fields.
 At one instance, it may be solving a complex scientific problem and the very next
moment it may be playing a card game.
f) Reliability
 A computer is a reliable machine.
 Modern electronic components have long lives.
 Computers are designed to make maintenance easy.
g) Automation
 Computer is an automatic machine.
 Automation is the ability to perform a given task automatically.
 Once the computer receives a program i.e., the program is stored in the computer
memory, then the program and instruction can control the program execution without
human interaction.
h) Reduction in Paper Work and Cost
 The use of computers for data processing in an organization leads to reduction in
paper work and results in speeding up the process.
 As data in electronic files can be retrieved as and when required, the problem of
maintenance of large number of paper files gets reduced.
 Though the initial investment for installing a computer is high, it substantially reduces
the cost of each of its transaction.

1.5 DISADVANTAGES OF COMPUTERS

Following are certain disadvantages of computers.
a) No I.Q.
 A computer is a machine that has no intelligence to perform any task.
 Each instruction has to be given to the computer.
 A computer cannot take any decision on its own.
b) Dependency
It functions as per the user’s instruction, thus it is fully dependent on humans.

c) Environment
The operating environment of the computer should be dust free and suitable.

d) No Feeling
 Computers have no feelings or emotions.
 It cannot make judgment based on feeling, taste, experience, and knowledge unlike
humans.
1.6. COMPUTER USES
The section presents the application of computers in various fields.
a) Business
A computer has high speed of calculation, diligence, accuracy, reliability, or versatility
which has made it an integrated part in all business organizations. Computer is used in
business organizations for:
 Payroll calculations
 Budgeting

 Sales analysis

 Financial forecasting

 Managing employee database

 Maintenance of stocks, etc.

b) Banking
Today, banking is almost totally dependent on computers. Using computers, Banks can
provide the following facilities:
 Online accounting facility, which includes checking current balance, making deposits
and overdrafts, checking interest charges, shares, and trustee records.
 ATM machines which are completely automated are making it even easier for
customers to deal with banks.

c) Insurance
Insurance companies are keeping all records up-to-date with the help of computers. Insurance
companies, finance houses, and stock broking firms are widely using computers for their
concerns. Insurance companies are maintaining a database of all clients with information
showing:
 Procedure to continue with policies
 Starting date of the policies
 Next due installment of a policy
 Maturity date
 Interests due
 Survival benefits
 Bonus

d) Education
The computer helps in providing a lot of facilities in the education system. These include,
but not limited to the following:
 The computer provides a tool in the education system known as CBE (Computer
Based Education).
 CBE involves control, delivery, and evaluation of learning.
 Computer education is rapidly increasing the graph of number of computer students.
  There are a number of methods in which educational institutions can use a computer
to educate the students.
 It is used to prepare a database about performance of a student and analysis is carried
out on this basis.

e) Marketing
In marketing, some of the uses of the computer are as follows:
 Advertising − With computers, advertising professionals create art and graphics,
write and revise copy, and print and disseminate ads with the goal of selling more
products.
 Home Shopping − Home shopping has been made possible through the use of
computerized catalogues that provide access to product information and permit direct
entry of orders to be filled by the customers.

f) Healthcare
Computers have become an important part in hospitals, labs, and dispensaries. They are
being used in hospitals to keep the record of patients and medicines. It is also used in
scanning and diagnosing different diseases. ECG, EEG, ultrasounds and CT scans, etc. are
also done by computerized machines. The following are some major fields of health care in
which computers are used.
 Diagnostic System − Computers are used to collect data and identify the cause of
illness.
 Lab-diagnostic System − All tests can be done and the reports are prepared by
computer.
 Patient Monitoring System − these are used to check the patient's signs for
abnormality such as in Cardiac Arrest, ECG, etc.
 Pharma Information System − Computer is used to check drug labels, expiry dates,
harmful side effects, etc.
 Surgery − Nowadays, computers are also used in performing surgery.

g) Engineering Design
Computers are widely used for engineering purpose. One of the major areas is CAD
(Computer Aided Design) that provides creation and modification of images. Some of the
fields are:
 Structural Engineering − requires stress and strain analysis for design of ships,
buildings, budgets, airplanes, etc.
 Industrial Engineering − Computers deal with design, implementation, and
improvement of integrated systems of people, materials, and equipment.
 Architectural Engineering − Computers help in planning towns, designing
buildings, determining a range of buildings on a site using both 2D and 3D drawings.

h) Military
Some military areas where a computer has been used are −
 Missile Control
  Military Communication
 Military Operation and Planning
 Smart Weapons

i) Communication
Communication is a way to convey a message, an idea, a picture, or speech that is received
and understood clearly and correctly by the person for whom it is meant. Some main areas in
this category are:
 E-mail
 Chatting

 Usenet

 FTP

 Telnet

 Video-conferencing

j) Government
Computers play an important role in government services. Some major fields in this category
are:
 Budgets
 Sales tax department
 Income tax department
 Computation of male/female ratio
 Computerization of voters lists
 Computerization of PAN card
 Weather forecasting

1.7 DIFFERENT TYPES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS

There are four basic types of computers: supercomputers, mainframes, minicomputers, and
microcomputers:
a) Supercomputers
These are large, powerful computers typically devoted to specialized tasks.
Supercomputers are the fastest and most expensive of all computers. They perform
sophisticated mathematical calculations, track weather patterns, monitor satellites, and
perform other complex, dedicated tasks.

b) Mainframe computers
These are large computers often found in businesses and colleges, where thousands of
people use the computer to process data. Mainframe computers multitask; that is, they can
perform more than one task at the same time. This capability is one of the primary ways
mainframes differ from supercomputers. Mainframes can store vast amounts of data using
a variety of storage devices. Early mainframe computers were very large and required
separate rooms to house them. Today's mainframe computers are significantly smaller.

c) Minicomputers
These may be used in medium-sized businesses that have smaller data storage
requirements than businesses using mainframe computers. Because of the increased
capabilities of microcomputers, minicomputers are less common now.

d) Microcomputers
These are the smallest of the four categories of computers and the one that most people
typically use. Within the microcomputer category, computers range in size from servers
that have the storage capability of minicomputers (and small mainframes) to handheld
devices that fit in your pocket. Some of the most common types of microcomputers
include the following:
i) Desktop computers sit on your desktop, floor, table, or other flat surface and have a
detachable keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other pieces of equipment. Desktop
computers generally fall into two main categories: PCs or Macs. The PC, or personal
computer, originally referred to the IBM personal computer, but is now manufactured
by a variety of companies including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Samsung and Gateway,
just to name a few. The Apple Macintosh computer, or Mac, can perform the same
functions as the PC. There has been a long-running argument among computer users
about which is better PC or Mac? In reality, there are pros and cons to both types of
computers, although both are good systems and the choice usually comes down to
personal preference. The primary differences between the PC and the Mac relate to the
different microprocessors and operating systems each one uses. The PC is typically
used in a Microsoft Windows operating environment, and the Macintosh uses the Mac
operating system. Although the PC and the Mac each process information differently,
both can perform the same types of tasks. The PC has a larger market share among
general computer users and in business settings, while the Mac is extremely popular
with graphic design professionals.

ii) Notebook computers give users the ability to take their computers with them, making
their information portable or mobile. Originally referred to as laptops, this term is
slowly being phased-out in favor of the more appropriate notebook designation.
Although smaller than a desktop, notebook computers are not meant to be used on
your lap. If you hold one on your lap for a few minutes, you can feel the heat they
generate. Notebooks are designed to be portable and can be used in a variety of places.
Notebooks typically have a built-in monitor screen, a keyboard, and a pointing device,
although it is possible to connect them to detachable devices for more comfortable
desktop use.

iii) Tablet computers might seem similar to notebooks at first glance; however, they
have some special features that set them apart. Tablet computers weigh less than
 notebooks. They also have a convertible screen that swivels, allowing the tablet to be
used like a standard notebook computer in one position or like a clipboard in the
second position. In fact, this "clipboard" aspect is where the tablet got its name. When
used in the tablet configuration, the user can actually write directly on the screen using
a special pen known as a stylus. Tablets use a special technology known as advanced
handwriting recognition. Many also use speech recognition technology as well, which
allows the user to record discussions, lectures, and so on, or to control the computer
using voice commands.

iv) Personal digital assistants (PDAs) or handheld computers vary in size and purpose.
Originally designed to provide a convenient resource for maintaining an organized
calendar and list of business and personal associates, today's PDAs are capable of
much more. Many PDAs now include personal productivity software and allow the
user to play music, take photos, make phone calls, and access the Internet. Most PDAs
use a stylus, a small sticklike device, to input information and access various features.
However, it is not uncommon to find PDAs with small detachable keyboards for text
and data entry. The line between PDAs and other mobile devices such as cell phones
is becoming blurred, as each becomes more capable of doing the same types of tasks.
Figure 1.1 identifies four different types of microcomputers.

Figure 1.1: Four different types of microcomputers

1.8 COMPUTER GENERATIONS

Generation in computer terminology is a change in technology a computer is/was being used.
Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between varying hardware technologies.
Nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software, which together make up an entire
computer system. There are five computer generations known till date. Each generation has
been discussed in detail along with their time period and characteristics. In the following
table, approximate dates against each generation have been mentioned. The following
presents the main five generations of computers:

Table 1:.1: Five main generations of computers

Generation Component used
First Generation (1946-1954 ) Vacuum tubes

Second Generation (1955-1965) Transistors

Third Generation (1968-1975 ) Integrated Circuits (IC)

Fourth Generation ( 1976-1980) Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits (VLSI)

Fifth Generation (1980 – till today ) Ultra Scale Integrated Circuits (ULSI)
Micro Processor (SILICON CHIP)

1.9 REVIEW QUESTIONS/TASKS

a) Define the following terms
i) a computer
ii) main frame computer
iii) super computer
iv) mini computer
v) microcomputer
b) What is the use of Information Technology to the modern world?
c) State the three operations of a computer in their sequence
d) State and explain the advantages and disadvantages of computers
e) Identify any five uses of computers in your field of study
f) State the four basic types of computers
g) Differentiate between the four types of microcomputers
h) PCs are better than Macs. Discuss giving relevant examples.
i) What is meant by generation in computer terminology?
j) State the five generations of computers
k) How will you classify computer systems?
UNIT TWO: COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Computer components are divided into two major categories namely hardware and software.
Hardware is the machine itself and its connected devices such as monitor, keyboard, mouse
etc. Software is the set of programs that make use of hardware for performing various
functions.

2.2 OBJECTIVES
a) identify the four basic units of a computer system and explain the functions of each
unit
b) identify the three main types of computer memory and their characteristics
c) list the five units of computer memory
d) identify different types of ports and their uses
e) differentiate between system software and application software
f) explain the importance of operating system
g) identify different application software and their uses
h) determine the factors to consider when buying computer software
i) state the advantages of a database management system

2.3 COMPUTER HARDWARE

Hardware represents the physical and tangible components of a computer, i.e. the components
that can be seen and touched. The computer system consists of mainly four basic units:
a) Input device
b) Storage device
c) Central Processing Unit (CPU)
d) Output device

The various functions of these units can be summarized as:

Table 2.1: Functions of the units of computer system

Unit Function
1 Input device Reads information from input media and enters to the
computer in a coded form. Simply put, this unit is used
for entering data and programs into the computer system
by the user for processing.
2 Storage device The storage unit is used for storing data and instructions
before and after processing.
 3 CPU Memory unit Stores program and data
Arithmetic Logic Performs arithmetic and logical functions
unit
Control Unit Interprets program instructions and controls the input
and output devices
4 Output device decodes information and presents it to the user

2.3.1 Input device

Devices used to provide data and instructions to the computer are called
Input devices. Some important input devices are:
 Key board
 Mouse
 Scanner
 MICR (magnetic ink character recognition)
 Web camera
 Microphone etc.

a) Keyboard
The Key board is used for typing text into the computer. It is also known as standard
Input device. A computer keyboard is similar to that of a type writer with additional
keys. The most commonly available computer keyboard has 104 keys. There are different
types of keys on the keyboard. The keys are categorized as:
 Alphanumeric keys , including letters & numbers
 Punctuation keys, such as colon (:), semicolon (;) Question mark (?), Single & double
quotes (‗,‖)
 Special keys such as arrow keys, control keys, function keys (F1 to F12), HOME,
END etc.

b) Mouse
It is a device that controls the movement of the cursor on a monitor. A mouse will have
2 buttons on its top. The left button is the most frequently used button. There will be a
wheel between the left and right buttons. This wheel enables us to smoothly scroll
through screens of information. As we move the mouse, the pointer on the monitor
moves in the same direction. Optical mouse is another advanced pointing device that uses
a light emitting component instead of the mouse ball. Mouse cannot be used for entering
the data. It is only useful to select the options on the screen.
 c) Scanner
It is an input device that can read text or illustrations printed on paper and translate into
digital form. The main advantage of these scanners is that the data need not be entered
separately resulting in saving lot of time.

Scanners are of two types: i) optical scanners ii) MICR

i) Optical scanners:
 Optical character Recognition (OCR): In this, characters are read with the help
of a light. This is used in office atomization, documentation in library etc.
 Optical mark recognition (OMR): It is a technology where an OMR device
senses the presence or absence of a mark such as a pencil mark. OMR is used in
tests such as aptitude tests.
 Optical barcode recognition (OBCR): Barcode readers are photoelectric scanners
that read the bar codes or vertical zebra striped marks printed on product
containers. This is used in super markets, book shops etc.
 MICR: This is widely used in banks to process the cheques. This allows the
computer to recognize characters printed using magnetic ink.

d) Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR)

It is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to
facilitate the processing of the cheques. MICR characters (cheque No., Acc.No.etc) are
printed in special ink usually containing iron oxide. When a document that contains the
ink needs to be read, it passes through a machine which magnetizes the ink and there
will be a reader sorter unit which translates the magnetic information into
characters. MICR provides a secure, high speed of scanning and processing
information. It scans about 2600 cheques/min.

2.3.2 Central Processing Unit

It is the part of the computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program.
It is the unit that reads and executes program inst ructions. Hence it is known as the―brain
of the computer. The CPU consists of:
 storage or memory unit
 control unit
 Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

a) Memory Unit
 It is also known as the primary storage or main memory. It stores data, program
instructions, internal results and final output temporarily before it is sent to an
appropriate output device. It c o n s i s t s of t h o u s a n d s of cells called ―storage
locations. These cells activate with ―off-on or binary digits (0,1) mechanism. Thus a
character either a letter or numerical digit is stored as a string of (0, 1) Binary digits
(BITS). These bits are used to store instructions and data by their combinations.

b) Control Unit
It acts as a central nervous system and ensures that the information is stored
correctly and the program instructions are followed in proper sequence as well as the
data are selected from the memory as necessary. It also coordinates all the input and
output devices of a system.

c) Arithmetic and Logical Unit (ALU)

It is the unit where all Arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction etc.) and logical
functions such as true or false, male or female are performed. Once data are fed into the
main memory from input devices, they are held and transferred as needed to ALU where
processing takes place. No process occurs in primary storage. Intermediate generated
results in ALU are temporarily placed in memory until needed at later time. Data may
move from primary memory to ALU and back again to storage many times before the
process is finalized.

2.3.3 Output device

Any device that is capable of representing information on a computer is called an Output
device. Output devices receive information from the CPU and present it to the user in the
desired form. Some important Output devices are: Monitor, Printer

a) Terminal/Monitor
It is similar to TV screen- either a monochrome (black & white) or colour – and it
displays the output. It is also referred as Visual Display Unit (VDU). Several types of
monitors are in use. Some of them are Colour Graphic A d a p t e r (CGA), E n h a n c e d
Graphics Adaptor (EGA), Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) and Super Video Graphics
Adapter (SVGA). The screen sizes differ from system to system. The standard size is
24 lines by 80 characters. Most systems have provision for scrolling which helps in
moving the text vertically or horizontally on the screen.

b) Printer
A printer is used to transfer data from a computer onto paper. The paper copy
obtained from a printer is often referred as printout. The different printers and their
 speeds are as follows:

Table 2.2: Different printers and their speeds

S. No. Type Mode of Printing Speed

1 Dot – Matrix printer Prints the character in dotted pattern through200/300 to 700 CPS
printer ribbon using either 24 pin or 9 pin
2 Ink Jet printer Work by spraying ionized ink Slow, 90 CPS

3 Laser printer Also called page printer. Uses laser beam to6 to 12 PPM
produce an image.

4 Line printer Prints lines at a time instead of single characters. 300 to 600 LPM

5 Plotter Produces drawings or graphs through pens which

are filled with different colours.
( CPS: Characters Per Second; PPM: Pages Per Minutes; LPM : Lines Per Minute)

Laser printer

******

2.4 COMPUTER MEMORY

A memory is just like a human brain. It is used to store data and instructions. Computer
memory is the storage space in the computer, where data is to be processed and instructions
required for processing are stored. The memory is divided into large number of small parts
called cells. Each location or cell has a unique address, which varies from zero to memory
size minus one. For example, if the computer has 64k words, then this memory unit has 64 *
1024 = 65536 memory locations. The address of these locations varies from 0 to 65535.

2.4.1 Types of memory

Memory is primarily of three types
 Cache Memory
 Primary Memory/Main Memory
 Secondary Memory

a) Cache Memory
Cache memory is a very high speed semiconductor memory which can speed up the CPU. It
acts as a buffer between the CPU and the main memory. It is used to hold those parts of data
and program which are most frequently used by the CPU. The parts of data and programs are
transferred from the disk to cache memory by the operating system, from where the CPU can
access them.
 Figure 2.1: Showing cache memory

The advantages of cache memory are as follows:

 Cache memory is faster than main memory.
 It consumes less access time as compared to main memory.
 It stores the program that can be executed within a short period of time.
 It stores data for temporary use.

The disadvantages of cache memory are as follows:

 Cache memory has limited capacity.
 It is very expensive.

a) Primary Memory (Main Memory)

Primary memory holds only those data and instructions on which the computer is currently
working. It has a limited capacity and data is lost when power is switched off. It is generally
made up of semiconductor device. These memories are not as fast as registers. The data and
instruction required to be processed resides in the main memory. It is divided into two
subcategories RAM and ROM.

Figure 2.2: Primary memory

Characteristics of Main Memory

 These are semiconductor memories.
 It is known as the main memory.
 Usually volatile memory.
  Data is lost in case power is switched off.
 It is the working memory of the computer.
 Faster than secondary memories.
 A computer cannot run without the primary memory.

b) Secondary Memory
This type of memory is also known as external memory or non-volatile. It is slower than the
main memory. These are used for storing data/information permanently. CPU directly does
not access these memories; instead they are accessed via input-output routines. The contents
of secondary memories are first transferred to the main memory, and then the CPU can access
it. For example, Compact disk, CD-ROM, Digital Video Disk (DVD), Hard Drive Disk
(HDD) etc.

Characteristics of Secondary Memory

 These are magnetic and optical memories.
 It is known as the backup memory.
 It is a non-volatile memory.
 Data is permanently stored even if power is switched off.
 It is used for storage of data in a computer.
 Computer may run without the secondary memory.
 Slower than primary memories.

2.5.2 Units of memory

The computer stores a character in the storage cells with binary (0, 1) mechanism. Thus
the basic unit of memory is a bit (binary digit – 0, 1). To store a character, a computer
requires 8 bits or 1 byte. This is called the word length of the storage unit. Hence the
storage capacity of the computer is measured in the number of words it can store and is
expressed in terms of bytes. The following table lists some higher storage units:

Table 2.3: Units of memory

Unit Description
Kilobyte (KB) 1 KB = 1024 Bytes
Megabyte (MB) 1 MB = 1024 KB
GigaByte (GB) 1 GB = 1024 MB
TeraByte (TB) 1 TB = 1024 GB
PetaByte (PB) 1 PB = 1024 TB
 a) Storage capacity
i) Floppy Disk
It is also referred as ―Diskette: and is made of flexible Vinyl material. It has a small
hole on one side called ―Right protect notch, which protects accidental
writing/deleting the information from the disk. There is a hole in the centre through
which the spindle of drive unit rotates the disk. The disks are available in two sizes
of 5.25 and 3.5 inches and these could be either low- density or high-density
floppies. Storage capacity of floppies is measured in kilobytes (KB) and megabytes
(MB). The details about the storage capacities of the floppies are presented below:

Table 2.2: Storage capacities of the floppy disk

Floppy Disk Storage Capacity Size (Diameter)
Low Density 360 KB 5.25 inches
High Density 1.2 MB 5.25 inches
High Density 1.44 MB 3.5 inches
Extended 2.8 MB 3.5 inches

ii) Hard Disk

The hard disk can hold more information than the floppy disk and the retrieval of
information from hard disk is faster when compared to floppies or tapes. A hard disk is
fixed inside the CPU and its capacity ranges from 20 MB onwards. The hard disk is
made up of a collection of discs (one below the other) known as platters on which the
data is recorded. These platters are coated with magnetic material. It is less sensitive to
external environmental disorders and hence the storage in hard disk is safe. A small hard
disk might be as much as 25 times larger than a floppy disk. Storage Capacity of hard
disks varies from 20 MB to several Gigabytes like 80GB, 160GB.
2.6 COMPUTER PORTS
A port is a physical docking point using which an external device can be connected to the
computer. It can also be programmatic docking point through which information flows from
a program to the computer or over the Internet.

2.6.1 Characteristics of Ports

A port has the following characteristics:
 External devices are connected to a computer using cables and ports.
 Ports are slots on the motherboard into which a cable of external device is plugged in.
 Examples of external devices attached via ports are the mouse, keyboard, monitor,
microphone, speakers, etc.

2.6.2 Important types of ports

a) Serial Port
 Used for external modems and older computer mouse
 Two versions: 9 pin, 25 pin model
 Data travels at 115 kilobits per second

b) Parallel Port
 Used for scanners and printers
 Also called printer port
 25 pin model
 IEEE 1284-compliant Centronics port

c) PS/2 Port
 Used for old computer keyboard and mouse
 Also called mouse port
 Most of the old computers provide two PS/2 port, each for the mouse and keyboard
 IEEE 1284-compliant Centronics port

d) Universal Serial Bus (or USB) Port

 It can connect all kinds of external USB devices such as external hard disk, printer,
scanner, mouse, keyboard, etc.
 It was introduced in 1997.
 Most of the computers provide two USB ports as minimum.
 Data travels at 12 megabits per seconds.
 USB compliant devices can get power from a USB port.
e) VGA Port
 Connects monitor to a computer's video card.
 It has 15 holes.
 Similar to the serial port connector. However, serial port connector has pins, VGA
port has holes.

f) Power Connector
 Three-pronged plug.
 Connects to the computer's power cable that plugs into a power bar or wall socket.

g) Firewire Port
 Transfers large amount of data at very fast speed.
 Connects camcorders and video equipment to the computer.
 Data travels at 400 to 800 megabits per seconds.
 Invented by Apple.
 It has three variants: 4-Pin FireWire 400 connector, 6-Pin FireWire 400 connector,
and 9-Pin FireWire 800 connector.

h) Modem Port
 Connects a PC's modem to the telephone network.

i) Ethernet Port
 Connects to a network and high speed Internet.
 Connects the network cable to a computer.
 This port resides on an Ethernet Card.
 Data travels at 10 megabits to 1000 megabits per seconds depending upon the
network bandwidth

j) Game Port
 Connect a joystick to a PC
 Now replaced by USB
 k) Digital Video Interface, DVI port
 Connects Flat panel LCD monitor to the computer's high-end video graphic cards.
 Very popular among video card manufacturers.

l) Sockets
 Sockets connect the microphone and speakers to the sound card of the computer.

2.7 COMPUTER SOFTWARE

Software is a set of programs, which is designed to perform a well-defined function. A
program is a sequence of instructions written to solve a particular problem. The basic
difference between the Hardware and Software is just the same as that exists between TV
and TV studio. Without TV studio (software) from where the programs are telecast, the TV
(Hardware) is a dead machine.

2.7.1 Types of software

There are two types of software:
 System Software
 Application Software

2.7.2.1 System Software

The system software is a collection of programs designed to operate, control, and extend the
processing capabilities of the computer itself. System software is generally prepared by the
computer manufacturers. These software products comprise of programs written in low-level
languages, which interact with the hardware at a very basic level. System software serves as
the interface between the hardware and the end users. System software contributes to control
and performance of a computer system. System software acts behind the scenes to manage
resources and operations of a computer system. System software interfaces between computer
hardware and the application software. An example of system software is the Operating
System (OS).

Operating System (OS)

The software that manages the resources of a computer system and schedules its
operation is called Operating system. The operating system acts as interface between the
hardware and the user programs and facilitates the execution of programs. Thus, an operating
system is software which controls the general operation of a computer. Some of the functions
of an OS are:
a) Processor management: It manages the assignment of processor to different tasks
being performed by the computer system.
b) Memory management: It manages the allocation of main memory and other storage
areas to the system programmes as well as user programmes and data.
 c) Input / Output management: It manages the co-ordination and assignment of different
Input and Output devices while one or more programmes are executed.
d) File management: It allows all files to be easily changed and modified through the use
of text editors or some other file manipulation routines.
e) Establishment and enforcement of a priority system: It determines and maintains the
order in which jobs are to be executed in the computer system. Interpretation of
commands and instructions.
f) Facilitates easy communication between the computer system and the computer
operator.

The User interface provided by the OS can be character based or graphical.

CUI -- Character user Interface
GUI -- Graphical user Interface

CUI: It is operated with keyboard only. Ex: MS-DOS, UNIX

GUI: The system can be operated with mouse and keyboard. Ex: Windows 95, Windows
XP etc
 Disk Operating System (DOS): It was developed as early as 1980 by Bill Gates at
the age of 19. It is suited for personal computers. Dos is a single user and single task
operating system
 WINDOWS: It works with DOS and it supports single user and multitask
system. It requires a powerful PC with a minimum RAM of 8 MB.
 UNIX AND XENIX: It is suited for multi-user and multi-task system

2.7.2.2 Application Software/programs

Application software products are designed to satisfy a particular need of a particular
environment. All software applications prepared in the computer lab can come under the
category of Application software. Application software may consist of a single program,
such as Microsoft's notepad for writing and editing a simple text. It may also consist of a
collection of programs, often called a software package, which work together to accomplish
a task. Examples of Application software are the following:

Table 3.1: Examples of Application software

Application/program Purpose/function
Microsoft Word Processing packages that are responsible for creating, editing and printing of
documents. The extend their capabilities to include checking spelling and
grammar, drawing tables, mail merge, print many copies of one document,
typing in various font styles, colours, underlining, inserting pictures, plus
looking for words with a similar meaning to the one typed (thesaurus)
Microsoft Excel Designed for working with numbers in terms of arithmetic (addition,
multiplication, subtraction, division), sorting from the highest to the lowest
 or vice-versa, drawing tables, using mathematical functions such as sine,
cosine, average, randomize, to perform complex calculations such as
regression. Managers use spreadsheets in carrying what-if computations to
determine the impact a certain move or decision might have on the
profitability or future of the business.
Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation tool that supports text, shapes,
graphics, pictures and multimedia along with integration with other
Microsoft Office products like Excel. This software is used to display the
information in the form of slide show. The three main functions of
presentation software is editing that allows insertion and formatting of text,
including graphics in the text and executing the slide shows. The best
example for this type of application software is Microsoft PowerPoint.
Microsoft Access Designed for handling and manipulation of large volumes of data. Consider
the example of a university that keeps each and every detail about every
student and should the data be required (i.e. in terms of fees due, results or
residential status, level, department etc) it is instantly retrieved.
Payroll Software Automates the management of employees' salaries, wages, bonuses and
deductions.
Multimedia software Media players and real players are the examples of multimedia software. This
software will allow the user to create audio and videos. The different forms of
multimedia software are audio converters, players, burners, video encoders and
decoders.

2.7.2 Factors to consider before buying computer software

There are many considerations to be made before one settle for a certain type of software.
 Generally, the software has to be appropriate to the task; it should justify the cost as
well as being affordable.
 Other factors are that the software must be compatible with your hardware. Some
software cannot run on IBM machines, while running modern windows-based
programs without a mouse is underutilizing it. If you are buying application software,
it must work well with the system software, for example you cannot install Microsoft
Word 2000 on a machine with Windows 3.1.
 The software must have continued support from the supplier for it to suit changing
user requirements for example if a software was to be used to calculate tax on goods
sold, it should be changeable from sales tax to value added tax.
 Also software like Microsoft products has many versions indicating responsive
approach to user requirements and modernization. A simple example is that of
employees’ salaries in Zimbabwe, up to date software would allow for salaries
payslips to accommodate even millions as a salary figure. If it was made without such
a vision then maybe salaries would only be up to say $10 000.
 On the other hand, software must be easy to learn and use, it must offer help.
Specifically, its advantageous to buy software with Graphical User Interface (GUI),
which is a program screen interface based on icons, menus, windows for ease of use.
It must be robust, accurate and free from errors.
  Software also differs in the storage space they need. So when buying software, one has
to consider the storage capacity of his machine, the size of the RAM and the speed of
the processor, so that the machine’s speed is not compromised.

2.8 DATABASES
What is a Database?
It is an organised collection of data with minimum duplication to service many applications at
the same time by storing and managing data so that they appear to be in one location. When a
transaction occurs, e.g. a withdrawal in a bank, some data would be stored. All the data that
completely describe a transaction is called a record. E.g.
Withdrawal record

Account# Date Amount Cash/cheque remaining balance

A record is made up of fields. A field is a single descriptive item of a record or a transaction.

All the related records are stored in a file. The various related files and the interfaces that
query or manipulate their stored data from the database. Rather than storing data in separate
files for each application, data is stored physically to appear to users as being stored in only
one location.

The database management system acts as the interface between the application programmes
and the data. Database management system is special software used to create and maintain a
database and enable individual business applications to extract the data they need without
having to create separate files or data definitions in their computer programmes.

2.8.1 Advantages of Databases

 Data redundancy is reduced considerably thereby solving problems of excessive
memory requirements and inconsistencies.
 Response time is faster since they can directly interact with the Database Management
System
 Databases offer a wide variety of security and privacy feature for organizational
confidential data.

2.9 REVIEW QUESTIONS

a) Define the following terms
i) Computer hardware
ii) Central processing unit
iii) Computer software
 iv) Computer memory
v) Computer port
b) Why computer is known as data processing system?
c) What are the four basic units of a computer system
d) Explain the functions of each unit of a computer system
e) Devices which are used to receive data from central processing unit are classified as
f) Compare Computer with calculator
g) Identify the three main types of computer memory and explain the characteristics of
each
h) Differentiate between a volatile and non-volatile memory.
i) List the five units of computer memory and their size of measurement.
j) All code or data is stored and processed in computers using two symbols; 0 and 1.
(True or false)
k) What is difference between information and data?
l) In a computer keyboard the Alt, Ctrl, Shift, Del & Insert keys are known as.......
m) State the uses of the following computer ports:
i) Parallel port
ii) Universal Serial Bus (or USB) Port
iii) Ethernet port
n) Differentiate between system software and application software giving examples
o) Explain the importance of operating system
p) Identify different application software and their uses
q) What are the factors that should be in your mind when you are buying computer
software?
r) State the advantages of a database management system
s) Midlands State university computers are loaded with Windows Operating Systems.
These Operating Systems are not cheap and there are others, which are even for free.
What do you think are the reasons for that choice of Operating system?
t) List 6 factors you would consider before buying any software
u) List any six (6) factors that determine the speed of a computer
UNIT THREE: COMPUTER NETWORKS

3.1 INTRODUCTION
The computer network is a set of computers connected to share resources. In computer
networks, the computing devices exchange the data with each other by using the connections
between nodes. The data links are established over cable media such as wires or optic cables
or wireless media such as Wi-Fi. Thus, a computer network is a digital telecommunication
network which allows nodes to share the resources. It is the group of computer systems and
other computing hardware devices. Those devices are linked together through communication
channels to facilitate communication and resource sharing among a wide range of users.

Figure 3.1: The computer network

3.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you would be able to:
a) explain the reasons for networking computers
b) identify different types of networks
c) identify hardware required to set-up a computer network
d) distinguish between different networks topologies
e) factors to consider when selecting a network topology

3.3 REASONS FOR NETWORKING COMPUTERS

The design of computer networks should satisfy a broad range of purposes, some of which
include the following:
 Cost reduction by sharing hardware and software resources.
 Provide an efficient means of transport for large volumes of data among various
locations (High throughput).
 Provide inter-process communication among users and processors.
 Increase productivity by making it easier to share data amongst users.
 Repairs, upgrades, expansions, and changes to the network should be performed with
minimal impact on the majority of network users.
 Standards and protocols should be supported to allow many types of equipment from
different vendors to share the network (Interoperatability).
 Provide centralised/distributed management and allocation of network resources like
host processors, transmission facilities etc.

3.4 TYPES OF NETWORKS

Basically, there are four types of computer networks as presented below:
 LAN (Local Area Network)
 MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)
 PAN (Personal Area Network)
 WAN (Wide Area Network)

a) LAN (Local Area Network)

The Local Area Network is a computer network which interconnects the computer within
the limited area such as a residence, school laboratory, university campus or office
building. LAN (Local Area Network) spans a relatively small area. In a wireless LAN, the
users have unrestricted movement within the coverage area. The wireless networks
become popular in the residences and small businesses just because of their easy
installation. The network topology describes the layout of interconnections between
devices and network segments.
Figure 3.2: Local Area Network

b) MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)

The Metropolitan Area Network is a computer network which is similar to the Local Area
network but spans an entire city or campus. In Metropolitan Area Network, users are
interconnected with computer resources in a whole geographic area or region. This Network
is larger or broader that the Local Area Network.

Figure 3.3: Metropolitan Area Network

c) PAN (Personal Area Network)

The Personal Area Network is used for interconnecting the devices which are centered on a
person’s workspace. This Network provides data transmission among devices such as
computers, smart phones, tablets, and personal digital assistants.

Figure 3.4: The Personal Area Network

d) WAN (Wide Area Network)

The Wide Area Network is the telecommunication network which extends over the large
geographical area for the primary purpose of computer networking. These networks are often
established with leased telecommunication circuits. The WAN connects different smaller
networks, including the Local Area Network. The computers connected to the Wide Area
Network are often connected through public networks, such as telephone systems. This
Network can connect through the leased lines or satellites.

Figure 3.5: Wide Area Network

3.5 HARDWARE REQUIRED TO SET-UP A COMPUTER NETWORK
 Network Cables
 Distributors
 Routers
 Internal Network Cards
 External Network Cards

a) Network Cables
Network cables are used to connect computers. The most commonly used cable is
Category 5 cable RJ-45.

b) Distributors
A computer can be connected to another one via a serial port but if we need to connect many
computers to produce a network, this serial connection will not work. The solution is to use a
central body to which other computers, printers, scanners, etc. can be connected and then this
body will manage or distribute network traffic.

c) Router
A router is a type of device which acts as the central point among computers and other
devices that are a part of the network. It is equipped with holes called ports. Computers and
other devices are connected to a router using network cables. Now-a-days router comes in
wireless modes using which computers can be connected without any physical cable.
 d) Network Card
Network card is a necessary component of a computer without which a computer cannot be
connected over a network. It is also known as the network adapter or Network Interface Card
(NIC). Most branded computers have network card pre-installed. Network cards are of two
types: Internal and External Network Cards.

e) Internal Network Cards

Motherboard has a slot for internal network card where it is to be inserted. Internal network
cards are of two types in which the first type uses Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
connection, while the second type uses Industry Standard Architecture (ISA). Network cables
are required to provide network access.

f) External Network Cards

External network cards are of two types: Wireless and USB based. Wireless network card
needs to be inserted into the motherboard; however no network cable is required to connect to
the network.
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
USB card is easy to use and connects via USB port. Computers automatically detect USB
card and can install the drivers required to support the USB network card automatically.

3.6 NETWORK TOPOLOGIES

Network topologies can be classified as follows:
a) BUS Topology
Bus topology is a network type in which every computer and network device is connected to
single cable. When it has exactly two endpoints, then it is called Linear Bus topology.

Features of bus topology

In the bus topology, each node (computer, server, peripheral etc.) attaches directly to a
common cable.
 This topology most often serves as the backbone for a network.
 In some instances, such as in classrooms or labs, a bus will connect small workgroups.
  It is the simplest method of networking computers.
 It consists of a single cable known as a trunk, backbone or segment that connects all
the computers in the network.
 Each system is directly attached to a common communication channel. Signal that is
transmitted over the channel makes up the messages.
 In a bus topology only one computer can send data at a time, therefore the more
computers in a bus the slower data transmission in the network

Advantages of Bus topology

 Cheap because of its simplicity
 Requires a short cable length
 Easy to expand the network
 Simple to setup compared to Star and Ring topology
 There is no chances of data collision since one computer transmit at a time
 Locating cable fault in a bus topology is relatively easy
 Bus topology is ideal for one-to-many data transmission
 Signal on the cable are bidirectional hence reaches all the nodes

Disadvantages of Bus topology

 Fault diagnosis is difficult in a bus topology – detection of fault may have to be
performed from any point in the network
 Fault isolation is difficult – if fault in the node is detected the node can simply be
removed but if the fault is in network medium itself and entire segment of the Bus
must be disconnected to isolate the fault
 Repeater configuration – When a Bus type network has its backbone intended for
using a repeater, configuration maybe necessary thus may involve tailoring cable
length, adjusting terminator etc
 Computer nodes must be intelligence – each node on the network is directly
connected to the central Bus. This means that each node must have method of deciding
and detecting its own data

b) RING Topology
It is called ring topology because it forms a ring as each computer is connected to another
computer, with the last one connected to the first.
Features of a ring topology
 Exactly two neighbours for each device.
 Ring, a ring topology features a logically closed loop.
 Data packets travel in a single direction around the ring from one network device to
the next. Each network device acts as a repeater, meaning it regenerates the signal.
 In Ring topology each node is connected to form a single, closed data path.
 Data from one node is passed along to the next node from which it will be examined,
and if that node is not the intended destination, then it is transmitted to the next node
until the destination is reached.
 Token (a special bit pattern) is circulated in the network to enable a node to capture
the data. Ring topology might be structured so that there are a number of information
frames or slot in construct circulation.
 Node wishing to transmit first detects the arrival of an empty slot then inserts the data
it wishes to send, and mark the frame as full.
 The receiving node takes the data and then marks the frame as empty.
 In implementation one particular node has the responsibility for generating the token
or slot when the network is first constituted
i) Advantages of ring Topology
 The ability to achieve transmission rates of the order of 10 million bits per second
 Provision of local communication via a single channel
 No central server which reduces the cost of establishing the ring topology

ii) Disadvantages
 Failure of one node result into entire network failure
 Detection of fault is very difficult in ring topology
 Isolation of fault is not easy in this topology
 c) STAR Topology
In this type of topology all the computers are connected to a single hub through a cable. This
hub is the central node and all others nodes are connected to the central node.

Features of Star Topology

 Every node has its own dedicated connection to the hub.
 Hub acts as a repeater for data flow.
 Can be used with twisted pair, Optical Fibre or coaxial cable.

Advantages of Star Topology

 Fast performance with few nodes and low network traffic.
 Hub can be upgraded easily.
 Easy to troubleshoot.
 Easy to setup and modify.
 Only that node is affected which has failed, rest of the nodes can work smoothly.

Disadvantages of Star Topology

 Cost of installation is high.
 Expensive to use.
 If the hub fails then the whole network is stopped because all the nodes depend on the
hub.
 Performance is based on the hub that is it depends on its capacity

d) MESH Topology
It is a point-to-point connection to other nodes or devices. All the network nodes are
connected to each other. Mesh has n(n-1)/2 physical channels to link n devices. There are two
techniques to transmit data over the Mesh topology, they are:
 Routing
 Flooding

MESH Topology: Routing

In routing, the nodes have a routing logic, as per the network requirements. Like routing logic
to direct the data to reach the destination using the shortest distance. Or, routing logic which
has information about the broken links, and it avoids those nodes etc.

MESH Topology: Flooding

In flooding, the same data is transmitted to all the network nodes; hence no routing logic is
required. The network is robust, and it is very unlikely to lose the data. But it leads to
unwanted load over the network.

Features of Mesh Topology

 Fully connected.
 Robust.
 Not flexible.

Advantages of Mesh Topology

 Each connection can carry its own data load
 It is robust.
 Fault is diagnosed easily.
 Provides security and privacy.

Disadvantages of Mesh Topology

 Installation and configuration is difficult.
 Cabling cost is more.
 Bulk wiring is required.

e) TREE Topology
It has a root node and all other nodes are connected to it forming a hierarchy. It is also called
hierarchical topology. It should at least have three levels to the hierarchy.
Features of Tree Topology
 Ideal if workstations are located in groups.
 Used in Wide Area Network.
Advantages of Tree Topology
 Extension of bus and star topologies.
 Expansion of nodes is possible and easy.
 Easily managed and maintained.
 Error detection is easily done.
Disadvantages of Tree Topology
 Heavily cabled.
 Costly.
 If more nodes are added maintenance is difficult.
 Central hub fails, network fails.

3.7 FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN SELECTING A TOPOLOGY

a) Cost – whatever transmission medium is chosen for a Local Area Network has to be
physically installed in the building, this maybe a lengthy process including the
installation cables and raceways. For a Network to be cost effective one would strive
to minimize installation cost. This may be achieved by using the proper hardware
linking the cables, good modems, cost effective computers to reduced cost
b) Flexibility – one of the main benefits of a local Area Network is its ability to have the
data processing and peripheral nodes distributed around a given area. This means that
the computing power and equipment can be located close to the ultimate users.
Because the arrangements of furniture, internal walls etc in the offices is often subject
to change. The topology should allow for easy reconstruction of the network which
involves moving existing nodes and adding new nodes.
 c) Reliability – The topology chosen for the network can help by allowing the location
of the fault to be detected and to provide some means of isolating the faults.

3.8 REVIEW QUESTIONS

a) Define the term computer network
b) Explain the reasons for networking computers
c) Identify different types of networks
d) What is a network topology?
e) Distinguish between different networks topologies
f) List five hardware components required to set-up computer network
g) Assume 6 devices are arranged in a mesh topology. How many cables are needed?
h) Describe the features of LAN
i) What are the advantages of Wireless network over LAN?
j) Describe three factors to be considered in selecting a network topology.

UNIT FOUR: INTERNET

4.1 INTRODUCTION
In the present age of information Technology, use of Internet is becoming quite popular for
accessing information on any topic of your interest. It also provides tremendous opportunities
to students, researchers and professionals for getting information on matters related to
academic and professional topics and lot more. In the present world, most of the people who
have computers around themselves use Internet to access information from the World Wide
Web, exchange messages & documents and e-services.
4.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you would be able to:
a) explain various terminology used in internet
b) identify the uses of the internet
c) use various services provided by internet
d) search the desired information over internet
e) define e-mail and its various features
f) send email

4.3 INTERNET
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard
Internet protocol suite (TCP/ IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of
networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government
networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and
optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources
and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW)
and the infrastructure to support electronic mail. To access the Internet, an existing network
need to pay a small registration fee and agree to certain standards based on the TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). TCP "converts messages into streams of
packets at the source, and they are reassembled back into messages at the destination. IP
handles the addressing, and makes sure that a packet reaches its destination through multiple
nodes and even across multiple networks with multiple standards.

4.3.1 Internet terminology

Below are some of the terminologies used in the internet
a) Browser
A piece of software such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer that allows a computer to
access and display documents, view pictures, hear sound, and view video clips from the
World Wide Web.
b) E-mail
This is a mail that is electronically transmitted by your computer. As opposed to snail mail, e-
mail sends messages instantaneously, anywhere in the world. It has the capability to send
messages at any time and to anyone.
c) File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
The standard method for downloading and uploading files over the Internet. With FTP,
you can login to a server and transfer files (meaning you can "send" or "receive" files).

d) Homepage
This is the first page that is viewed when the browser starts. It is also the page of a Web
site that provides the introduction or content with links.

e) Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

 This is the abbreviation for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is the set of rules by which
Web pages are transferred across the Internet.

f) Internet Protocol (IP) Address

The Internet is composed of local, regional, national, and worldwide computer networks.
Each computer on the Internet can be identified by a set of unique numbers that is called
an internet protocol (IP) address. The IP address is composed of four different numbers
separated by periods such as 205.134.120.60.

g) Link or Hypertext Link

This is an underlined word(s), phrase(s), or graphics on a Web page that transports the
reader to additional or related information on the Internet.

h) Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

This is an addressing scheme that is used on the Internet to locate resources and/or
services on the World Wide Web. Basically the URL is the address of a computer file that
has been put on a computer server to access the Internet.

i) Web Page
This is a single hypertext file or a page that is part of a Web site.

j) Website
This is a collection of World Wide Web pages or files.

4.3.2 Uses of Internet

Internet has been the most useful technology of the modern times which helps us not only in
our daily lives, but also our personal and professional lives developments. The internet helps
us achieve this in several different ways. For the students and educational purposes the
internet is widely used to gather information so as to do the research or add to the knowledge
of various subjects. Even the business professionals and the professionals like doctors, access
the internet to filter the necessary information for their use. The internet is, therefore, the
largest guide for everyone, in all age categories. The internet has also served to be more
useful in maintaining contacts with friends and relatives who live abroad permanently. Some
of the uses of the internet include:
a) E-mail: Email is now an essential communication tools in business. With e-mail one
can send and receive instant electronic messages, which work like writing letters. The
messages are delivered instantly to people anywhere in the world, unlike traditional
mail that takes a lot of time. Email is free, fast and very cheap when compared to
telephone, fax and postal services.
b) 24 hours a day - 7 days a week: Internet is available, 24x7 days for usage.
c) Information: Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. There
is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject,
ranging from government services, trade fairs and conferences, market information,
new ideas and technical support. Users of the internet can almost find any type of data
 on almost any kind of subject that they are looking for by using search engines like
Google, yahoo, msn, etc.
d) Online Chat: internet users can access many ‘chat rooms’ on the web that can be used
to meet new people, make new friends, as well as to stay in touch with old friends.
People can chat in MSN and yahoo websites.
e) Services: Many services are provided on the internet like internet banking, job
searching, purchasing tickets, hotel reservations, guidance services on array of topics
engulfing every aspect of life.
f) Communities: Communities of all types have sprung up on the internet. It is a great
way to meet up with people of similar interest and discuss common issues.
g) E-commerce: Along with getting information on the Internet facilitate online
shopping. There are many online stores and sites that can be used to look for products
as well as buy them using credit card. Users of the internet do not need to leave their
houses; they can do all their shopping from the convenience of their home. It has got a
real amazing and wide range of products from household needs, electronics to
entertainment.
h) Entertainment: Internet provides facility to access wide range of Audio/Video songs,
plays films. Many of which can be downloaded. One such popular website is
YouTube. Software Downloads: internet users can freely download innumerable,
software like utilities, games, music, videos, movies, etc from the Internet.

4.3.2 Limitations of Internet

a) Theft of Personal information: Electronic messages sent over the Internet can be easily
snooped and tracked, revealing who is talking to whom and what they are talking
about. If you use the Internet, your personal information such as your name, address,
credit card, bank details and other information can be accessed by unauthorized
persons. If you use a credit card or internet banking for online shopping, then your
details can also be ‘stolen’.
b) Negative effects on family communication: It is generally observed that due to more
time spent on Internet, there is a decrease in communication and feeling of
togetherness among the family members.
c) Internet addiction: There is some controversy over whether it is possible to actually be
addicted to the Internet or not. Some researchers claim that it is simply people trying
to escape their problems in an online world. Children using the Internet have become
a big concern.
d) Virus threat: Today, not only are humans getting viruses, but computers are also.
Computers are mainly getting these viruses from the Internet. Virus is a program
which disrupts the normal functioning of your computer systems. Computers attached
to internet are more prone to virus attacks and they can end up into crashing your
whole hard disk.
e) Spamming: It is often viewed as the act of sending unsolicited email. This multiple or
vast emailing is often compared to mass junk mailings. It needlessly obstructs the
 entire system. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-
rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send
— most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the
sender

4.3.3 Information browsing

If one will go onto the internet and type the herald’s website address www.herald.co.zw he
will be able to read the latest version of the paper on the internet. It would allow one to open
any one edition of the herald. www.herald.co.zw is referred to as the URL (Uniform Resource
Location), which helps the Internet browser to locate a user’s requested page. Information
browsing also includes the use of search engines e.g. www.google.com, on which a user type
some keywords specifying a search criteria and click search for the browser to search the
whole internet for the occurrence of the keyword.

An example of a search window

Search the Internet

Top of Form
What are you looking for?

Help on searching is available.

4.3.4 Services of internet

E-mail, FTP, Telnet Email, discussion groups, long-distance computing, and file transfers are
some of the important services provided by the Internet.
a) Email- e-mail is an Internet facility that allows individuals to write each other mail
and send them through the internet to the recipient. Typically for one to send or
receive e-mail, you must be logged on to your account. One’s messages are stored in
his mailbox (which is itself made up of the inbox, bulk box and the sent box). E-mail
has added features of being able to forward, save, delete and compose message.
Format of e-mail is like Format of e-mail is like

susan@yahoo.com indicate the service provide

Account holder

This means that Susan has an e-mail account with a company called Yahoo.
 b) FTP (File Transfer Protocol) File Transfer Protocol, is an Internet utility software used
to uploaded and download files. It gives access to directories or folders on remote
computers and allows software, data and text files to be transferred between different
kinds of computers. FTP works on the basis of same principle as that of Client/ Server.
FTP “Client” is a program running on your computer that enables you to communicate
with remote computers. The FTP client takes FTP command and sends these as
requests for information from the remote computer known as FTP servers. To access
remote FTP server it is required, but not necessary to have an account in the FTP
server. When the FTP client gets connected, FTP server asks for the identification in
terms of User Login name and password of the FTP client. If one does not have an
account in the remote FTP server, still he can connect to the server using anonymous
login.
c) Telnet (Remote Computing) Telnet or remote computing is telecommunication utility
software, which uses available telecommunication facility and allows you to become a
user on a remote computer.
d) Newsgroups; When one has one an e-mail, he may specify his areas of interest e.g.
recreational, sport, food, science and technology such that should anyone have any
news he will convey it to the news group.

4.3.5 TYPES OF INTERNET CONNECTIONS

There are five types of internet connections which are as follows:
 Dial up Connection
 Leased Connection
 DSL connection
 Cable Modem Connection
 VSAT

Task
1. Explain the five types of internet connections listed above
2. State the advantages and disadvantages of each type of internet connection.

4.3.6 Requirements for one to connect to the Internet

You have to subscribe to the Internet Service Provider like mweb, zarnet, ecoweb. These give
one a username and a password he can use to derive Internet benefits. When accessing the
Internet, your computer will dial the Internet Service provider’s number. The ISP will also
have a server that hosts and screens (against viruses) your e-mail messages. When you call to
a up for an Internet account, make sure you get the following information:
 User name
 Password
 Access phone number
 Your host name and domain name
 Domain Name System (DNS) server address

The service provider may also supply the following information:

 IP address and subnet mask
 DNS search order (if required)
 Gateway address
 Authentication procedure (whether or not the service provider requires a terminal window
to log on)

One also needs to have a modern Internet browser like Opera, Microsoft Internet Explorer or
Netscape loaded on the computer. Above all, the computer must be at least a Pentium I
machine with a speed from 166MHz. The telephone line and a modem are other requirements.
The modem converts a computer’s electronic digital data into analog signals that can be
transported through a telephone line when information is being sent into the Internet and vice
versa when receiving. The telephone line is the transmission media, which links the computer
to the Internet service provider. Your operating system should compatible with the Internet
browser and modern GUI operating systems support Internet

For large organizations, it’s ideal that they network their computers, hence more
requirements. One would need a server-based network to effect networks security and to use
one connection as a gateway to the Internet.

4.4 REVIEW QUESTIONS

a) Explain various terminology used in internet
b) Describe the uses of the internet
c) What are the limitations of the internet
d) List various internet services providers (ISPs) in Zimbabwe
e) Define e-mail and its various features
f) List the hardware needed for one to connect to the internet and explain the function of
each
g) Discuss the need of gateways, routers and in networking an organization like Midlands
State University
UNIT FIVE: SECURITY AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY

5.1 INTRODUCTION
Information Technology resources (hardware, software, and data) form a vital strategic
resource of any establishment which must be jealously guarded to ensure its safety, reliability,
accuracy and integrity. Ethics refer to the expected code of conduct within an organization
both on the use of computer resources and human resources. Hence, ethics direct an
employee‘s mind towards profit through sanctioned means, ensure that managers do not
engage in fraud and abuse of funds nor convert the company’s clients for personal motive. At
the same time, data in the organization must be used for its intended purpose which itself
should be legitimate.

5.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you would be able to:
a) Identify security issues associated with information technology
b) Identify ethical issues associated with information technology
c) Take preventive measures against security threat to IT
d) Appreciate the need for computer security

5.3 SECURITY CHALLENGES ASSOCIATED WITH IT

The following are some of the current issues concerning IT security:
 Spamming
 Hacking
 Jamming
 Malicious software
 Sniffing
 Spoofing
 Identity Theft
Table 5.1: Security issues associated with information technology & their solutions
Security challenge Description
Password Cracking Password cracking is just another method used to illegally
access someone’s computer without his or her consent.
E-mail Spoofing Spoofing results when a user receives an e-mail that appears
to have originated from one person, but is actually sent by
another person. The objective of spoofing is to trick the user
into divulging confidential information.
Spamming Spamming can be defined as the practice of sending
unsolicited e-mail and other electronic communication. The
spammers who send out all of these e-mails are only charged a
few cents to send out the unsolicited e-mails to users who
have not requested the information
Hacking Hacking is when an illegal user tries to access private
information that they are not entitled to access.
Identify theft Identity theft occurs, when someone possesses or uses a
person’s name, address, Social Security number, bank or
credit card account number, or other identifying information
without a person’s knowledge with the intent to commit fraud
or other crimes.
Solution
To prevent password cracking, users should create and use passwords of eight or
more characters that combine alphanumeric elements, apart from changing it
frequently.
Electronic signature, also known as digital signature helps to prevent spoofing by
ensuring that messages have not been altered during transmission and that the
messages are from the person listed as the sender. Keeping your operating
system and web browser up to date; Schedule spy ware protection software to
run regularly on your computer
Currently, many internet service providers offer policies against spamming
and/or some sort of application that attempts to curb the amount of spam in
user’s mailboxes. Additionally they offer a “Spam Blocker” bundled with their
main program which identifies some spam and prevents it from reaching their
users accounts.
On such preventative measure, is the use of a Firewall which is a program used
to closely monitor precisely what information passes in and out of a computer or
information system. These programs can be set to keep other users out of to
prevent information from leaving the computer or information system.
Detecting identity theft is very difficult and prosecuting it can often be even
more difficult. The best solution to identity theft is prevention. Keeping ones
personal information close and guarding it well is the best solution to this
problem.
Administrative controls
They cover company code of practice/conduct and can be implemented through written policies and
procedures; division of functions and supervision
A Code of Practice is a set of standards that a business would expect its employees to conform to.
It is not legally binding but the business would ask an employee to agree to it before being
employed and would be grounds for dismissal if they were not obeyed.
It is always in the best interest of a business to treat its customers fairly and with due consideration
- or they will go elsewhere.
It ensures consistency of practice. All employees would conduct their business in a similar way.

Through division of functions can be whereby where the Information system designers are not part of the
end-users that operate a computer system.

Input Controls

They aim to ensure proper data entry by the intended personnel, through the use of passwords so that only
the holder can benefit from the computer resources, formatted input screens and audible error signals so
that data is entered correctly. Computers should have software that verifies correctness of the data typed
(validation).

Storage controls
There should be a control mechanism so that no everyone can access stored data. Thus documents can be
access through passwords.

Stored data may need to be stored in a separate backup copy so that, in case of that storage device failing
data can be recovered from the backup copy. Stored data can also be encrypted so that, should the wrong
person accesses it, he won’t make sense out of it. Firewall are computers that protect networked computers
from intrusion, hence they also ensure safe storage of data.

Physical protection
Security guards, buglar bars on windows video surveillance cameras, alarms, and building computer
centers above flood levels are some of the many moves to ensure physical safety of computers.
Disaster recovery plans
Companies should have in place a responsibility roster that explain each and every individual’s duty in
case of a disaster e.g. fire outbreak, so as to minimize the effects of the disaster. They should also have a
tentative document that explain how customers would be served and who should disseminate the
information.

5.4 ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Ethics refers to rules of right and wrong that people use to make choices to guide their behaviors. Ethics in
IT seek to protect and safeguard individuals and society by using information systems responsibly. Most
professions usually have defined a code of ethics or code of conduct guidelines that all professionals
affiliated with the profession must adhere to. In a nutshell, a code of ethics makes individuals acting on
their free will responsible and accountable for their actions. With the leading advancement in information
technology, it is necessary to have the knowledge of security issues, privacy issues and main negative
impacts of IT. To deal with these issues in IT society it is important to find out the ethical issues.
Some of the major ethical issues faced by Information Technology (IT) are:
 Personal Privacy
 Access Right
 Harmful Actions
 Patents
 Copyright
 Trade Secrets
 Liability
 Piracy

These are explained with their effects as following below:

a) Personal Privacy
It is an important aspect of ethical issues in information technology. IT facilitates the users having
their own hardware, operating system and software tools to access the servers that are connected to
each other and to the users by a network. Due to the distribution of the network on a large scale, data
or information transfer in a big amount takes place which leads to the hidden chances of disclosing
information and violating the privacy of any individuals or a group. It is a major challenge for IT
society and organizations to maintain the privacy and integrity of data. Accidental disclosure to
inappropriate individuals and provisions to protect the accuracy of data also comes in the privacy
issue.

b) Access Right
The second aspect of ethical issues in information technology is access right. Access right becomes a
high priority issue for the IT and cyberspace with the great advancement in technology. E-commerce
and Electronic payment systems evolution on the internet heightened this issue for various corporate
organizations and government agencies. Network on the internet cannot be made secure from
unauthorized access. Generally, the intrusion detection system is used to determine whether the user is
an intruder or an appropriate user.

c) Harmful Actions
Harmful actions in the computer ethics refers to the damage or negative consequences to the IT such as
loss of important information, loss of property, loss of ownership, destruction of property and
undesirable substantial impacts. This principle of ethical conduct restricts any outsiders from the use of
information technology in manner which leads to any loss to any of the users, employees, employers
and the general public. Typically, these actions comprise of the intentional destruction or alteration of
files and program which drives a serious loss of resources. To recover from the harmful actions extra
time and efforts are required to remove the viruses from the computer systems.

d) Patents
It is more difficult to deal with these types of ethical issues. A patent can preserve the unique and
secret aspect of an idea. Obtaining a patent is very difficult as compared with obtaining a copyright. A
thorough disclosure is required with the software. The patent holder has to reveal the full details of a
program to a proficient programmer for building a program.

e) Copyright
The information security specialists are to be familiar with necessary concept of the copyright law.
Copyright law works as a very powerful legal tool in protecting computer software, both before a
security breach and surely after a security breach. This type of breach could be the mishandling and
misuse of data, computer programs, documentation and similar material. In many countries, copyright
legislation is amended or revised to provide explicit laws to protect computer programs.

f) Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are also a significant ethical issue in information technology. A trade secret secures
something of value and usefulness. This law protects the private aspects of ideas which are known
only to the discovery or his confidants. Once disclosed, trade secret is lost as such and is only
protected by the law for trade secrets. The application of trade secret law is very broad in the computer
range, where even a slight head start in the advancement of software or hardware can provide a
significant competitive influence.

g) Liability
One should be aware of the liability issue in making ethical decisions. Software developer makes
promises and assertions to the user about the nature and quality of the product that can be restricted as
an express warranty. Programmers or retailers possess the legitimate to determine the express
warranties. Thus they have to be practical when they define any claims and predictions about the
capacities, quality and nature of their software or hardware. Every word they say about their product
may be as legally valid as stated in written. All agreements should be in writing to protect against
liability. A disclaimer of express warranties can free a supplier from being held responsible of
informal, speculative statements or forecasting made during the agreement stages.

h) Piracy
Piracy is an activity in which the creation of illegal copy of the software is made. It is entirely up to
the owner of the software as to whether or not users can make backup copies of their software. As
laws made for copyright protection are evolving, also legislation that would stop unauthorized
duplication of software is in consideration.
5.5 SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The rise of Information technology puts pressure on society members to learn and cope with the
complexity of information-based employment. At the onset Information Technology many problems as it
takes considerable effort to be comfortable with the software, network and diagnosing related problems.
The managers are very much concerned with the reliability of the computers as the software may be of
international standard but failing to address the nitty-gritties of one’s business. Managers need more
information on Information Technology use for them to confidently conduct cost-benefit analysis for the
appropriate hardware, software and network technology. If Information technology is used to monitor
employees, that must be done with their concert so that they do not feel harassed and insecure at the
workplace. This may tend to distort any motivation that a manager would offer to the employees. Other
implications of computers are many employees tend to lose their jobs due to the insurgence of information
technology based production. Other implications are positive in that, Information technology increases
customer satisfaction through a customer having confidence in the system and being served faster.

5.6 REVIEW QUESTIONS/TASK

a) What is a malware?
b) Explain the following terms showing their differences: worm, virus, Trojan horse.
c) Identify security issues associated with information technology
d) Identify ethical issues associated with information technology
e) What preventive measures can be used against security threat to IT
f) Explain the societal and ethical challenges one can face when using I.T.
g) Information technology has created an ethical dilemma that would not have existed before the
advent of information technology. Discuss giving relevant examples.
h) What issues can you consider as ethical and societal challenges of information technology?
UNIT SIX: PRACTICAL

6.1 INTRODUCTION
Practical work to refer to any teaching and learning activity which at some point involves the students in
observing or manipulating the objects and materials they are studying. Given that the subject matter of
Information technology is the material world, it seems natural, and rather obvious, that learning IT should
involve practical exercise to make the use of computers concretise in their minds.

6.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you would be able to:
 Boot and shut down the computer
 Create folders, copy and paste functions
 Creating a Document, Editing and Saving using MS WORD
 Use of options from the Tool Bars – Format, Insert and Tools, Alignment of paragraphs and Text
in MS WORD
 Creating a Table, Merging of Cells, Columns and Row Width in MS WORD
 Creating a Spreadsheet, Alignment of Rows, Columns and Cells using Format Tool Bar in MS
EXCEL
 Entering formula expression through the formula tool bar and use of inbuilt functions MS
EXCEL
 Data Analysis using inbuilt Tool Packs – Correlation and Regression in MS EXCEL
 Data Analysis using inbuilt Tool Packs – tests of significance in MS EXCEL
 Creating and Saving Graphs
 Create a PowerPoint presentation

6.3 PARTS OF A WINDOW SCREEN

6.3.1 Desktop
The desktop is the on-screen work area on which Windows, Icons, menus & dialog boxes appear. The
Desktop can have several components. Parts of the desktop include Icons & the taskbar.
a) Icons
Icon is a small image that represents a file, folder or program.
The text below each icon is the name of the Icon. When we rest the mouse pointer on an icon, a
rectangular box appears. This is referred to as Tooltip. It gives a brief description of the Icon. By
default, there will be 4-5 icons on the desktop, these include the following:
 My Computer
 My documents
 Internet Explorer
 Recycle bin
 Network Neighbourhood

i) My Computer: This is the icon which represents all the files & folders which can be used in the
system. It is used to access the drives, folders & files on the computer. i.e. Floppy drive(A), Local
 C, D, E, Printer, Control panel etc.

ii) My Documents: This is the default storage location for the files created in the windows.

iii) Internet Explorer: This is an application used to browse the internet.

iv) Recycle bin: This is a folder that stores all the files & folders deleted from windows temporarily,
which can be restored again if needed.

v) Network Neighbourhood: This is an application which display all the computers connected in
network with our computer.

b) Taskbar: The rectangular bar that runs horizontally across the bottom of the screen is called
Taskbar. The Taskbar has the START menu on the left & the Notification area on the right. We
can start an application using the start menu. Notification area holds system icons that allow for
functions such as changing the time & Volume of the Computer. All the open applications are
available on the Taskbar.

6.3.2 Anatomy of a Window

The window on a desktop is the rectangular area displaying content independently of other areas of the
screen. The different parts of a window are the Title bar, Menu bar, the Toolbar, and the min, max & close
buttons. These tools are used to manage the window & the components within it.

a) Title bar
This is the title of the window, like your name at the top of a piece of paper. The Title bar is also
the handle for the window. If you click and hold the mouse button down on the title bar, you can
move it around the screen.
i) Minimize – To have a window take the minimum amount of desktop space possible, click
the minimize button. This drops the window into the Task bar like a piece of paper going
into a drawer. The Task bar will show the task whether or not the window is minimized.
ii) Maximize – To have a window take the maximum desktop space, click the maximize
button. This stretches the window out like an architect‘s floor plan being rolled out over the
desk.
iii) Restore – A maximized window will cover over all the other windows and icons on the
desktop. The Restore button places the window back so that more than one window can
 display at a time.
iv) Close (X) – When done with a window, you can have it taken completely off the desktop by
closing it. Use the X button to do this.

b) Menu bar
The Menu bar displays a list of commands that can be used to perform various tasks (this will be
below the Title bar). Menu items are commands within the menu bar that allow choosing of
functions & tasks.
c) Tool bar
Contains a set of buttons for frequently used commands

d) Scroll Bars
On the bottom and right edges of a window we find scroll bars. They are used to pan across the
information in the window, when we have information which won‘t fit into the window.

e) The Status Bar

The Status bar appears at the very bottom of the window and provides such information as the
cursor position, current page number, the number of words in the document etc.

6.3.3 Booting in Windows

a) When the computer is switched on, the BIOS is activated.
b) The BIOS present in ROM searches for the operating system and drives.
c) If there is no OS, it shows non-system or disk error.
d) If OS is present, then it transfers the OS from ROM to RAM.
e) Then the desktop is displayed on the monitor.

6.3.4 Windows explorer

Windows Explorer is an application that provides detailed information about your files, folders, and
drives. You can use it to see how your files are organized and to copy, move, and rename files, as well
as perform other tasks pertaining to files, folders, and drives. Explorer uses the directory windows to
graphically display the directory structure of your disk and files. Windows Explorer displays the
contents of the entire system in a hierarchical manner. To open Windows Explorer, click Start  All
programs  Accessories  Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is divided into 2 panes. The left pane displays the list of drives & folders on the
computer. The right pane displays the contents of the selected drive or folder. By using these two panes,
you can browse through the contents of your computer in a single window. Folder is a list of files
(Similar to Directory in MS-DOS)
6.3.5 Working with Folders
a) Creating a Folder
i) From the tree pane: select the directory under which you want to create a sub directory.
ii) Choose FileNewFolder. On the right pane of the screen, a new folder is created.
iii) Type in the name of the directory and press ENTER. You can notice the change in the tree
structure immediately.

b) Creating files
After creating a folder, we can move files into it or create new files within the folder.

c) Selecting files & folders:

i) To select all the files in a folder:
Click the folder in the left pane  All the files will be displayed in the right
pane. To select all --CTRL + A
ii) To select consecutive files: Use shift key + arrow keys
iii) To select non-consecutive files:
 In the right pane of Windows Explorer, click the first item to be selected.
 Hold down CTRL
 Click all other items that need to be selected.

d) Copying Files & Folders:

Once we select the files to be copied, the next step is to copy the files. To copy the files & folders:
i) In Windows Explorer, select the file or folder to be copied
ii) On the edit menu click copy (the files are copied to the clip board. The clip board is a location
where the information you copy or cut is temporarily stored)
iii) Click the destination folder in the left pane.
iv) In windows Explorer, click paste in the Edit menu.

Alternatively, to copy a file or folder, select it and then press ctrl +C. To paste, press ctrl+ V

e) To move the files or folders

i) Select the folder to be moved.
ii) On the edit menu, click cut
iii) Click the destination folder in the left pane
iv) On the edit menu, click paste.
Alternatively, to cut a file or folder, select and press ctrl +X & then to paste, press ctrl +V.

f) Renaming files or folders

i) Select the item to be renamed
ii) Choose File  Rename
iii) Current name gets selected, Type in the new name iv) Press Enter.

g) Deleting files or folders

If you do not want certain files or folders, you can delete them. All the files & folders which are
deleted are moved to the recycle bin.
To delete:
i) Select
ii) On the file menu, click delete or press delete. A warning appears prompting you to confirm the
file deletion.
iii) If you want to delete, click yes otherwise No.
Note: To delete a file permanently without moving it to the Recycle bin, select the file & then press Shift+
Del.

6.4 WORD PROCESSING

Definition: Word-processing is essentially typing, editing, and manipulation of a document in a desired
form.

6.4.1 Units of the Document

Since word-processing is concerned with preparation of a document (in a desired form), it is essential
to know the units of the document:

a) Character: It refers to the alphabets, numerical digits, punctuations and other special symbols
which are commonly used in the text.
b) Word: A word is group of characters that are separated from other group of characters by some
delimiters like, comma, full stop and space.
c) Sentence: A sentence is a group of words preceded and followed by appropriate delimiting
characters.
d) Paragraph: It is a group of one or more sentences, paragraphs are separated by leaving blank
lines between them.
e) Pages: It is the amount of text that can be printed on one page of a paper.
f) Chapters: It is a collection of pages
g) Documents and files: It is a group of chapters. Usually, a complete document may be very short
such as a memo (or letter) or very long such as a book consisting of several chapters. These
documents are referred as ―Files‖.

6.4.2 Features of Word-processing

 Word-wrap
 cursor control
 editing
  formatting
 spell-check
 thesaurus
 macros
 printing
 file management
 mail merge printing

a) Word-wrap: In word-processing packages, the text can be continuously typed and the computer
automatically starts a fresh line when a line is filled up. As soon as the length of a sentence
exceeds the right margin, the corresponding word is automatically adjusted in the following line.
This is called ―word-wrap. A paragraph is created only when carriage control is externally
given for a sentence.
b) Cursor Control: The four directional keys of the keyboard ( ) helps in locating the text
for editing in much the similar manner as that of a pointer or pencil.
c) Editing: Words or lines can be entered (inserted) or deleted in any part of the text with proper
alignment. Similarly, there is a facility to recover the text which is deleted by mistake or
accidentally. Another important facility is that any word can be replaced by a new word
throughout the file, wherever the old word appears. In addition to these, a block of text (which is
frequently used) can be prepared and moved or copied wherever desired in the file.
d) Formatting: The text formatting refers to the way the text is desired to appear on a page. This
includes following functions:
i) setting left and right margins
ii) paragraph settings
iii) line spacing
iv) selecting font specifications such as underline, bold, italics, superscripts and subscripts
v) setting foot-notes
vi) number of lines per page
vii) printing page numbers and headings for ‗Header‘ and ‗Footer‘
viii) table of contents
ix) indexing the text
e) Spell-check: Word-processing packages provide checking of spellings facility
f) Thesaurus: It provides synonyms (or words with similar meanings)
g) Macros: A macro is a character or word that represents a series of keystrokes. The ability to
define macros allows us to save a lot of time by replacing common combinations of keystrokes.
h) Printing: It gives a ‗hard‘copy of the text. The printing can be controlled after printing a fixed
number of pages or can be resumed from any specified page number.
i) File management: This facility allows to create, delete, move & search for files.
j) Mail merge printing: This facility helps in printing same ―original‖ letter with different
addresses, so that each letter is ―original‖ and not a carbon copy.

6.5 WORD-PROCESSING PACKAGES:

Several word-processing packages are available. Some of these are listed below:
  MSWORD (SOFT WORD)
 WORDSTAR
 CHIRATOR
 NORTON EDITOR

6.5.1 MS-WORD
MS- Word is a word processor. The extension name of MS- word is .doc. It is an application used to
create, edit, print and save a document. It allows the user to insert pictures, tables, charts, drawings &
features that will make the text richer & more interactive. (The term document refers to a file created
using word processor)

a) Starting MS-Word:
Start  All Programs  MS-office MS-word
MS-word icon is w.

The default Word document includes the following layout tools:

 Title bar: displays the document name and the application.
 Menu bar: Contains the list of menus available inside word, each menu contains a specific set of
commands.
 Standard toolbar: provides shortcuts in the form of buttons for frequently performed tasks.
 Formatting toolbar: Contains a list of formatting options available inside the format menu.
 Horizontal & Vertical rulers: used for measurement purposes like any normal ruler; the default
unit of measure is in inches.
 White page area: is the space area where you type, edit and format your document.
 Insertion point: is the blinking vertical line that indicates the position on the screen where text or
graphics will be placed.
 Task pane: is a small window within the word window that provides shortcuts to commonly used
tasks.
 Scroll bars: are used to move up and down or left and right in a document.
 Status bar: displays the details such as the page number the user is working on, section no., page
no. out of the total pages found in the document, line number, column number etc.
Standard Toolbar
This toolbar contains buttons to allow you to perform the basic operations such as opening and closing a
document, moving and printing data.

6.5.2 Function of commonly used buttons

 New: Creates a new blank document based on the default template
 Open: Opens or finds an existing file
 Save: Saves the active file with its current file name, location and file format
 Print: Prints the active file - for more print options go to the File menu and select Print
 Print preview: Shows how the document will look when you print it.
 Spelling & Grammar: Spelling, grammar and writing style checker
 Cut : Removes the selection from the document and places it on the clipboard
 Copy : Copies the selected item(s) to the clipboard
 Paste : Places the content of the clipboard at the insertion point
 Format painter : Copies the format from a selected object or text and applies to other objects
 Undo : Reverses the last command, use pull-down menu to undo several steps
 Redo : Reverses the action of the Undo button, use the pull-down menu to redo several steps
 Insert table: Insert a table into the document, or make a table of selected text
 Insert Excel worksheet: Inserts an Excel spreadsheet into the Word document
 Columns : Changes the number of columns in a document
 Drawing: Displays or hides the Drawing toolbar
 Zoom (100%): Enlarge or reduce the display of the active document

Formatting Toolbar:
The formatting Tool bar is the easiest way to change many attributes of a text.

 Style menu: Allows you to make your text Bold, Italic, underlined… depending on the style you
choose.
 Font: Allows you to change t h e font by clicking on the drop-down arrow on the right of the
font name box. You can view a list of fonts available, you can scroll down to view more fonts
and select the font name you wish to use by clicking on its name.
 Font size: Allows you to change the font size by clicking inside the Font size box and entering a
value or by clicking on the drop-down arrow on the right of the box to view a list of sizes
available. Select then a size by clicking on it.

Note: A Font size of 11 or 12 is best for paragraphs of text.

 Bold, Italic, Underline: Each button respectively allows you to make your text appear as bold,
italic or underlined.
 Alignment: Each button respectively allows you to make your text aligned to the left, center or
right side of the page. You can also justify the text across the page using the justify button.
  Line spacing: Allows you to set the amount of space that word puts when go to a new line.
 Text orientation: Allows you to change the typing direction of your text, from left to right or
right to left manner.
 Numbering, Bullets: Allows you to make your text appear as a bullets list or as a numbering
list.
 Increase / Decrease indent: Allows you to increase or decrease the indentation of your
paragraph in relation to the side of the page.
 Outside Border: Allows you to add a border around a text selection.
 Highlight colour : Allows you to change the colour behind a text selection.
 Font colour: Allows you to change the colour of the text.

6.5.3 Features of FILE MENU ( ALT F):

1. New - Opens new Word file (Blank Document file)

2. Open - Opens the existing files
3. Save - Saves the file with one name
4. Save as -Saves the file with more than one name ( with different formats)
5. Save as Web page – This is used to save a document in a Web style. (With HTML extension)
6. Versions - This is used to do the parts of work in small parts. i.e a bulk ( big/ more) work can be
done in small parts.
7. Web Page Preview – This shows the web page in printable form.
8. Page set up - To set the margin, paper size, Orientation
9. Print - To get the printout.( Specified pages and no. of copies).
10. Properties - This gives the details about the document ( the type of file, the size of file, the date of
creation, date of modification and file location)
11. Send - T h i s is used to send the file document to internet mail to some other person.
12. Exit - To close the Ms-word.
To insert a new page, press Ctrl + Enter

6.5.4 Features of EDIT MENU (ALT E):

Undo - Will take the previous command (ctrl +Z)
Redo - Will take the opposite action of undo (Ctrl + Y)
Cut - Can cut a selected text ( Ctrl + X) Copy - Can copy a selected text ( Ctrl + C) Paste -
Can paste the selected text ( Ctrl + V) Del - Removes the elected text
Find - Used to find the part of text word \ character in the file (Ctrl + F)
Find Next – (F3) Finding \ finding next: Used to repeat the finding process.

Replace - Used to replace any part of Text / word / Character with another word/ character. (Ctrl + H)
Paste special – This will paste the copied (or) cut text in a form of an object. It will paste in box which
cannot be altered.
Go To - Curser goes to the specified page, specified line, specified paragraph. (Ctrl + G)
Features of FORMAT MENU ( ALT + O)

1. Font - used to change the font face, style, size etc.

2. Paragraph - Used to set the space between paragraphs and also between the lines
3. Bullets - Used to highlight points in number wise / bullet wise.
4. Borders & Shades - Used to apply different borders to the table / to the page.
5. Columns – Used to write the text in column wise.
To have a break in columns, a column break is used ( insert menu  break  Columns) Ctrl + Shift
+ Enter
6. Drop Cap - Used to drop the letter to different lines.
7. Text direction - Used to change the direction of drop cap (Note: To use text direction, drop cap
must be used first)
8. Change case - Used to change the case of the text.
9. Toggle – This converts lower case letters to upper case & vice –versa in a word.
10. Back Ground - This is used to change the back ground colour of the document but the colour can
be seen only in the web layout.
11. Theme - This is used to change the document, backgrounds with some existing design
background. This shows the background only in the web layout.
12. Style - This is used to change the writing fashion of the document which are already existing.
13. Frames - Frames are used to write different documents in one single document.

Some important features of Tools menu:

Spelling &Grammar: Used to check the spelling and correct the words with related word. (F7)
Thesaurus : Used to know the synonym (meaning) of the word. (Shift +F7)
Mail merge : used to type the letters with the same matter but different addresses.
6.5.5 MS WORD – working with files: Creating a New document:
 Click the New Blank document button on the standard tool bar. (or)
 From the Menu bar, choose File  New, the New document task pane will open, and select Blank
document.

a) Opening Existing documents:

 Click the open button found on the Standard tool bar. (or)
 From the task pane, select getting started and the select more (or)
 From the Menu bar, select File  Open

b) Saving a document:
 Click the Save button on the Tool bar. (or)
 From the Menu bar, select File  Save (or)
 Follow the key sequence Ctrl + S
Save dialog box appears. Type the name and click Save.

c) Printing a document:
 Select File  Print (or)
 Click on the Print button on the Standard Tool bar (or)
 Click Ctrl + P

Print dialog box appears. Select All pages (or) Current page (or) t y p e the page numbers and also
select number of copies according to the requirement and click O.K

d) Closing a document:
 Select File  close
 Click on the small X found on the right top next to the Menu bar and the Title bar.

6.5.6 MS WORD - Editing Text: Typing and Inserting Text

To enter text in your document, position the insertion point i.e a vertical blinking line, where you want
the text to appear and type it in. Word will automatically wrap text as it reaches the end of a line. Press
enter to start a new paragraph. When you reach the end of a page, word will automatically break
text onto the next page. If you want, you can start a new page at any point by inserting a page break.
To do so, press ctrl + Enter.

Word offers two modes for adding text to your documents: Insert mode and o v e r w r i t e mode. In Insert
mode, characters typed are inserted into the text to the left of the insertion point, pushing any characters
to the right of the insertion point further to the right. In overtype mode, the text you type will replace the
existing text.
Note: The Insert key is a toggle key. This means that the same key can be used to switch back and forth
between two different modes.

Selecting Text:
 In order to change the format of the text you just typed, it must be first highlighted, i.e. selected
with the mouse cursor.
 To highlight the whole text o r part of it, locate the mouse at the start of the text you wish to
highlight and click the left button, and then drag the mouse over the desired text while keeping
the left mouse button pressed.

Shortcuts used for selecting a portion of the text:

 Whole word: Double click within the word.
 Whole paragraph: Triple click within the paragraph.
 Sentence: ctrl + click in a sentence
 Entire document: Edit  select all (ctrl + A)

Deleting text:
 Use the BACKSPACE or the DELETE key to delete text.
 BACKSPACE key will delete text to the left of the cursor and DELETE key will erase text to
the right.
 To delete a large section of text, highlight the text using any of the methods outlined above and
press the DELETE key.

Moving, copying and pasting text: Cut text:

Highlight the text you need to move and follow one of the methods listed below:
 From the Menu bar, select Edit  cut (or)
 From the standard tool bar, click on the cut button. (or)
 Follow the key sequence Ctrl + X

Copy text:
 From the Menu bar, select Edit  copy (or)
 From the standard toolbar, click the Copy button (or)
 Follow the key sequence Ctrl + C
Paste Text:
To paste previously cut or copied text, move the cursor to the location you want to move the text to and
follow one of the methods listed below:
 From the menu bar, select Edit  Paste (or)
 From the standard Tool bar, click the Paste button (or)
 Follow the key sequence Ctrl + V

6.6 MS -EXCEL

a) Spreadsheet is software that helps to substitute the paper worksheets in the offices.
Spreadsheet displays data in the form of rows and columns. An intersection of row and column is
 known as a cell
b) MS-Excel is a window based spreadsheet developed by Microsoft Corporation. It includes all
features of a spreadsheet package like recalculation, graphs & functions. It also provides many
Mathematical, Financial & Statistical functions. Thus it is used in many scientific and
engineering environments for analyzing data. Excel can even hold graphic objects like pictures &
images.

6.6.1 Some important features of MS-Excel:

1. Window based application: Excel like all other applications has Toolbars, Shortcut Menus,
Auto correct, Online help and Wizards.
2. Workbooks: Workbooks are the files in which worksheets related to a project are held.
3. OLE support: Object linking and Embedding is a feature through which Excel can contain any
object like a document, a picture etc.
4. Maintaining high volume of data: Excel can contain large volume of data. A worksheet can
contain 65536 rows and 256 columns. A single cell can contain a maximum of 255 characters. One
workbook can contain a maximum of 256 worksheets.
5. Availability of functions: Several Mathematical, financial & statistical functions are available in
an Excel package.
6. Availability of Charts & Graphs: MS-Excel allows users to view data entered as tables in a
graphical form as charts, which helps the user to easily understand, analyze data & compare data.
7. Data Analysis Tools: MS-Excel provides a set of data analysis tools called Analysis Tool pack.
8. Sorting capability: Excel has the capability of sorting any data in Ascending or Descending
order.
9. Auto fill feature: Excel has the feature which allows filling cells with repetitive data such as
chronological dates or numbers and repeated text.

6.6.2 Getting started with Excel

An Excel document is called a workbook. By default, Excel workbook contains 3 worksheets
designated as sheet 1, sheet 2, sheet 3.
The extension name of excel workbook is .xls
We can start excel in many ways:
1. Start  Programs  Microsoft office  Microsoft Excel  hit enter.
2. Start  Run  Type Excel  hit enter
3. Double click on the Microsoft application Icon.
6.6.3 Components of the Excel window

An Excel window has several unique elements identified in the figure below:

 Rows, columns & cell: In a worksheet rows are numbered from top to bottom. The
columns are labelled with letters from left to right. Rows are numbered from 1 to 65,536
and columns labeled from A to IV (256 columns).
 Title bar: The title bar contains the name of the program Microsoft Excel and the default
name of the workbook Book1 that would change as soon as you save your file and give
another name.
 Menu bar: The Menu bar contains menus that include all the commands you need to use to
work your way through Excel such as File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Data,
Window and Help.
 Tool Bar: Tool Bars are usually shortcuts for menu items. Standard and formatting
toolbars are displayed by default.
 Active cell: The cell in which you are currently working.
 Formula bar: displays the contents of the active cell.
 Name box: displays the cell address of the active cell. Column letter followed by the
row number. Ex: B6
 Worksheet area: The middle portion of screen which occupies a major area is called
worksheet area. In this area, information or data (i.e.) either textual or numerical can be
entered and the results can be displayed. A worksheet is a large work area of 65,536 rows
and 256 columns.
 Status bar: located at the very bottom of the screen displays brief information about
activating features within the worksheet area.
 Sheet tabs: appear above the status bar displaying the names of the worksheets.

Standard Toolbar
The Standard toolbar, located beneath the menu bar, has buttons for commonly performed tasks like
adding a column of numbers, printing, sorting, and other operations. Excel let's you customize the
toolbar or even display multiple toolbars at the same time. The Standard Excel XP toolbar appears
in the figure below.
Formatting toolbar
The Formatting toolbar, located beneath the Standard toolbar bar, has buttons for
various formatting operations like changing text size or style, formatting numbers and
placing borders around cells.

Formula bar & Name box

The formula bar is located beneath the toolbar at the top of the Excel worksheet. Use the
formula bar to enter and edit worksheet data. The contents of the active cell always appear
in the formula bar. When you click the mouse in the formula bar, an X and a check mark
appear. You can click the check icon to confirm and completes editing, or the X to abandon
editing.

Name box
The Name box displays the reference of the selected cells in the form of column label
followed by row number.

6.6.4 Creating a New Workbook

The steps to create a new workbook are,
1. On the File menu, click New.
The new workbook task pane appears at the right side of the screen. Click blank workbook.
A new workbook with 3 worksheets appears. By default, the workbook is named as Book 1,
and sheet 1 is the active worksheet & A1 is the active cell.
a) Entering data:
You can enter text, numbers and dates in an Excel
worksheet. To enter data of any type,
1. Select the cell by clicking on it.
2. Type in the information.
3. Press the Enter key.
When you begin typing, your data also appears in the formula bar.
b) Editing text:
 The easiest way to edit the contents of a cell is to select the cell and then retype the entry.
The new entry replaces the old contents.

Alternatively, to edit the data in a cell, press F2.

Ex: Suppose you find that in the cell A6, you have entered the marks as 78 instead of 87,
then click on A6 and type 87 enter

You can also edit part of the data in a cell:

1. Double click the cell you want to edit. The insertion point appears within the cell.
2. Delete the part of the data that you do not wish to keep.
3. Retype the data & press enter.

c) Formatting a worksheet:
Changing the style or appearance of data in a worksheet is called formatting. You can
format the data in a worksheet by:
 Changing the position of data in a cell
 Changing the font, size, style & colour.

i) Aligning data:
By default, any text you enter in Excel is aligned to the left and any value or number is
aligned to the
Right. To change the default alignment, you can use the alignment buttons on the
formatting tool bar.

ii) Formatting Numbers:

Formatting data in a worksheet includes changing the number of decimal places,
displaying dates, times & fractions and adding currency symbols.

To format the number in a cell, the steps are: Format/Cell/N/umber/Decimal places/2

iii) Formatting Text: Text can be formatted using the buttons on the formatting
toolbar. Font of a cell, font size can be changed. The font style can also be
changed to bold, Italic etc.

iv) Inserting Rows & Columns:

In Excel, rows & columns can be inserted or deleted without affecting the surrounding
rows, columns &cells. To insert a row,
1. Rest the mouse pointer over the row above which you want to insert the new row.
2. On the Insert menu, click rows.
A row is inserted and the existing row moves down after
the new row. Similarly, to insert a column,
1. Rest the mouse pointer over the column before which you want to insert the new Column.
2. On the Insert menu, click columns.

v) Changing Row height & Column width:

By default, every row is 12.75 points high and every column is 8.43 characters wide. As
you fill it with data, however you have to change the size of rows & columns so that it is
fitted to the length of the data. To Resize a column:
1. Rest the mouse pointer on the column boundary on the right side.
2. The shape of the mouse pointer changes to
3. Drag the boundary until the required width is obtained.
(OR)
1. The column which is to be adjusted is made active by clicking on column letter.
2. The column option is selected from the Format menu.
3. Click on the width option. A dialogue box is displayed.
4. Type in the required size of the column in the text box
column width. Similarly, Row height can also be adjusted by
selecting the rows.
Sorting: Highlight the cells that should be sorted and click the sort Ascending (A-Z) button
or Sort
Descending (Z-A) button found on the Standard toolbar.
Printing: To print the worksheet, select File  Print from the Menu bar (or) click on the
Print button
from the Standard Toolbar (or) follow the key sequence Ctrl + p
Inserting Page breaks: To set the page breaks within the worksheet, select the row you
want to appear just below the page break by clicking the row‘s label. Then choose Insert 
page break from the Menu bar.
When you attempt to print a worksheet Excel automatically inserts page breaks view.
File menu  page break preview
The page breaks are shown in dasher lines. If the automatic allocation of page breaks does
not satisfy with your requirements, you can add the page breaks in the required space.
Step 1: select a cell above which the page break is needed. After that, select the full row
until the data in the sheet exists.
Step 2: select insert  page break
Saving a workbook:
To save a workbook,
 File  Save (or)
 Ctrl +S (or)
 click on the save button on the Tool bar.
 Save dialogue box appears. Type the name and click Save.

Formulas:
In Excel. One of the powerful features is formulas. A formula is an equation that is used to
perform calculations on data in a worksheet. We can use formula to perform Mathematical,
Statistical & date/time operations on a single value or a set of values by using operators.
The cells in which formulas are stored, display the result of the calculation and not the
formula. In Excel, a formula starts with an equal (=) sign and should be followed by
the operation to be performed. We can use any number of operators in a single formula.
MS- Excel evaluates the formula according to the order of precedence of the operators.

Operator Operation Order of precedence

( ) Bracket 1
^ Exponentiation 2
*, / Multiplication , Division 3
+ / - Addition, Subtraction 4
& Concatenation 5
= / > /< Comparisons 6

Examples of the formula expressions:

1. Suppose the values in the cells B2, C2, D2 are 34, 28, 56 respectively. To add these
values and to have the result in the cell F2,
Step i) Click on the cell in which total marks is to be displayed, i.e F2
ii) Type ― = ( B2 + C2 + D2 )‖
iii) Press Enter
The value ―118‖ will be displayed
in F2.
2. Suppose the value of the cell B6 is 78345. Divide the value by 5 and have it in the
cell E6: Step i) Click the cell E6.
ii) Type ― = (B6/5) ―
iii) Press Enter
The value ―15669‖ will be displayed in the cell E6.
3. Multiply the value 549 of the cell C3 with the value 43 of the cell F3 and have the
result in the cell I3.
Step i) Click the cell I3
ii) Type ― = ( C3 * F3)
iii) press Enter
The result ―23607‖ will be displayed in the cell I3.
Functions:
A function is a built-in, readymade and frequently used formula that accepts data, perform
calculations & returns results.
To enter a function in a cell,
i) Click the cell in which you want the result of the function to be
displayed. ii) Type ―=‖ sign.
iii) Type the function name.
iv) Type the cell range & other arguments within
brackets. v) Press Enter.
Note : To specify a range of cells, a colon (:) is used between the first & last
cell addresses. Example: =Average(B1: B10)
Calculates the average of the values in the cells B1 to B10
Mathematical functions with syntax and purpose:
i) Sum( number1, number2,…) – gives the sum of the values in a
specified range ii) Abs( number) - gives the absolute
value of the number
iii) Fact( number) - gives the factorial of the number
iv) Sqrt(number) - gives the square root of the
number v) Log(number) - gives the
logarithm of the number

Statistical functions with syntax and purpose:

i) Average( range of cells) - calculates the average of the values in a specified range
ii) Stdev(range of cells) - calculates the standard deviation of the given data
iii) Mean( range of cells) - calculates the mean of the given data
iv) Max( range of cells) - gives the maximum value within the range specified
v) count( ) - counts how many numbers are there in the list of arguments

Functio
n
Wizard
:
The Function Wizard is a tool in Excel through which a user can enter formulas in the
correct format without any errors. It contains all the functions according to the type such as
Mathematical, Statistical, Date/time, Financial etc.

Steps to use the

function Wizard:
1. The cell in which the function is to be inserted is selected.
2. Select the function option from the Insert menu. The Function Wizard screen is
displayed. It lists all the functions available.
3. The function needed is selected. Click O.K
4. A dialogue box is displayed in which arguments are accepted.
5. Enter the arguments. The selected cell on the worksheet will automatically contain the
formula.
6. Click O.K. The result is shown in the selected cell.

6.6.7 Creating Charts:

Charts in Excel are used to represent data pictorially. We can use different types of charts
to represent data.
Types of charts which are
available in Excel:
1. Column charts
2. Bar charts
3. Line
4. pie
5. XY (scatter)
6. Area
7. Doughnut
8. Radar
9. Surface
10. Bubble
11. Stock
12. Cylinder, Cone & Pyramid

Creating a Chart:
Step i) Enter the
data in a table.
ii) Open the Insert Menu and select Chart
iii) In the Chart Wizard – Step 1 of 4, select the type of chart you want to make and
click Next iv) In the step 2 of 4, enter chart source data and click Next
vi) In the step 3 of 4, enter the chart options like label of the chart and click Next
vii) In the step 4 of 4, give the chart location where you want the chart to be located and
press
Finish.

Column Chart: Column charts are one of the most common types of graphs used to
display data.
A column chart represents data in the form of a series of vertical bars. Each bar represents a
value.
For example, to draw a column chart for the production of different crops in a region:
S.No. A B
crop Production(tons)

1 Paddy 53
2 Wheat 24
3 Maize 18
4 Groundnut 82

To construct a bar chart for the

above data: Step i) Enter the data
in a table.
ii) Open the Insert Menu and select Chart
iii) In the Chart Wizard – Step 1 of 4, select Column chart and click
Next iv) In the step 2 of 4, enter chart source data
v) In the step 3 of 4, enter the chart options like label of the chart
vi) In the step 4 of 4, give the chart location where you want the chart to be located and press
Finish.
Production of crops
production (tonns)

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
paddy wheat maize groundnut
Type of crop

Pie Chart:

A Pie chart is used to represent the distribution of a categorical data. In this chart, a circle is divided into sectors,
the frequencies or percentages of cases under various categories. Data on each variable is entered in the Excel work
suitable headings. Then we select the data of the first series and choose pie chart and proceed as per the options
separate chart pie chart should be drawn for each data set.

For example, to draw a pie chart for the production of different crops in a region:

S.No. A B
crop Production(tons)

1 Paddy 53
2 Wheat 24
3 Maize 18
4 Groundnut 82

pr oduction of cr ops
heat
6.7 POWERPOINT PRESENTATION NOTES
1. to open Microsoft PowerPoint
click start -> Programs -> Microsoft Office ->
Microsoft PowerPoint application
Getting to a Slide that You Can Edit
When you first start PowerPoint, you'll have four basic choices:
 Create a new, blank presentation
 Create a new presentation based on a formatted template
 Open a recent presentation

To start with, choose Blank Presentation:

2. Formatting a PowerPoint Slide
To apply the formatting, click the Design tab.

Roll the mouse over any of the samples, to get a live preview of the presentation with the
theme applied. As long as you don't click, nothing gets applied. You're just seeing a preview.
To see several rows of templates Down Arrow on the right side of the list, Click the arrow to
see more themes.
To see some alternate formats for the theme you chose, do the same in the Variants section on
the right. Roll the mouse pointer over a few of them, then click one you want.

If you click the Down Arrow of the Variants list, you can choose different colour schemes,
fonts, effects and background styles for the template you just chose.
For example, you can choose Colours, and get previews of different colour sets.
You can also preview and choose font sets from the same menu.
And you can also preview and choose a background style, if you want.
3. Adding Text and Inserting Slides
Go on “Click to add title” and start typing, the text will automatically go into the Title
placeholder.

To add a new slide, click on home and select new slide

The list of option will appear, so you chose the type of slide that you want.
For the slide content, you have a choice. You can create a bullet list or you can click one of
the six symbols in the middle to insert a table, image or other type of media.
Add more slides using the same procedure. It is wise that you choose different slides.

4. Creating a Slide Show

Before running the show, we can apply some simple effects. PowerPoint has two distinct type
of effects:
 Transitions: how one slide gives way to the next slide
 Animation: the motion of text and objects within a slide
Click inside the title, and then choose an animation. Notice the slide does a quick preview.
Now click inside the text and choose the same animation. The slide now shows numbers
indicating the order that the items will appear.
Now click the thumbnail for the third slide (second bullet slide) and apply the same
animations.

After the animations, you click on slide show, then from Beginning, the slide will play
showing what you have designed s you click your mouse.
Task
Learn how to insert table, charts and pictures on the slides.
Research on the best way to prepare the PowerPoint presentation so that it can be seen clearly
by your audience

6.8 REVIEW QUESTIONS

a) Explain the term mail merge as in word-processing
b) What do you understand by “protecting a document”?
c) List four facilities offered by a word-processor which makes it a worthwhile tool for
an organization.
d) Windows operating systems come with a calculator, which can be used for
mathematical calculations. As a manager, what would be the rationale for buying a
spreadsheet package like Microsoft Excel instead of using this calculator?
e) Windows operating systems come with packages like WordPad, which can be used
for typing and changing text colour. As a manager, what would be the rationale for
buying a word processor like Microsoft Word?
f) With reference to your degree program, list 2 tasks that can be better accomplished
using a presentation package like Microsoft PowerPoint
g) A spreadsheet is used for what-if analysis and modeling. What do you understand
by the terms in bold.
 h) Study a spreadsheet cutting below used by a teacher in recording marks for O’ Level
students.
Attempted means the number of subjects a student sat for
Passed refers to the number of subjects a student scored 50 and above

i) Write the function you were to type to get Peter’s

 Total
 number of subjects he attempted
 number of subject Passed

ii) Explain either autofill or copying

iii) Explain
 conditional formatting
 The IF function giving examples to illustrate your answer
iv) What are the advantages of a spreadsheet over pen, paper and a calculator?
i) Explain the terms
i) sort
ii) print preview
iii) countif function
iv) inbox
v) v) mail merge

j) What is this icon used for?

k) Explain how you can draw a pie chart, using a spreadsheet.

 l) Answer true or false
-one can draw a chart in Microsoft Word
m) Explain the terms a) folder
b) taskbar
c) template
UNIT SEVEN: GOOGLE CLASS

INTRODUCTION
Google Classroom is a blended learning platform for schools that aims to simplify creating,
distributing and grading assignments in an entirely electronic format. It is a great strategy to
introduce students to methods for accessing information and communicating/collaborating
online with the lecturer and other students. Thus, Google Classroom is designed to help
lecturers and students communicate and collaborate, manage assignments paperless, and stay
organized.

First Login
Go to classroom.google.com.
The first time you arrive at the Google Classroom website you will see a screen like the one
below.
Scroll down and choose student as your role.
Join a Class with a Class Code
1) Go to classroom.google.com. If it is your first login, be sure to select your role as
Student (see previous page).
2) Click the + on the top right of the page to Join Class.
3) Enter the Class Code given to you by your teacher, and click Join
Student’s View: the Stream
Student’s View: Announcements & Questions
Student’s View: Assignments

Student’s View: Turn in Assignments

Student’s View: Assignment Details

Student’s View: Unsubmit Assignments

Student’s View: All Assignments
Google Calendar Integration

Google Drive Folders

Navigation
Google Classroom Homepage
PART B: INFORMATION LITERACY STUDIES

UNIT ONE: OVERVIEW OF LIBRARY SERVICES AND FACILITIES – PHYSICAL

TOUR OF THE LIBRARY

1.1 INTRODUCTION
The ability to use information technologies effectively to find and manage information, and
the ability to critically evaluate and ethically apply that information to solve a problem are
some of the hallmarks of an information literate individual. Other characteristics of an
information literate individual include the spirit of inquiry and perseverance to find out what
is necessary to get the job done.

1.2 LEARNING OUTCOMES

 Participants identify all the MSU Branch Libraries
 Participants distinguish the various MSU Library Departments Sections and the
services they offer
 Participants gain knowledge on the various types of collections, facilities and services
offered by the library.
 Participants identify the value of the library to their research and learning in
the university.
 Participants are knowledgeable of the rules and regulations in the library.
 Participants are more knowledgeable of the proper conduct and mannerism while in
the library.

1.2 LIBRARY ORIENTATION

Participants to be taken on a library tour where various sections of the library and their
functions will be explained by the instructor. Key areas to be explained are as follows;

Baggage Room
No bags are allowed into the library. Students must leave their bags in the baggage room
where they will be given a tag with a number. The tag should be presented when one is
collecting their bags. A lost tag attracts a fine of the value stipulated in the Library Fine
Policy document. Students are advised not to leave valuable items in the baggage area.

Entry Access Point

Only registered students are allowed to use the Library. Students must present their student
ID at the library entrance. All student IDs are scanned at the entry access point to check
whether they are registered or not. Students are allowed to bring their own laptops and other
smart devices into the library for Wi-Fi access. Please note: do not leave your laptops and
any other valuable possessions unattended in the library.

Exit point procedures

Students are subject to search by the security guard stationed at the exit point. All books
borrowed from the circulation desk have to be checked at the exit point to verify whether they
are in the student’s account. Attempting to take out materials that have not been borrowed at
the circulation desk will result in the student being suspended from using the library.

3M System Entrance and Exit

The library has an elaborate security system of CCTV cameras as well as a 3M system at the
circulation entrance and exit points. The 3M system is there to safeguard library materials
taken out of the Library. Attempting to take out materials not borrowed will trigger the 3M
system alarm as well as blocking the student from passing at the exit point.

Circulation Desk
At the circulation desk Check-out point, a student needs to scan their IDs so that the
circulation system displays their account on the computer. The circulation librarian then
scans the barcode of each of the materials being borrowed, stamps the due date and de-
sensitises the materials before they are taken out. Books to be returned are submitted to the
Librarian at the circulation desk check-in point. The Librarian scans the book barcode to
check-in an item and cancels the due date.

Open shelf
With regards to the open shelf, there is self-service where clients locate books of their choice
from the shelves and borrow them from the circulation desk in the main reading hall. These
books are borrowed for a maximum period of seven (7) days and are returned to the library
on or before the due date. Failure to bring the book on or before the due date, the client’s
library account accrues a fine of one dollar per day until the book is returned. Clients obtain
the classification numbers that enable them to locate books on the shelves from the Online
Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) or e-catalogue. The OPAC is accessible through computers
in the Library main hall.

Reserve section
The reserve section also houses books which are deemed scarce by the Library personnel to
ensure their fair circulation amongst clients. Due to the nature of the books housed on
reserve, it is a closed access area for students. Books from the reserve are borrowed for a
maximum period of two (2) hours starting from 09:00 until 3:00pm. Clients can only start
borrowing books from the reserve section for overnight use from 3:00pm up to 10:30pm
when the library closes. Books borrowed for the two hour periods are supposed to be returned
on or before the lapse of that loan period and those borrowed for overnight, are supposed to
be brought back on or before 09:00 the following day. Failure to abide with these loan
periods is a penal offense which attracts a fine of one dollar per hour in both cases.

Core textbook collection section

The core textbook collection section is comprised of core textbooks that are suggested by
lecturers from all the academic departments at MSU. Due to the nature of the books housed
on reserve, it is a closed access area for students. Books borrowed for three days.

Borrowing Privileges

Type of Client No. of items Period

Undergraduates 3 7
Postgraduates 3 7
Non-teaching Staff 6 1 month
Teaching staff 8 1 month

The Information desk

The Information desk serves as an enquiries/reference desk for library clients. There is
always a duty librarian stationed at the desk when the library is open. The information desk is
there to assist students who need assistance on how to access library print and electronic
resources. It is also a first port of call for any type of question a student might have
concerning the library. Students who have finished their studies and those with library fines
also get cleared at the information desk.
1.3 REFERENCE SECTION
Reference sources are materials housed in the Client Services Librarian’s office in the main
reading hall or under closed access areas in other branch libraries. These contain factual
information for reference purposes e.g. Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias, Almanacs e.t.c. They
are borrowed for a maximum period of two hours and they are for in-house use only. In-
house use means that clients can only use the reference sources in the library and that they
cannot borrow the materials for use outside the library. Reference sources are supposed to be
returned on or before the lapse of the two hour loan period and failure to do so will attract a
fine of one dollar per hour. Classification numbers for these materials are also obtainable
from the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).

1.4 SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

Most of the materials circulated in the Special Collections are for in-house use with the
exception of novels written by African writers. Other materials which can only be borrowed
for in-house use include dissertations, newspapers, past examination papers, journals, CDs,
DVDs, cassettes, reports, magazines, professional journals and all statutory instruments.
Computer mouse for computers in the e-resource centre are borrowed from the Special
Collection. A student has to fill in his/her details before they are given a mouse.

1.5 ONLINE PUBLIC ACCESS CATALOGUE

The library catalogue can be regarded as the library index (the same as a book index). It tells
exactly where materials needed by a student can be found. Students can search the catalogue
using keywords, phrases, book titles, authors, and the call number. The OPAC is the key for
one to retrieve any library resource in all MSU libraries. Students have to start by searching
for a book or journal from the OPAC before they head to the shelves. The OPAC shows the
book title, its call number, locations well as its status in terms of availability. The OPAC can
be accessed anywhere where there is internet besides library computers.

(A live demonstration on how to search for books on OPAC to be projected in the main
library E-resource centre together with library rules and regulations, opening hours as
well as loan periods)
1.6 LIBRARY ORGANISATION
Books in all the MSU libraries are arranged according to the Library of Congress
Classification Scheme. A classification scheme brings books on the same subject together on
the shelves. It also facilitates easy retrieval of books from the shelves. The LC system
arranges items in alphanumeric order. This means that all the materials are filed
alphabetically and in numeric order, including decimals.

Each book is assigned a classification number (call number) which depicts its subject. This
class number is on the book’s spine and books are shelved sequentially according to that class
number. The main library shelf arrangement starts from the north wing then into the library
main hall and ends in the south wing. There are shelf guides pasted on each shelve to direct
students on the library classification sequence.

E-resource centres
MSU libraries have e-resource centres that provide access to the internet, library catalogue
and electronic books and journals. Students require an e-learning password to access the e-
books and e-journals that the library subscribes to. There are IT technicians and librarians
available to always assist students with their research at every e-resource centre. Computers
in the e-resource centres are strictly for academic searches only. Removal of network cables
or computer mouse from Library computers is strictly prohibited.

The Research Services also utilises the electronic resource centres when conducting training
on the usage of e-resources and Turnitin anti-plagiarism. The e-resource centres are also used
for self-directed learning where students conduct their own research without the instruction of
Librarians or Lecturers.

Reading Area
MSU libraries have Wi-Fi hotspots in all reading halls to facilitate online research as students
read print resources. As per University policy students are encouraged to have laptops to
promote online research. Reading desks in all libraries have power points for students to
connect their laptops and access the internet through Wi-Fi. Laptops brought into the library
must have a power-pack with a plug. Connecting live wires on library sockets is strictly
prohibited as this might start a fire.
1.7 LIBRARY RULES AND REGULATIONS
The main purpose of the rules is to safeguard the common interest of all library users and to
enable the library to function as efficiently as possible. Library rules and regulations are as
follows;
1. Users must present a valid MSU ID card to the security personnel upon entering the
Library.
2. Do not exchange student IDs to gain access into the Library or for borrowing
purposes.
3. Unauthorised borrowing will be treated as theft.
4. For security reasons, bags and cases may not be taken into the library. They should be
left in the baggage room just by the Library entrance.
5. Loss of baggage disks attracts a fine.
6. Smoking, eating and consumption of beverages in the Library is strictly prohibited.
7. Readers are expected to observe silence in the library. A fine will be charged to all
students who answer cellphones in the Library. Cellphones should be put on silent
mode upon entering the library.
8. Mutilation of library materials by marking, underlining, removing pages or portions
of pages is strictly prohibited.
9. The Library does not issue out torn or defaced books; should readers lose, damage or
deface library resources, they will be requested to replace.
10. All items taken in and out of the Library are subject to security check at the Library
exit point.
11. Library clearance will not be done for staff and students with overdue materials and
unpaid fees.
12. The Library will suppress results for all students with outstanding library fines and or
lost books.
13. Loss of Library materials should be reported immediately
14. Library materials are not to be re-shelved by users.
15. Journals, dissertations and past exam papers are reference sources for in house use
only.
16. Settle your overdue fines before you leave for vacation to avoid suppression of
results. All forms of payments are to be done at the cash office (Bursar) or bank;
receipts are to be brought to the library for verification.
1.8 MSU BRANCH LIBRARIES
The emphasis of libraries is to ensure that the information needs of the clients are met
through provision of valid, relevant and user-driven information resources. The Midlands
State University (MSU) Library consists of a network of individual libraries and electronic
resource centres. Through this network, the MSU Library is able to provide resources that
fully support the teaching, learning and research needs of the MSU community taking a
discipline based approach. The MSU Library has various branch libraries which are located
on all MSU campuses. The following are the branch libraries namely;
1. Disability Resource Centre (DRC) Library
The DRC Library offers its services to the disabled students from all the departments of
the Institution. Most of the resources circulated in the DRC Library are in Braille format
to cater for the visually impaired students.
2. Medical School Library
The Medical School Library which is situated on the main campus is a specialised library
which caters for the medical school students. It offers journals, serials and textbooks
which have a strong bias towards the medical fraternity.
3. Batanai Library
Batanai Library is situated at the Batanai campus in Senga Township. The collection of
the library has a strong bias towards the programmes offered at that campus. The
programmes are Tourism and Hospitality Management, Food Science and Banking and
Finance.
4. Graduate School of Business and Leadership Library
The Library offers services to Master of Business and Administration, Executive Master
of Business and Administration and other Master of Commerce students at the Graduate
School of Business and Leadership and Law campus.

5. Law Library
The Law Library is also a specialised library which caters for law students only. The
Library is situated at the Graduate School of Business and Leadership and Law campus.
6. Zvishavane Campus Library
The Library is situated in Zvishavane and it caters for students in the mining
programmes, Politics and Public Management and Peace studies.
7. Harare Campus Library
8. School of Social Work Library
1.9 MSU LIBRARY DEPARTMENTS
The MSU Library has departments that offer a variety of services to its clients. The various
departments are as follows;

Mobile Library Services

The mobile library services are mainly for the Harare and Bulawayo students. The library
offers this service once a fortnight and only materials requested by the Harare students are
ferried to Harare for circulation. There are no library mobile services during the vacation.

Research Support and Training Section

The research and training services section is responsible for helping clients with their
research mainly through electronic resources. These electronic resources include e-books, e-
journals, institutional repository and the e-catalogue. The section receives requests for
research assistance through email (research@library.msu.ac.zw), bookings mostly by group
of students and walk-in clients. The section is also responsible for conducting training on e-
resources usage as well as Turnitin anti-plagiarism software. Training on the usage of e-
resources and Turnitin anti-plagiarism software is done to all clients of the MSU Library.

Marketing Section

The emphasis of the Marketing Services Department is on total quality management in every
facet of the library. This section is juxtaposed with all sections in the library paying particular
attention to all front office services to ensure a good image of the library and corporate image
of the institution as a whole. The section also pays particular attention to the Library systems
to ensure quality in library service provision. The Department embarked on a variety of
marketing strategies to market the Library services and resources. The WhatsApp platform is
used to market Library services directly to individual students. The Department also uses
notices (physical, staff portal and e-learning), brochures, e-resources user guides, flyers,
newsletters to reach the MSU community. Social networking sites such as Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter are also used to market the Library services. There is the information or
help desk in the main library which is used to help clients be aware of the various resources
that are offered in the library.

Exhibitions such as the MSU Open day, Research and Intellectual Expo and Agricultural
shows are useful in marketing the MSU Library to both its internal and external customers.
The Department identifies charismatic students whom it engages as Library Ambassadors.
The responsibility of these Library Ambassadors is to ensure the quick and easy flow of
communication of information related to library services and activities between the Library
and the students. A user survey available on the MSU website is meant to get feedback from
the users on Library services in order for the Library to constantly review policies for the
betterment of service provision. The Marketing Department also makes use of the orientation
and Information Literacy Skills programmes to rigorously market Library services.

ICT Section

The Library WhatsApp line (0786755935) is dedicated for clients’ enquiries related to library
services. The WhatsApp platform is operational during the Library opening hours. The
library also has social networking accounts such as Facebook and Twitter where it
communicates with the clients on issues related to the Library. The Library offers some
photocopying facilities and clients are charged a fee for this service. Currently the fee
charged for the photocopying facility is not regulated by the MSU Library since the
photocopier is privately owned.
UNIT TWO: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION LITERACY AND THE BASIC
LIBRARY RESEARCH PROCESS
“Over the course of your lifetime, the more you learn and thereby come to know, but
especially the sooner you master and adopt proficient learning skills, habits and
attitudes – finding out how, from where, from whom and when to search for and
retrieve the information that you need to know, but have not yet learned – the more
information literate you thereby become. Your competency in applying and utilizing
those skills, habits and attitudes will enable you to make sounder and timelier
decisions to cope with your personal and family health and welfare, educational, job-
related, citizenship and other challenges.” - Forest Woody Horton, Jr

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Several scholars have labelled the 21 st Century as the “knowledge society”; people are
interested in finding out what has been discovered in research and they want to use that same
information to solve our daily problems to develop a better world. Furthermore, people also
want to share or communicate research results for furtherance of knowledge (ACRL, 2010).
The knowledge society is characterised by participatory knowledge acquisition, retention,
sharing and solving real life issues. Central to knowledge acquisition is the ability to
understand the need for new knowledge the nature of knowledge acquired, where to find and
how to retrieve such knowledge and how profit from the knowledge without infringing on the
knowledge creator’s rights. This ability is what is embodied in INFORMATION
LITERACY.

2.2 KEY DEFINITIONS

Knowledge
Hunt (2003) Defines knowledge as beliefs that are true and are justified.
Cortes Ramirez et al. (2006) defines it as justified true belief
(Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017) defines it as Facts, information, and skills acquired
through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

Information
Alexander (2003) says “information has a meaning ... (it) comes from selecting data,
summarizing it and presenting it in such a way that it is useful to the recipient.”
 INTRONA (1992) defines information as “data that is organized and meaningful to
the person receiving it. Data is therefore raw material that is transformed into
information by data processing. Information can be defined in terms of its surprise
value. It tells the recipient something he did not know.”
Introna (1992) also says “... information comes into being as the receiver
appropriates the data and gives it meaning”

Checkland and Howell (1998) state that “Information is that which results when some
human mental activity (observation, analysis) is successfully applied to data to reveal its
meaning or significance.” The term ‘information’ has also been described as the structured,
organised and processed data, presented within context, which makes it relevant and useful to
the person who wants it.

Information is the data which is transformed and classified into an intelligible form, which
can be used in the process of decision making. In short, when data turn out to be meaningful
after conversion, it is known as information. It is something that informs, in essence, it gives
an answer to a particular question.
The main characteristics of information are accuracy, relevance, completeness and
availability. It can be communicated in the form of content of a message or through
observation and can be obtained from various sources such as newspaper, television, internet,
people, books, and so on.

2.3 WHAT IS INFORMATION LITERACY

(ACRL, 2010) defines information literacy is a set of abilities requiring individuals to
“recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use
effectively the needed information.”

(UNESCO 2005) in (Secker, J, & Coonan, E 2013) - “Information Literacy empowers

people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use, and create information to achieve their
personal, social, occupational and educational goals”

(Bothma et al 2008) in (Baker 2013) defines information literacy as the “ability to

know when information is needed, and to be able to find, evaluate and use the
information that was found ethically”.
 (CILIP) in (Blanchett, H, Webb, J, & Powis, C 2012) defines it as ‘knowing when
and why you need information, where to find it, and how to evaluate, use and
communicate it in an ethical manner’
Dictionary of Media and Communication defines information literacy as “A
person's competence measured by their ability to identify, access, evaluate, and
organize information in order to complete a task or solve a problem”

In sum, information literacy, also referred to as information competency, is the ability to

access, evaluate, organise, and use information from a variety of sources. It is a skill that cuts
across computer literacy, library literacy, media literacy, network literacy, and digital
literacy. This means that an information literate person is one who can identify, access,
locate, use and communicate information via computer systems, traditional libraries, tools or
technological machines, Internet environment, and graphic media. This can be illustrated
further to mean the ability of a person, in this case the student, to use computer systems,
libraries, electronic gadgets, the Internet, printed and published resources effectively in order
to determine, find, assess, arrange, use and communicate information, both in formal and
informal settings. It is a bundle of skills that transforms students to life-long learners.

2.4 WHY INFORMATION LITERACY?

Information literacy is a skill set that is helpful for a lifetime. It equips students with skills
that will enable them to survive academically, at the workplace and during everyday life.
Below is a diagram summarizing the main components of information literacy.
 Components of Information Literacy

2.5 The 21ST CENTURY SURVIVAL LITERACIES

(Stambler 2013) states, “because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of
literate environments the 21st Century demands that a person possess a wide range of abilities
and competencies”. (Woody, 2007) proposes that the 21st Century requires people to have six
categories of literacies to enable them to meet their educational, societal and occupational
needs. These are:

The basic or Core functional literacy fluencies (competencies) of reading, writing, oralcy and
numeracy.
 Computer and technology literacy
 Media literacy
 Distance Learning and E-Learning
 Information Literacy
 Cultural Literacy
The boundaries between these categories overlap, but they should be seen as a closely-knit
family. In this view, literacy is comprehensive in the sense that it includes many learnable
skills, and positive attitudes and behaviours that affect every aspect of one’s life.

2.6 INFORMATION LITERACY COMPENTENCY STANDARDS – SKILLS

POSSESSED BY INFORMATION LITERATE INDIVIDUALS
Certain analytical and technical skills are possessed by information literate individuals and
these permit them to have the ability to identify, select, evaluate, and analyse texts and other
information, and to use information in accordance with societal legal, and organizational
norms (Patrick 2013). An information literate individual is able to:
 Determine the extent of information needed.
 Access the needed information effectively and efficiently.
 Evaluate information and its sources critically and Incorporate selected information
into one’s knowledge base.
 Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
 Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information,
and access and use information ethically and legally.

Standard One – The information literate student determines the nature and extent of
the information needed.
 The information literate student defines and articulates the need for information.
 The information literate student identifies a variety of types and formats of potential
sources for information.
 The information literate student considers the costs and benefits of acquiring the
needed information.
 The information literate student re-evaluates the nature and extent of the information
need.
Standard Two – The information literate student accesses needed information
effectively and efficiently.
Performance Indicators:
 The information literate student selects the most appropriate investigative methods or
information retrieval systems for accessing the needed information.
 The information literate student constructs and implements effectively design search
strategies.
  The information literate student retrieves information online or in person using a
variety of methods.
 The information literate student refines the search strategy if necessary.
 The information literate student extracts, records, and manages the information and its
sources.

Standard Three – The information literate student evaluates information and its
sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base
and value system.

Performance Indicators:
 The information literate student summarizes the main ideas to be extracted from the
information gathered.
 The information literate student articulates and applies initial criteria for evaluating
both the information and its sources.

 The information literate student synthesizes main ideas to construct new concepts.

 The information literate student compares new knowledge with prior knowledge to
determine the value added, contradictions, or other unique characteristics of the
information.

 The information literate student determines whether the new knowledge has an impact
on the individual’s value system and takes steps to reconcile differences.

 The information literate student validates understanding and interpretation of the

information through discourse with other individuals, subject-area experts, and/or
practitioners.

 The information literate student determines whether the initial query should be
revised.

Standard Four – The information literate student, individually or as a member of a

group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
Performance Indicators:
 The information literate student applies new and prior information to the planning and
creation of a particular product or performance.
  The information literate student revises the development process for the product or
performance.

 The information literate student communicates the product or performance effectively

to others.

Standard Five – The information literate student understands many of the economic,
legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses
information ethically and legally.
Performance Indicators:
 The information literate student understands many of the ethical, legal and socio-
economic issues surrounding information and information technology.
 The information literate student follows laws, regulations, institutional policies, and
etiquette related to the access and use of information resources.

 The information literate student acknowledges the use of information

The above skills are summarized in the diagram below:

2.7 IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY
We now have a knowledge society where everyone is interested in getting information that
will be transformed to knowledge. The process of this transformation requires a set of skills:
the ability to determine, find, evaluate, organise, use and, in addition, share information from
a variety of sources.
Below are some points about information literacy that reinforce its importance:
 Information Literacy education teaches students how to extract credible information
from an increasing variety of both print and digital information sources.
 Information Literacy imparts in students the abilities to identify and source for the
most up-to-date and authoritative information that would assist them in doing their
work more effectively.
 It imparts in students the ability to expand their knowledge, ask informed questions,
and sharpen their critical thinking skills for further self- directed learning.
 Empowers students to become life-long learners.
 Information Literacy is not just for students at their studentship levels but also
position men and women in their work places to be possessors of needs determination
skills, needs assessment skills, research-based problem solvers, information analysers,
knowledge creators, etc.
 Information Literacy broadens the thinking horizon of students‟ vis-à-vis their quest
to know how to know and learn how to learn.
 It exposes to students the various categories and sources of information for knowledge
creation.
 Information Literacy inculcates in students the ability to evaluate and determine the
right information for every knowledge problem.
 Information Literacy inculcates in students the knowledge of how to use information,
elegantly and coherently, to create new knowledge.
 Information Literacy inculcates in students the ability to use information resourcefully
and legally.
 Information Literacy arouses the interest of students to become self-motivated
learners and thinkers who are creative, analytical and effective.
 Information Literacy inculcates and improves research skills in students.

2.8 THE BASIC LIBRARY RESEARCH PROCESS

Understand your assignment
  All good papers must start with well a defined topic. Determine if the topic is
assigned to you or you have the liberty to select one?
 Must you research only scholarly or professional journals or can any type of source be
used?
 How long must your project be?
 Start early delay limits the materials available to support your topic.
Background Information
 Look up your topic in the library catalogue (OPAC), almanacs and subject
encyclopaedias.
 List the terms to use in your search. Include synonyms and related terms.

 Read articles in the sources you find to set the context of your research. Pay close
attention to the vocabulary the authors use.

 Note any relevant items in the bibliographies at the end of these overview sources.
They can provide leads to other useful books or articles.

 Consider the types of sources appropriate to your topic. Will books suffice? Do you
need primary sources? Should articles be exclusively from scholarly journals? Do you
need statistics?
Resources Search
Research Tips
 Work from the general to the specific. Find background information first, and then
use more specific and recent sources.
 Record what you find and where you found it. Write out a complete citation for
each source you find; you may need it again later.

Finding Books
Begin with the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
 Use keyword searching for a narrow or complex search topic. Use subject searching
for a broad subject.
 Write down all the information you will need to find it in the stacks (author, title, call
number). Notice its circulation status (Is it listed as available?)
 When you pull the book from the shelf, scan the bibliography or footnotes for
additional sources.
  Also remember to scan the shelves next to this title, since other books related to your
topic may be located in the same call number area.

Finding Journal and Magazine Articles

 Magazine and journal articles provide more recent information than books. If your
topic is very current you may not find it discussed in books and may need to go
directly to articles.
 Use the library web page to search for articles in electronic journals and electronic
book collections.

 You may be able to find the full text of most articles online. A librarian at the
Information Desk will be able to help you.

Finding Information in Other Sources

Reference Sources
 Statistics strengthen a paper by quantifying the size and scope of a problem. The
Library Special Collections Section is a good source of such data.
 Definitions provide a common base of reference. Look in the general and specialized
dictionaries located in reference.
 You may consult subject encyclopaedias to have an overview of a subject

Internet sources
There is a wealth of valuable information available on the Internet. Because the information
is virtually unfiltered, you must take special care to critically evaluate what you find.
Evaluate what you have found
Critically review the information gathered for reliability, credibility, perspective and purpose.
Listed below are a few of the questions good researchers should ask.
 Who is the author?
 What is the purpose of the article or book?
 What makes the author qualified (or not) to write this?
 For what audience is the source intended?
 What particular bias does the author have or what assumptions does the author make?
  What are the author's conclusions and are they justified from the research or
experience presented?
 On what resources was the author's research based?
Revise

You many need to repeat these steps several times before you have a polished product.

1. Check for plagiarism - the unauthorized use of the language and thoughts of another
author and the representation of them as one's own.
2. Consult a style manual, for correct citation.
3. Finally, proofread carefully.

Final Product
Congratulations, you have completed all the necessary steps to create a quality product.
Reread your paper checking for format and grammar errors. Review the initial assignment to
see that you have fulfilled all the requirements. You are ready to tackle your next project.
https://www.beloit.edu/library/research_tips/researchprocessguide/

The above processes can be summarized with the diagram below:

Define your
topic

Cite your Gather

Sources background
Information

Evaluate Your Locate Your

Sources Sources
 The research process

UNIT THREE: ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION AND ACCESS TO

INFORMATION IN LIBRARIES

3.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students should be able to:
 Define classification
 Identify purposes of organizing information
 Familiarise with the Library of Congress Classification scheme
 Understand the meaning of a call number

3.2 INFORMATION ORGANIZATION

Libraries organize information. Otherwise nothing that is in a library could ever be found.
Organisation of information in Libraries is done through the application of two core concepts
in the Library science field namely classification and cataloguing. In this chapter,
classification of library material will be mainly focused on. The term classification has been
defined by various scholars differently but maintaining the same meaning altogether.
Classification provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for ideas and a structure of
the relationship among the ideas.
The following are some of the definitions by various authors as indicated by the Sher-e-
Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology;
 Margaret Mann says. Classification is the act of arranging things according to their
likeness and unlikeness. She further says, It is a sorting or grouping of things.
 According to Richardson, Classification is putting together like things.
 Berwick Sayers defines library Classification as The arrangement of books on shelves
or description of them, in a manner which is the most useful to those who read.
  New Encyclopedia Britannica defines library classification as a system of
arrangement adopted by a library to enable patrons to find its material quickly and
easily.

3.3 PURPOSES OF ORGANIZING INFORMATION IN LIBRARIES

The following are the major reasons for creating a systematic library system:
a) Helpful sequence – Collocation of Items
The core purpose of classification is to arrange documents in a way convenient to the
users as well as to the library staff. The arrangement of documents in classes gives a
mutual relation between them. This brings together closely related subjects.

b) Correct placement of documents.

When documents are taken out from the shelves by the users or library staff, there should
be system that enables the placement of the documents on their proper shelving places

c) Mechanized arrangement

This is done by allocating notation, which expresses order. Thus, it becomes possible to
easily insert or reinsert the various documents in their correct places. This is how a
mechanized arrangement is achieved.

d) Addition of new documents

A library acquires new documents from time to time and this requires a system that
enables Library personnel to find the most appropriate place for each of these among the
existing collection of the library. In case of a newly emerging subject, which may not
have been provided for in the existing scheme, there should be inbuilt qualities which
may allow the fixing of a position of the newly emerging subject amidst another subject
having literary warrant.

e) Withdrawal of documents from stock

In case, the need arises to withdraw a document from the stock for some reason, the
library classification should facilitate such a withdrawal.
3.4 INFORMATION ORGANIZATION IN LIBRARIES
Taylor (2006) notes that collections of any appreciable size are arranged according to some
system, and the arrangement is generally referred to as classification. Taylor further surmises
that classification provides logical, or at least a methodical, approach to the arrangement of
documents. Libraries use different types of classification schemes and this is dependent on
various reasons which include the type of Library, type of clientele, availability of resources
and the size of the collection. In this chapter, focus is going to dwell on two schemes only
namely Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC) and the Dewey Decimal
Classification Scheme respectively.

Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LCC)

The system divides all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, each identified by a single
letter of the alphabet. Most of these alphabetical classes are further divided into more specific
subclasses, identified by two-letter, or occasionally three-letter, combinations.

Below is an outline of the Library of Congress Classification scheme;

CLASS SUBJECT(S)

A General works

B – BJ Philosophy, Psychology

BR – BX Christianity, Bible

C Auxiliary sciences of history

D – DR History (General) and History of Europe

DS – DX History of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

E–F History: America

G Geography. Maps. Anthropology. Recreation

H Social sciences

J Political science

K Law (General)

KB Religious law

KD Law of United Kingdom and Ireland

KDZ,KG – KH Law of the Americas, Latin America, and the West Indies

KE Law of Canada

KF Law of United States

KJ – KKZ Law of Europe

KJV – KJW Law of France

KK – KKC Law of Germany

KL – KWX Law of Asia and Eurasia, Africa, Pacific area and Antarctica

KZ Law of Nations

L Education

M Music and Books on Music

N Fine Arts
P – PA Philology and linguistics (General). Greek language and literature. Latin language and
literature

Modern European languages

PB – PH

Oriental philology and literature, Indo-Iranian philology and literature

PJ – PK

Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania. Hyperborean, Indian and artificial

PL – PM languages

Literature (General)
PN

French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese literature

PQ

English and American literatures. Juvenile Belles letters

PR, PS, PZ

German, Dutch, and Scandinavian literatures

PT

Science
Q

Medicine
R

Agriculture
S

Technology
T

Military science. Naval science

U–V

Bibliography. Library science. Information resources

Z

Source: Taylor, A.G. (2006:428-429) Introduction to cataloging and classification. 10th ed.
(Referencing needs corrections)
3.5 THE MEANING OF CALL NUMBERS AND THEIR ARRANGEMENT ON THE
SHELVES

The LC number appears in three main parts, and may contain additional parts that together
provide a unique identifier for the item. One or more parts may be omitted and this represents
the judgment of the cataloguer that the remaining parts suffice to provide a unique identifier.
The three main parts are organized in this way:

a. The first letter or letters e.g. (HF)

A single letter represents a broad or general subject for example: H = Social

Sciences and multiple letters mean a narrower subject within it for example:
HF = Commerce, a subdivision of the main subject represented by H in the LC
scheme.
This part of the call number is arranged alphabetically on the shelves, so G
would come before H which would come before HF

b. A number (HF 5549 ARM)

This middle part further defines the subject. For example in the subject area of
commerce, it designates a type of material. 5549 = Personnel Management/
General works. To determine the arrangement of the call number on the
shelves, read these numbers the way you would count: 50 comes before 500
which comes before 5000.

c. The last letters e.g. (HF 5549 ARM)

The last three letters represent either the first three letters of the Author’s
surname or the first three letters of the title of the document. For example ARM
represents the author’s surname which is ARMSTRONG. In the case that there
is no author or the authors are more than three then the first three letters of the
title would be used. If the title reads ‘Personnel management’ then the call
number would be HF5549 PER

d. One or more Cutter numbers (HF 5549 .A76)

Named after a Cataloguer, this number represents the beginning letter of a
person's (author or editor) last name with a number that interpolates it between
other names beginning with the same letter
For Example:
Armstrong, M. = .A76
Atkins, A.T. = .A85

The above number may be preceded by a cutter number that further divides the
subject, or gives some information about the form of the item, such as whether
it is an outline, form book, or case book. To determine the arrangement on the
shelves, read Cutter numbers the way you would read a decimal: .3 comes
before .301 which comes before .31.
UNIT FOUR: INFORMATION ACCESS TOOLS

4.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students will be able to:
 Define information access tools.
 Use various information access tools for both printed and electronic resources in
finding information

4.2 INFORMATION ACCESS TOOLS

Information access tools are utilities that are used to locate information. They are information
finding aids that are meant to enable users to locate pieces of information quickly and easily
in a source that contains large amounts of information such as a book, library, the internet or
a database. Different access tools are used to find different kinds of information. Retrieval
tools are crucial for retrieving information for educational outcomes. Information retrieval
tools according to Edom (2012) are the simple mechanisms or apparatuses that aid the library
user to locate, retrieve and use the needed documents from the library or information from a
book or document.

The information access model

Most accounts of the information access process assume an interaction cycle consisting of
query specification, receipt and examination of retrieved results, and then either stopping or
reformulating the query and repeating the process until a perfect result set is found. In more
detail, the standard process can be described according to the following sequence of steps:
1. Start with an information need.
2. Select a system and collections to search on.
3. Formulate a query.
4. Send the query to the system.
5. Receive the results in the form of information items.
6. Scan, evaluate, and interpret the results.
7. Either stop, or,
8. Reformulate the query and go to step 4.
 The Information Access model

Types of Information Access Tools

Some of the most commonly used information access tools are: Indexes, Bibliographies,
Abstracts, and Library Catalogues.
a) Indexes
An index is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers ('locators')
to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document. The
pointers or locators are usually page numbers, paragraph numbers, book sections, or
chapters. In a typical back-of-the-book (BoB) index, the headings might include
author names and the pages they are cited, subjects, place names events and concepts
selected by the book writer as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the
book. An index can simply be an alphabetical list of the subjects discussed in a book
with corresponding page number; also a separate publication that points to
information found in other sources.

According to Cook (1981) stand alone indexes are tools designed to make readily
available information that appears in other separate publications.

The purpose of an index is to save the time of the reader by grouping certain related
concepts or subjects and giving their locations in a document. An index as an aid to
finding information may contain cross references all over the book linking related
topics or subjects e.g. see or see also.
Types of Indexes

There are two main types of indexes and these include:

 Name or Author index
 Subject index

TYPE OF DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES

INDEX
Author Index Name or Author index as the name implies Abbeduto, L. 233, 235, 239
provides an alphabetic list of authors in a
document and the page numbers where they Aboud, F. 425
are cited. Abrams, D. 422
Acredolo, L.P. 49, 50
Adams, M.J. 189
Adamson, L.B. 68
Ahmad, Y. 344, 34
Ainsworth, M.D.S. 82, 86, 87,
88, 89,

Subject Index A subject index lists subjects and their related Adolescence, 383–399
concepts in a book. It makes extensive use of
cross referencing to aid the reader to quickly alcohol & drugs, 408, 357
find related terms and concepts in a document. and employment, 405, 416

and gender identity, 391, 394,

406
and gender, 394
see also Adolescence, theories
and psychoanalysis, 383
and puberty, 391
and sex, 391, 392, 395, 405

b) Bibliographies
A bibliography “directs us to sources which contain the required information”,
Behrens (2000). In other words, bibliographies tell us where to find the information
in recorded form.
 A bibliography is a list of literary works by a particular author, or a list of works on a
particular subject or a list of works published in a certain geographical area.

Chowdhury (et al., 2008) notes that bibliographies are usually categorised by their
content, such as:

Author bibliography: A bibliography of works by and about a specific author, e.g. World
Shakespeare bibliography Online (www.worldshakesbib.org)

Subject bibliography: A bibliography of documents in a given subject, e.g. Digital Library

Evaluation and Assessment Bibliography (www.uni.edu/digitalbibeval.html)

Trade bibliography: A bibliography that provides the record of the publication output of
various publishers, e.g. Books in print (www.booksinprint.com/bip)

National bibliography: A bibliography that records a nation’s publishing output, and thus is
the single most authentic and comprehensive source of information on the publication output
in and about a country e.g. Zimbabwe National Bibliography published by the National
Archives of Zimbabwe.
c) Abstracts

An abstract is a brief summary or synopsis of the most important parts of a document.

It is a highly condensed version of the original document itself. Most abstracts are
between 50 and 250 words in length. The prime function of an abstract is to
summarise the nature of your research project, its context, how it was carried out and
what its major findings were. Abstracts provide more information about the contents
of the source and by reading the abstract it is possible to draw conclusion whether the
original source is worth consulting for more detailed information.

Library Catalogues
Libraries are concerned with storing and retrieving the information, consequently as the
quantities of information grow there is need to make use of information retrieval tools to
facilitate easy access of the information stored. A library Catalogue is one of the retrieval
systems used to retrieve information. The Library Catalogue is a very crucial information
source in the library as it guides the reader / client where to locate the books and helps clients
to know the library’s comprehensive holdings.
The Library catalogue indicates where the books are on the library shelves. Apart from
indicating the location of every book in the library, it will also indicate whether or not the
library has a particular book on a particular discipline. A Library catalogue is an essential
tool, especially when a library has a large collection. It serves as a key to the resources of a
library. Without library catalogue, it would be difficult to know what is available and where it
can be located. It is also known as a retrieval tool. The information retrieval system act as a
bridge between the organizers of information or generators of information and their clients.

The Midlands State University Library has an online catalogue also called the Online Public
Access Catalogue (OPAC) that can be used to locate many sources of information such as
books, journals and electronic resources. The OPAC is available on the internet.
Kasimani and Rajendran (2019) posits that, An OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) is an
online Bibliography of a library collection that is available to the public … because it allows
the users to search about the collection and resources of library. Online public access
catalogue (OPAC) provides facilities for library users to carryout online catalogue searches,
and then check the availability of the item required.

Kumar and Singh (2017) says that,

Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) are the interfaces that help users communicate
with the collections of a library. Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) allow users to
search the library’s catalogue, and also provide other facilities, such as checking borrower
records, reserving reading materials.

Behrens (2000) defines a library catalogue as “a systematic list of the information

sources which are held in a library collection. The catalogue describes each source in
sufficient detail to identify it uniquely and indicates where the sources can be found in
the collection”.
Purposes of Library Catalogues
1. They enable a person to find a book of which either author, title, subject is known
2. It also directs the user where the materials are located.
3. Show what the library has for a given author, on a given subject
4. To assist with the choice of the book by edition or by its character (literary or topical)
5. To show the availability status of an item i.e. whether it is readily available or loaned
out.
The Midlands State University Library has an online catalogue also called the Online
Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) that can be used to locate many sources of
information such as books, journals and electronic resources. The OPAC is available
on the internet.
4.3 PRACTICAL EXERCISE
How to Search the Midlands State University OPAC
Follow the steps below to search the OPAC:
1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw
2. Click on the “Libraries” link
3. On the library home page click on Electronic Resources and on the drop down menu
select “CATALOGUE”
4. On the Online Web OPAC page there is a search box. If you click on the drop down
arrow it gives a list of options of how you may do your search e.g. by
 Title
 Author
 Subject
 ISBN
 Series
 Call Number
5. Type in your search terms using any of the above options and click on the “GO”
button. You will be re-directed to a screen showing the number of search results and a
brief description of each record. On a result of your choice, click on the title of a
record; this will take you to a detailed page showing:
 Item type e.g. Book, Periodical, Reserve Item
 Current Location
 Call Number
 Copy Number
 Status i.e. Availability
 Due Date
 Barcode Number

a) Check the availability of the book and its location and note down its Call Number
b) Approach the appropriate shelf to retrieve the book

Information Provided By the OPAC

The OPAC provides the following information for the user:

1. Author of the document
2. Title
3. Publisher
4. Date of publication
5. Physical location of document (Main Library, Batanai Library, Zvishavane Library
etc)
6. Call number of the document
7. Availability of document e.g. whether it is loaned out or readily available
8. Item type e.g. whether it’s a book, journal, dissertation or electronic resource
UNIT FIVE: INFORMATION AND ITS SOURCES

5.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

 To define information need
 To determine the Information Need
 To define the Information Source
 To identify the various Sources of Information
 To distinguish the types of information

5.2 INTRODUCTION
Information can come from virtually anywhere, i.e. from media, blogs, personal experiences,
books, journal and magazine articles, expert opinions, encyclopaedias, and web pages, and
the type of information an individual needs is depended mainly on the question one is trying
to answer. In this Unit, we discuss the information need, categories and formats of
information, and conclude with types of information sources.

5.3 THE INFORMATION NEED

Scott (2012) states that information need is the question that needs an answer. In the context
of school, it is that research question that an individual attempts to answer in an assignment
or research project. In one’s personal life, it could be finding the best cell phone deal for the
individual’s intended use. In a professional life, it could be finding out how much money an
average consumer spends on ordinary bread and whether the market is big enough for another
supplier of bread.

Some researchers may need quick facts or little background on a particular subject. This
information need is not that big and the researcher may be able to find the answer in one
source. If a researcher needs information that requires additional facts and background
information, plus the latest research articles related to the subject under study, it becomes a
complex question that requires information from different sources. Scott (2012) notes that
recognising that a question is big, that it cannot be answered by a single source, that it has
multiple facets, and that it requires background information to understand all aspects of it is a
very good beginning.

Recognise your Information need

Varshney (2011) notes that one knows that he or she needs information when given a
project/assignment by a lecturer, have a personal need that requires certain information
before a decision can be made and generally, whenever one is uncertain that he or she can
find information that will help to take the correct decision. It is prudent to note that one needs
information not just for study purposes but for most decisions in everyday life. One may need
to make a good decision in order to buy the right merchandise at the right time for the right
reasons.

Think about your need

A researcher needs to think about the need, that is, to think about the problem, question or
topic one needs information on? Varshney (2011) states that when you have established that
you need information and have a vague idea about the topic, the next step is that you have to
formalise your central search question before starting to look for information. In cases where
one is given a specific topic by the lecturer, there won’t be any need to identify one by
yourself. When it comes to decisions in your personal life, you will have to identify your
need and formulate your own search question to be able to start searching for information

Read about your topic

When searching for information, one needs keywords to amply locate the authentic
information required to solve the problem. In order to achieve this, one should read about the
topic so as to have a foretaste of what is required of him or her. Varshney (2011) believes that
the best place to start reading is in the Reference Section of the Library. The reference section
contains many different types of dictionaries, encyclopaedias, thesauruses, etc., all of which
will supply you with more than enough information to start identifying keywords and begin
your search.
Defining Keywords
Once you have read generally about your topic, you should have a better idea of the
keywords under which you will probably find information about your topic. So, before you
can start your search, you should define your keywords accurately

Cost of Information
Varshney (2011) highlights that when choosing the information resources to use for
searching, one should bear in mind that some resources are free and others are at a cost. In the
case of MSU students, no library resources are accessed at a cost by registered students.
When one registers for that particular Semester, automatically he or she becomes a bonafide
library user who is allowed to borrow the stipulated number of library resources at any given
time. When one wants to use external sources other than those covered by the interlibrary
loan facility, then some costs may be incurred.

5.4 INFORMATION SOURCES

Varshney (2011) defines information source as a source of information for somebody, i.e.
anything that might inform a person about something or provide knowledge to somebody.
Information sources may be observations, speeches, documents, pictures, organizations etc.
Varshney further states that the various types of information sources can be divided into two
broad categories, which are;

 Documentary Sources

 Non-Documentary Sources
Source: https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/40587/9/11_chapter2.pdf

Documentary sources are published or recorded documents of knowledge as shown in the

diagram below;
 Source: https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/40587/9/11_chapter2.pdf

Below is an explanation in tabular form of the documentary sources of information;

SOURCE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES SOURCES

OF
INFORM
ATION
Primary  These are original  People's accounts of  Autobiographi
materials on which events at which they es
other research is were present.  Corresponden
based.  Original artwork. ce
 They are usually the  First hand
first formal accounts
appearance of research  Handwritten manuscripts.  Diaries
results in the print or  Artifacts such as  Interviews
 electronic literature. arrowheads, pottery,  Personal
 They present furniture, and buildings, narratives
information in its  Research article on the  Paintings
original form, neither discovery of a new virus  Photographs
interpreted nor   Re
condensed nor search
evaluated by other journals
writers.
 Not translated by
anyone else.
 Has not been
published elsewhere.

Secondar  Secondary sources are  An article that critiques a  Biographies

y edited primary novel/ Newspaper  Bibliographie
sources. editorial. s
 Repackaged  books &
 They represent  Newspaper Report on a papers on a
someone else's journal article. topic
thinking.  literary
 They interpret, analyse  Notes borrowed from criticism &
and evaluate the classmates for a missed interpretation
primary sources. class.  historical
 They comment on and criticism
discuss the evidence  political
provided by primary analyses
sources.  review
 Lead to primary articles
sources.  analyses of
social policy

Tertiary  a selection or  bibliographies,  Abstracts

compilation  Bibliographie
of primary and  library catalogues, s
secondary sources of  Directories.  Dictionaries
information.  Reading lists.  Encyclopaedi
 Survey articles. as
 Tertiary sources tend  Encyclopaedias  Directories
to be more focused on  guidebooks
the identification of and manuals
scholarly work than on  population
the content itself. registers

 In some instances
tertiary sources
embrace both
secondary and tertiary
sources, presenting on
 the one hand
commentary and
analysis, while on the
other attempting to
provide a synoptic
overview of the
material available on
the topic.

 Tertiary sources are

usually not credited to
a particular author.
They provide a
superficial overview
of what the topic
includes, its basic
terminology, and often
references for further
reading.

Non-documentary sources

Varshney (2011) notes that non-documentary sources of information form a substantial part
of communication especially in science and technology. These sources provide information
which other sources do not.

Types:- There are two kinds of sources:-

(1) Formal Sources:-

 -Research Organization
 -Societies
 -Industries
 -Govt. Dept.
 -Universities
 -Consultants

(2) Informal Sources:-

 Conversation with colleagues

 Visitors
 Attendance at Professional Meetings.
When one has established the various source of information to use, he or she will now be in a
position to distinguish the different sources in print or non-print format. The following table
shows a number of examples of information sources that a researcher can use to conduct any
type of research;

BOOKS INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

Books cover virtually when looking for lots

any topic, fact or of information on a
fiction. For research topic
purposes, you will
probably be looking to put your topic in
for books that context with other
synthesize all the important issues
information on one
topic to support a to find historical
particular argument or information
thesis.
to find summaries of
Libraries organize and research to support an
store their book argument
collections on shelves
called "stacks."
Encyclopedias INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

Encyclopedias are when looking for

collections of short, background
factual entries often information on a topic
written by different
contributors who are when trying to find
knowledgeable about key ideas, important
the topic. dates or concepts
There are two types
of encyclopedias:
general and subject.
General
encyclopedias provide
concise overviews on
a wide variety of
topics. Subject
encyclopedias contain
in-depth entries
focusing on one field
of study
Academic Journals INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

A journal is a collection when doing scholarly

of articles usually research
 written by scholars in an
academic or professional to find out what has
field. been studied on your
topic
An editorial board
reviews articles to decide to find bibliographies
whether they should be that point to other
accepted. relevant research

Articles in journals can

cover very specific
topics or narrow fields of
research.
Databases INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

A database contains when you want to find EBSCOhost

citations of articles in articles on your topic
magazines, journals, and in magazines, journals
newspapers. They may or newspapers
also contain citations to Sabinet
podcasts, blogs, videos,
and other media types.
Some databases contain
abstracts or brief Emerald
summaries of the articles,
while other databases
contain complete, full-
text articles. ScienceDirect

Jstor
Magazines INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

A magazine is a to find information or Drum

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

A newspaper is a to find current Daily Dispatch

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

City Press
Library Catalog INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

A library catalog is an to find out what items

organized and searchable the library owns on
collection of records of your topic
every item in a library
and can be found on the to find where a
library home page. The specific item is
catalog will point you to located in the library
the location of a
particular source, or
group of sources, that the
library owns on your
topic.

Internet INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

The Web allows you to find current

to access most types information
of information on the www.ufh.ac.za
Internet through a to find
browser. One of the information about
main features of the companies
Web is the ability to www.google.co.za
quickly link to other to find
related information. information from
The Web contains all levels of
information beyond government - www.education.gov.za
plain text, including federal to local
sounds, images, and
video. to find both
expert and
The important thing
popular opinions
to do when using
 information on the
Internet is to know to find
how to evaluate it! information about
hobbies and
personal interests

Source: University of Fort Hare Library Guides http://ufh.za.libguides.com/c.php?

g=91523&p=590868

Researchers should remember that when they are using these various sources of information,
the information found in those sources may come in different types such as; Factual,
objective, subjective and analytical.

5.5 TYPES OF INFORMATION

Type Definition Examples
Factual Made up of facts  Today's date
 Historical Events
Analytical Interpretation of facts  Lecturer explaining a
particular paragraph
in your history
textbook.
Subjective Personal opinions or  Classmate's
viewpoints and some facts. evaluation of your
lecturer.
 Editorial in a
newspaper
Objective Non-judgemental and  Balanced political
balanced reporting. report
Presenting all sides of a
topic.
UNIT SIX: REFERENCE SOURCES AND PERIODICALS

6.1 LESSON OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students will be able to:
 Define reference sources of information.
 Identify examples of reference sources of information
 Define periodicals.
 Identify types of periodical literature.
 Understand the role of periodical literature in research.
 Evaluate articles in periodicals.
 Find periodicals in the MSU Library.

6.2 INTRODUCTION TO REFERENCE SOURCE

According to Behrens (1994), a reference source supplies authoritative information. It is
intended to be referred to briefly for specific factual information only, and not to be read
from cover to cover. Reference sources provide answers to specific questions, such as brief
facts, statistics, and technical instructions; provide background information; or direct you to
additional information sources. Reference sources are not scholarly (peer-reviewed). In most
libraries, reference sources do not circulate and are located in a separate reference collection.
This practice makes reference sources readily available and easily accessible.

A reference source is designed by the arrangement and treatment of its subject matter to be
consulted for definitive items of information rather than to be read consecutively. To
facilitate its ease of use, particular attention is paid to the systematic arrangement of items
within it. Reference materials can be arranged alphabetically, topically, or chronologically.
There are thousands of reference sources available that cover practically every subject. In
most libraries, these books are not issued and are located in a separate reference collection.
This practice makes reference sources readily available and easily accessible. Most of the
reference books are specifically designed to provide required information quickly and in most
convenient form. Although the term reference "book" is frequently used, reference sources
can be books, serials, on-line databases or information found on the Internet. A large part of
using reference sources well is choosing the right one for your needs.
Quick guide for selecting the right type of reference source (Collins, 151):

For information about... Choose...

1. Words Dictionaries
2. General information/Overview of topic Encyclopedias
3. Names & addresses of people, organizations, Directories
institutions, companies
4. Profiles of people Biographical Dictionaries
5. Places/Maps Gazetteers or Atlases
6. Facts and Statistics Almanacs
7. Formula, Tables, How-To-Do-It Handbooks and Manuals
8. A person's work Reviews or Criticisms
9. Dates, outlines, historical timelines Historical tables, Chronologies,
Historical yearbooks
10. Periodical Articles Indexes or Abstracts
11. Books and other sources Bibliographies or Guides to
Literature...

6.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF REFERENCE SOURCES

i. They are intended primarily for occasional consultation.

ii. They are consulted for definite items of information.
iii. The information included in them is collected from a vast number of sources.
iv. It is a miscellany of information and facts.
v. The arrangement of information is such that it can be conveniently and quickly
recalled.
vi. It follows some methods of arrangement e.g. Alphabetical, Chronological or
other methods.
vii. They include only an overview of the topics and rarely deal them in depth.
viii. They usually concentrate on facts.
ix. They are normally not issued on loan and kept for use in the library only.
x. Information in a reference book is so organized that anyone can easily get their
desired information.

6.4 CATEGORIES OF REFERENCE SOURCES

In the following section different categories of reference sources, their characteristics and
uses are discussed.
DICTIONARY

According to Katz (1997), a dictionary gives the modern meaning of words. Behrens
(1994) defines a dictionary as a list of the words of a language or languages, or a list
of words relating to a specific subject. The words are arranged in a systematic way,
usually alphabetically. There are four types of dictionaries namely:

Dictionary is a book containing words of a language arranged alphabetically with their

meanings. Most dictionaries list pronunciations, grammatical labels, illustrative
quotations, synonyms, antonyms, usage notes, etymology and other information. Some
dictionaries give derivation and history of the words too.

a) TYPES OF DICTIONARIES
Based on the number of words, scope and coverage of other items of information, the
dictionaries can be categorized into following groups:

i. GENERAL LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES

General language dictionaries cover all the words of a language and give meanings,
definition, and explanation of the words in the same language. It covers all the words
of a language, including past as well as currently in use words.

ii. SUBJECT DICTIONARIES

Subject dictionaries concentrate on the definition of the terms in a given subject.

Subject dictionaries are becoming increasingly common, due to increase in study and
research in different subject areas ranging from arts, humanities, social sciences to
science and technology.

iii. SPECIAL DICTIONARIES

The special dictionaries deal with special types or special aspect of the words. Special
type or class of words includes obsolete words, acronyms, abbreviations etc. Special
aspect of the word includes linguistic aspect of the words (such as pronunciation,
synonym and antonyms, etc.), or literary aspect of the words (such as quotations,
idioms, proverbs, etc.).

iv. BILINGUAL AND MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARIES (TRANSLATING

DICTIONARIES)
 The bilingual dictionaries give meaning of a word from one language to another
language. For example, an English-Hindi dictionary will list words in English and
give equivalent words in Hindi. This type of dictionary is called bilingual dictionary.
A multilingual dictionary gives meaning of a word in more than two languages. These
dictionaries are also called translating dictionaries. Many of them are limited in scope
to certain subject fields such as astronomy, biology, electronics, etc.

THESAURUS AND GLOSSARY

Thesaurus is a book in which words that have the same or similar meaning (synonyms and
sometimes antonyms) are grouped together. In contrast to dictionary, which helps to find
meaning and pronunciation of the words, thesaurus helps to find most appropriate word to
express an idea and also other related words.
A glossary is an alphabetical list of words related to a specific subject, text or dialect with
explanation. A glossary is usually provided at the back of the book showing the definitions of
technical terms in that particular field of knowledge used in that book.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA
It is a book or set of books giving information on all branches of knowledge or on certain
wide fields with articles arranged alphabetically. An encyclopaedia contains information
about people, places, events, and things. It may deal with all areas of knowledge or it may be
limited to just one subject area. Articles in standard encyclopaedia are written by subject
specialists and then edited by the encyclopaedia staff editors to conform to policies of the
encyclopaedia in terms of content, style and punctuation. Most encyclopaedias are arranged
alphabetically from A to Z. Some are topically arranged, such as one volume may be devoted
to 'Animals', another to 'Plants', 'Earth' and Universe', or some other subjects.

a) TYPES OF ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

i. GENERAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA

General Encyclopaedias cover all fields of knowledge, for example, Encyclopaedia

Britannica. Subject Encyclopaedia covers either single subject such as Encyclopaedia
of Physics or group of subjects such as Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology. (a)
General encyclopaedia can be further categorized according to Size (single volume-
set or multivolume-set), and target users (for adults, students or children).

General encyclopaedias provide information about nearly every topic. Using an

encyclopaedia is an effective way to quickly get a broad overview of a subject. Some
 encyclopaedias will provide more in-depth information than others, however any
general encyclopaedia is a good source to consult for background information of your
chosen subject area. Most encyclopaedias provide the following:
 Main concepts
 Titles of important books written about topic
 Names of authors who have written about topic
 Keywords and subject terms related to topic
 Lists of related articles or additional resources

ii. SUBJECT ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

A subject encyclopaedia provides detailed information on specific area of knowledge

such as arts and humanities, science and technology, social sciences, etc. There are
thousands of subject encyclopaedias ranging from broad subject area to a very narrow
subject field. There are multivolume as well as single volume subject encyclopaedias.
Some subject encyclopaedias are meant for subject specialists and some are for
students and general readers interested in that subject.

Subject encyclopaedias provide more detailed and technical information on specific

area of knowledge such as arts, science and technology or social sciences. Specialized
encyclopaedia is also known as subject encyclopaedia. They are important
background sources of information. Unlike general encyclopaedias which cover a
wide range of topics, subject-specific encyclopaedias focus their information in one
particular subject area. Some features of subject-specific encyclopaedias include:

 Detailed articles written by experts within a field

 Extensive and comprehensive bibliographies of important resource

YEARBOOKS
Yearbook, as the name indicates, is a book of information that is updated and published
annually, i.e., every year. The basic purpose of a yearbook is to record events and
developments of the previous year in a country or in the world. Based on their scope and type
of information covered yearbooks can be categorized as:- International Yearbook, National
Yearbook, Subject Yearbook. An international Yearbook provides reliable and handy
statistical information about each country of the world. For example, The Statesman's
Yearbook 2014 published by Macmillan, provides political, economic and social account of
every country (194 countries) of the world together with facts and analysis.

ALMANAC
An almanac provides brief statistical information and facts, both current and retrospective
(e.g World Almanac & Book of Facts. This is usually a one-volume work with statistics and a
compilation of specific facts. An almanac is a compendium of useful data and statistics
relating to countries, personalities, events, subjects and the likes (Katz; 1997). Almanacs are
usually published annually.

Almanac is a reference book usually published once a year and contains many kinds of
information. Almanacs originally provided a calendar of the months with eclipses, the
movement of planets and the rising and setting of sun, moon and stars. Present day almanacs
include a comprehensive presentation of statistical and descriptive data covering the entire
world.

Major topics covered are geography, government, demographic data, agriculture, economics
and business, health and medicine, Science & Technology, transport, sports, awards and
prizes. Contents also include articles focusing on events of previous year as well as summary
of recent events. Now the almanacs are more like yearbooks. Both depend on government
sources for statistical data. The only difference is that almanacs present astronomical data,
which is absent in the yearbooks.

HANDBOOK
The word handbook is derived from German word 'Handbuch' meaning a small book giving
useful facts. The literal meaning of the term 'handbook' is a book which is 'handy' to use as it
contains useful facts and handy to carry it conveniently. Handbook by definition is a concise
reference book providing specific information or instruction about a topic or a subject.
Subject handbook basically gives brief information such as facts on a subject. They are
designed to be easily consulted and provide quick answers. Behrens (1994) describes a
handbook as a reference source that provides basic information on a specific subject. It
presents one broad subject in brief, or gives a brief survey of a subject (e.g. Handbook of
American Popular Culture).

MANUAL
Term 'manual' is derived from Latin term 'manuals' meaning a guide book. Manual basically
provides step-by-step instructions on how to do a particular job or operate a particular
machine. When a customer buys any home appliances, such as a television, an air
conditioner, an oven or even a mobile phone, he/she is provided with a manual which gives
proper instructions on how to use that appliance. For example, a cookbook or a book
providing step-by-step instructions to assemble a computer is a manual. Behrens (1994)
describes a manual as a book that contains rules and procedures relating to a specific subject.
It explains how things are done, for instance, how a machine operates; or how an organisation
operates (e.g. MLA Handbook, and Broadcast News Manual of Style).

DIRECTORY
A directory is a list of names and addresses of people and organizations. Directories are also
very important reference tools in the library to answer directory type of enquiries from the
users. Directories can be broadly categorized as General Directories, and Special Directories.

1. General Directories

Telephone directory comes under the category of general directories. You must be familiar
with telephone directory. Every city in a country has telephone directory giving information
about telephone numbers of the subscribers. It also provides addresses along with the
telephone numbers of the subscribers. These directories are usually compiled by post and
telegraph departments.

2. Special Directories

Directories of organizations are called special directories and can be broadly grouped into
following three types:

a) Directories of academic institutions

This directory lists institutions of higher education and learning such as

universities and colleges. Under each academic institution, information
provided is, the type of courses and facilities offered, eligibility criteria, names
of the senior staff members, etc. These directories may be international or
national in coverage.

b) Professionals Directories:

There are thousands of learned societies and associations in the world, in

almost every significant field of knowledge. Members of these associations
are scholars in their respective area of specialization. These associations also
compile directories listing details of their members.
 c) Trade and Business Directories:

These directories provide information about trade, business and industries.

6.5 GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOURCES

Geographical information sources include maps, atlases, globes, gazetteers, and guide
books. These sources provide information about places, people, rivers, mountains,
forests, lakes etc. To meet information needs of the users, libraries maintain
geographical information sources in their reference collection. This collection
comprises the following four types:-
i. MAPS
Map is a pictorial presentation of earth's surface or part of it, showing countries,
cities, rivers, lakes and mountains. Map can also be a drawing of the sky showing the
position of stars and the planets.

TYPES OF MAPS:

There are many types of maps. Most familiar types are:-

a) GENERAL REFERENCE MAPS

General reference maps identify and locate a variety of geographic features.

Such maps may include land features, boundaries of water, political
boundaries, cities and towns, and many other elements. People use general
reference maps to locate

b) POLITICAL MAPS:

Maps that depict boundaries of countries, states, continents and other political
units are called political maps.

c) PHYSICAL MAPS:

Maps that depict the location of physical features of the earth's surface such as
mountains, rivers and lakes are called physical maps or terrain maps.

d) ROUTE MAPS, STREET MAPS AND CHARTS:

Some maps are designed to help people to find their way from one place to
another. These are maps for travel on land, on water or, in the air. Maps
showing different categories of roads, such as motorways, four-lane, or six-
 lane roads are called road maps, They also show the cities, towns, parks and
other places connected by those roads. Street maps are similar to road maps,
but a street map shows a much smaller area in much more detail.

e) THEMATIC MAPS:

These maps show the distribution of a particular feature such as, population,
rainfall or natural resources like coal, petroleum, metals and minerals on the
earth. Many thematic maps express quantities by means of symbols or colour.

ii. ATLAS:

A book containing collection of maps is called an atlas. A big atlas contains the map
of every county. Globe is a map that has been pasted or printed on a hollow sphere.
Only a globe can give correct picture of the earth as a whole, as the surface of the
globe is rounded like the earth's surface. A globe represents all parts of the earth's
surface correctly. The proportions and positions of the earth's land features and oceans
in relation to each other are seen on a globe exactly as they are on the earth. National
Maps and Atlases The reliability of maps and atlases depend upon the expertise of
editorial staff and the cartographers.

iii. GAZETTEERS

A dictionary of geographical places (no maps) (e.g. Webster’s New Geographical

Dictionary). Whittaker (1963) describes a gazetteer as a reference source that provides
the latitude and longitude of places, together with a brief description of them. For
example, if a gazetteer is for Harare as a town, the population and industries of Harare
will be noted. Hill and Frew (1999) define a gazetteer as a list of geographic names,
together with their geographic locations and other descriptive information.

 A gazetteer makes an attempt to answer some of the following questions:

 It answers the "Where is" question; for example, "Where is Victoria Falls?"
 It translates between geographic names and locations so that a user of the library can
find a collection objects through matching the footprint of a geographic name to the
footprints of the collection objects.
 It allows a user to locate a particular type of geographic features in a designated area.
For example, the user can draw a box around an area on a map and find the schools,
hospitals, lakes, or volcanoes (as in Figure 2) in the area. This is possible because of
the third required component of a gazetteer entry -- the type (or category) of place.
 As a reference source, a gazetteer provides historical, social, cultural, political,
industrial, demographic and administrative details of a country, state or a district.
 Based on their coverage, gazetteer can be categorized into International Gazetteer,
National Gazetteer; and Local Gazetteer.

iv. GUIDE BOOKS

Behrens (1994) defines a guidebook as a source which provides basic information

about a place or places, for the use of a traveller or visitor. The information about the
place concerns how to get there, where to stay, and what to see. Guidebooks are used
to guide visitors with information such as hotel prices, sites of interest, banks,
airports, railway stations, hospitals etc. An example of a travel guide is The
Illustrated Guide to Southern Africa.

Guide Books are basically travel guides or tourist guides meant for people who want
to visit various places in their own country or any other part of the world. Main
purpose of the guide book is to guide the travellers when to visit a particular place,
how to reach, where to stay, what to see, and what to buy. The travel guides include
information on historical sites, museums, parks, and other places worth visiting in that
city or a country. Other aspects covered are information on the routes and travel
facilities, best time to visit the place, the types of hotels, restaurants and shopping
complexes, etc.

Maps, illustrations and distances are also provided to enhance the usefulness of the
guide book. In addition, information regarding visa, money exchange, weather, etc. is
also given for the benefit of the foreign visitors. Usually a guidebook covers a region,
a country or a city. Tourism Departments of the Governments in most of the countries
bring out tourists guides to promote tourism in the country.

6.6 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOURCES

A biography by definition is an account of a person's life, usually written by someone else
and published or intended to be published. Biographical sources are publications listing
biographical details of famous people. Such sources cover biographies of world leaders,
people holding key positions in international organizations, people with outstanding
performance in sports, music, dance, acting and other professional fields like science &
technology, medicine etc. A biographical source may contain a biography of an individual or
biographies of group of people (called collective biographies).

A book containing collective biographies is also called 'Biographical Dictionary', for example
The Dictionary of International Biography. The type of information covered in such sources
also varies from a brief factual type of data to detailed essay type of biography for each entry.
Some biographical sources cover famous people from all walks of life. Such sources are
called 'general biographical sources'. In some, the coverage of people is restricted to a single
discipline or some other special criteria. Such biographical sources are called subject/special
biographical sources.

Again, a biographical source may be international or national in scope depending upon the
coverage of persons. Some biographical sources cover living persons only, e.g. 'Who's Who',
Some cover persons who are no longer living, e.g. 'Who was Who', and some sources cover
life sketches of both, living and dead persons, e.g. Webster's Biographical Dictionary.

6.7 GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS

According to Katz (1997), a government publication is any publication that is printed at

government expense or published by authority of a governmental body. The government
publishes hundreds of documents every year to inform the public and other organizations.
Most government publications are published by various ministries in the government and at
times the government may also publish documents with other organizations such as NGOs.

Government publications contain official information and they include such documents like
Acts of Parliament, parliamentary proceedings such as the Hansard, Government gazette,
Statistics, reports and the like. The physical form of government publications may be a book,
pamphlets, magazine, report, monograph or electronic.

QUICK GUIDE TO SELECTING THE RIGHT REFERENCE SOURCE

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT... CHOOSE...

Words Dictionaries
General information/Overview of topic Encyclopedias
Names & addresses of people, organizations, institutions,
Directories
companies
Profiles of people Biographical Dictionaries
Places/Maps Gazetteers or Atlases
Facts and Statistics Almanacs
Formula, Tables, How-To-Do-It Handbooks and Manuals
Dates, outlines, historical timelines Yearbooks
Periodical Articles Indexes or Abstracts
Bibliographies or Guides
Books and other sources
to Literature...
 ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC REFERENCE SOURCES
i. There are many advantages of electronic reference sources than their print counterparts.
ii. Electronic reference sources are more frequently updated than their print counterparts.
iii. They provide more search options.
iv. Provide access to wider range of information.
v. Provide faster and easy access to information. This is particularly so in the case of
indexing and abstracting periodicals, where back volumes are consolidated into single
searchable database, search is easy and extremely fast.
vi. Online bibliographic databases provide linkages from citations to full text e-journals.
Full-text data can be delivered instantly on the remote computer.
vii. Content can be delivered in multimedia format where text, video, and sound can be
added.
viii. A print source can be used by one user at a time, whereas an online source can be
accessed simultaneously by many users.
ix. An online electronic source can be accessed at any time and from any place where
network exists.

6.8 LIMITATIONS OF ELECTRONIC REFERENCE SOURCES

i. Use of electronic reference sources requires expensive infrastructure, which must be
acquired, maintained and upgraded. This covers computer hardware and software,
Internet connection and subscription to databases.
ii. Electronic reference sources, despite being user friendly, require certain degree of
computer literacy to get maximum benefit from them. This means libraries have to
incur expenses to train their staff as well as their users to use these resources. Most of
the publishers of e-reference books sell their products through license agreement, which
imposes certain restrictions on their usage.
iii. Reading from computer screen is strenuous. Most of the users prefer to take print out
for reading.
Presently, most of the library users prefer to use electronic reference sources, because of the
speed of searching, remote access and availability of these resources on the internet on 24/7
basis. Many libraries have a web page showing frequently used online reference works.
(http://www.mhhe.com/katz/)

6.9 PERIODICALS
By the end of this section students will be able to:
 Define periodicals.
 Identify types of periodical literature.
 Understand the role of periodical literature in research.
 Evaluate articles in periodicals.
 Find periodicals in the MSU Library.

Introduction to periodicals
According to the 1964 UNESCO Conference on periodicals “periodicals are publications
with a distinctive title published continuously on a regular basis on an indefinite period of
time.” Magazines, annual reports, journals, and newspapers are all examples of periodicals.
Each issue has a volume number, issue number and date”. e.g. Journal of African law,
Volume 57, Number 1, (January-March 2013). ISSN 0021-8553. Each publication of a
periodical is called an issue, and issues generally make up a volume. These can be available
as hard copies or electronic editions (soft/digital copies) of the various issues.

Types of periodicals literature

a) Scholarly Journals
Scholarly journals are also called academic; peer reviewed, or refereed journals. Peer
reviewed journals refer only to those scholarly journals that submit articles to several
other scholars, experts, or academics (i.e. peers) in the field for review and comment.
These reviewers must agree that the article represents properly conducted original
research or writing before it can be published. A peer-reviewed (or refereed) journal
only publishes articles that meet the approval of one or more experts in the field. They
typically offer high quality, scholarly research.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SCHOLARLY/ACADEMIC JOURNALS

 Scholarly journal articles often have an abstract, a descriptive summary of the
articles’ contents, before the main text of the article.
 Academic journals contain extensive, lengthy and detailed articles.
 Scholarly journals generally have a sober, serious look. They often contain many
graphs and charts but few glossy pages or exciting pictures.
 Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or
bibliographies. These bibliographies are generally lengthy and cite other
scholarly writings.
 Articles are written by a scholar in the field or by someone who has done research
in the field. The affiliations of the authors are listed, usually at the bottom of the
first page or at the end of the article – universities, research institutions, think
tanks and the like.
  The language of scholarly journals is that of the discipline covered. It assumes
some technical background on the part of the reader.
 The main purpose of scholarly journal is to report on original research or
experimentation in order to make such information available to the rest of the
scholarly world.
 Many scholarly journals, though by no means all, are published by a specific
professional organization.
 Most academic journals are subject specific.
 Researchers should use scholarly journal articles when they need focused, up-to-
date information on a topic. In general, they should use scholarly sources for
research because they provide a greater depth of information. However, in some
cases it is also acceptable to use popular sources such as newspapers.

b) Professional Journals

These are usually issued by professional institutions or Associations to provide

professional news and events, for example, forth coming conferences, research
reports, workshops and researches in progress. An example of such a publication is
journal of Educational Psychology published by the American Psychology
Association. When professionals want to know about recent updates in their practice
and new information about helpful researches in their field, one of the sources of
information that they can definitely depend on is a professional journal.

Each profession can have a professional or an academic journal that tackles different
topics about that particular industry. Professional journals are always trusted by
people because all of the articles and the information published in the pages are all
factual and based on actual studies with evidences. In addition to that, these journals
are also reviewed by a special board to ensure the credibility and relevance of the
content to the profession and to the industry as a whole. Although the primary
purpose of these academic journals is not to generate income, there will be a need to
pay for a fee for the subscription of future copies especially if the publication is done
by a commercial publisher.

Professional journals differ from other types of publications such as newspapers,

magazines and personal journals in their content. Unlike popular journals which cover
different topics for the general public. Contents of a professional journal will only be
beneficial to those professionals in a particular industry.
c) Popular Magazines

A Magazine is a popular interest periodical usually containing articles on a variety of

topics, written by various authors in a non scholarly style. Most magazines are
heavily illustrated, contain lots of advertisements and are printed on glossy paper.
Articles are usually short frequently unsigned, and do not include a bibliography or
 list of reference for further reading. Magazines are written by general readers for
general use. They come out more frequently than scholarly journals, for example, the
Drum Magazine. Articles are not researched to the same degree as scholarly journal
articles. Their purpose is mainly for entertainment and information.

d) Newspapers

The most known frequency of a newspaper is daily, but there are newspapers that
come weekly or monthly. Newspapers are concerned with current and vital
information on a wide range of topics, for example, The Herald. The aim of the
newspaper is to keep the public informed about local, national and international news.
However, their frequency of publication often means that articles lack the research
and documentation found in scholarly journals. One good characteristic of a
newspaper is that it is cheaper to acquire than a journal.

e) Trade Journals

This is a periodical that publishes current news and trends for a specific industry or trade.
Articles are written by someone with knowledge in the field for other practitioners.
Advertisements are targeted at professionals in the field.
TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PERIODICALS
Newspapers Popular Trade journals Scholarly &
Magazines Research Journals
Example Herald Drum - Physics Today Journal of African
s Chronicle Moto -American History
Financial Gazette You Archaeology Journal of Modern
Sunday Mail Trends -American African Studies
The Standard Libraries Conflict Management
The Independent and Peace Science
Purpose Current Hot topics; Current trends and Original research;
information; Current events; news in a particular Refereed or peer
Upcoming and past Interviews; field of study; reviewed; Depth of
events; Editorials; popular culture Employment; Book knowledge about the
Obituaries; reviews; Business subject; Bibliography;
Classified Ads; connections Professional authors
Columns
Languag Non- technical; Non-technical; Jargon; Written for Academic; Technical;
e Written for a Written for a practitioners Specific for the
general audience general audience discipline
Authors Journalists; Journalists Practitioners in the Researchers; Scholars;
Freelance writers field Academics
Sources Rarely cites Rarely cites Brief Extensive
sources sources bibliographies bibliographies
Publisher Commercial Commercial Professional Universities; Research
s Publisher Publisher Association organisations
Graphics Photos; Ads Glossy photos; Photos; Ads; Graphs; Charts;
(matte); Political Ads Charts Formulas; Usually no
Cartoons Ads

The role of periodical literature in research

i) The importance of periodical literature lies in their ability to capture the most
recent discoveries, theories and trends in a subject.
ii) Periodicals provide current information as compared to books since they are
published at shorter intervals than text books which take more than six months to
go through.
iii) Periodicals also offer a variety of opinions and views readily available from
different authors in one volume.
iv) Published journal articles typically have gone through a rigorous screening
process known as blind peer review, whereby independent experts provide the
author with critical commentary and suggestions to improve their final paper,
prior to publication. Review boards ensure all peer reviewed journals follow a
scholarly format and adhere to the highest levels of academic scholarship.
v) Articles are also increasingly Internet accessible through Web sites maintained by
the publishers of journals.
vi) Easy and fast way to correct errors in previous issues since the next issue may
only be three months away for quarterly publications or six months for a biennial
publication.
vii) Each article published in a journal will explore a very narrow, specific topic in
depth. You can learn about a particular aspect of your topic in far greater detail
than that which would be afforded in a text book or if it was reported in a popular
magazine or newspaper.

Evaluating articles in a periodical

When evaluating an article in a periodical you should look at the:

 Relevance - Does the publication relate to your topic so that it is useful for your research?
General vs. Specific – Look at sources which cover your topic on a general level and
which are more specific or technical. You can check this by skimming the title and
abstract. An assortment of general and specific sources is good if you are working with
this topic for the first time.
 Reliability (Authority) – What is the quality of the publication? Finding the authority of
a source means determining who wrote it and what his/her background is with the subject.
Is this author an expert on the subject? If not, is that important? If the source does not
give bibliographical information, consult a bibliographical reference source. Example: If
no information is available, examine the resources you have been using for other works
by the author.

 Accuracy – It is important to know where the author got his/her facts and if the facts are
correct. A bibliography of the source can show you which references the author used to
get his/her information. If the author supports his/her statements with references, the
source is more reliable.

 Currency – For some subjects, currency of information is extremely important,

particularly in fields that are constantly changing, like Medicine or Technology. For
other subjects, like History or English, older materials may be just as valuable as newer
ones. Look at the date of publication on your source.

 Purpose and bias– Determine whether the source is published by an organization with a
particular purpose. Determine whether the work attempts to sell a particular point of
view, if it does then it has a bias therefore is subjective information. Verify if the source
is scholarly or popular.

 Bibliography - Scholarly works always contain a bibliography of the resources that were
consulted. The references in this list should be in sufficient quantity and be appropriate
for the content.

 Audience - For what type of reader is the author writing? This ties in with the type of
journal, as popular magazine are geared to the general reader, while trade magazines are
for the specialist and scholarly journals are directed at researchers, scholars or experts in
the field.

 Illustrations - Are charts, graphs, maps, photographs, etc. used to illustrate concepts?
Are the illustrations relevant? Are they clear and professional-looking?
UNIT SEVEN: ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PLAGIARISM

7.1 INTRODUCTION
Generally, integrity entails the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
This trait is required by people in all spheres of life and this is the reason why we are going to
be focusing on the academic side. Cambridge University Press (2020), states that integrity is
“the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change”
while the Dictionary.com LLC (2020) adds that integrity is “adherence to moral and ethical
principles; soundness of moral character; honesty”. As researchers and users of information,
it is always important to consider why we need information, where and when to get it from
and how, how to evaluate such information before application. In academic circles, a
disregard to the above results in a widespread culture of cheating thus in the process violating
academic integrity (Cavico and Mujtaba, 2009).

According to Manly, Leonard and Riemenschneider (2015:581), “college faculty members

face a continual battle to maintain integrity in their classrooms [because of] shifting
generational attitudes and prevalence of information technology (ICTs)”. However, it appears
colleges and universities seem to be battling with previous circumstances students interacted
with in the past as McCabe et al. (2012) content that “cheating habits among college students
probably develop long before they get to college. Most college-bound students are exposed to
significant cheating cultures during their high school years”
7.2 WHAT IS ACADEMIC INTEGRITY?
Academic integrity means honesty and responsibility in scholarship. The concept of academic
integrity comes from Keohane (1999) which points to how people commit themselves to
positive values so as to be able to act and behave accordingly in creating a good academic
situation. The International Center for Academic Integrity (1999:4) defines academic
integrity as “a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty,
trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage”. Academic communities in colleges and
universities aim to foster integrity advances the quest for truth and knowledge by requiring
intellectual and personal honesty in learning, teaching, research, and service. It must be
common knowledge for both students and staff that uprightness will forever stand as the
foundation of teaching, learning, research, and service and the prerequisite for full realization
of trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. This is the sole reason why most university
policies uniformly deplore cheating, lying, fraud, theft, and other dishonest behaviours that
jeopardize the rights and welfare of the community and diminish the worth of academic
degrees. The reason why this Unit is important is it will leave you the student with well
instilled levels of cultivated honesty which lays the foundation for lifelong integrity, whilst at
the same time developing in each of you the courage and insight to make difficult choices and
accept responsibility for actions and their consequences, even at personal cost.

One of the primary considerations for ranking of universities the world over is production
quality research output which of course has a strong bearing on how researchers, lecturers
and students alike interact and behave with information. Usually Midlands State University
uploads all first class dissertations and theses in the institutional repository/digital archive for
wider distribution globally via the internet. The same happens for published and unpublished
research papers and book chapters written by staff. For this very reason, students and faculty
are compelled to obey rules of academic honesty as this has a bearing on future and image.
All academic work should result from an individual's own efforts. Intellectual or academic
works used from other sources must be fully acknowledged in order to remove the impression
that you are the originator of the used work.

7.3 WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY?

Academic integrity as a harbinger of things to come, a reflection of the general mores that
society is passing on to the next generation. There six reasons why we should care about
academic integrity:
 1. Integrity is the cornerstone of academia
It is blatant that a failure to address academic dishonesty devalues the educational process
and leaves colleges and universities vulnerable to questions about the quality of the product
they produce— the future leaders of society. We should therefore forthwith care about
academic integrity because we believe it is one of the issues that students face in college for
which colleges and universities can make a difference, providing society’s future leaders with
an experience of living within a community of integrity— a touchstone for their future.
That’s why we continue to work on academic integrity
2. Cheating is widespread and on the rise,
Academic dishonesty is widespread in colleges and universities even though efforts to
prosecute offenders exist. The general attitude seems to be that everyone cheats, however,
this should discouraged and stopped Therefore, this unit focuses on doing exactly that
because it is not right to do so.

(3) The college years are a critical period for ethical development,
Academic integrity and dishonesty also matter because most college students are at a
developmental level where their approach to ethical decision making is being formed. It is
therefore critical to look at how colleges and universities uphold academic integrity for the
sole reason that the college years represent a period of significant moral development in
students.

(4) College students face significant pressures to cheat

So much pressure and stress is put on getting ahead that students will take anything that gives
them added advantage regardless of what people may say. Another reason we should care
about academic integrity is that today’s students say they feel growing pressures to
demonstrate high academic achievement. According to McCabe, Treviño, and Butterfield
(1999), this type of pressure comes from many sources which include but not limited to
societal expectations, family expectations, and peer pressure. It is therefore critically
important to bring this issue to book so that students are aware this and be able to manage the
source of their potential problem.

(5) Students are being taught that cheating is acceptable

It is important to note that some Faculty and administrators often contribute to violation of
academic integrity because they do not monitor cheating behaviour and at times they neglect
to clearly communicate expectations regarding appropriate and inappropriate behaviour on
assignments and tests. Therefore in this Unit there are no mixed signals that cheating is an
academic offense punishable by instituting appropriate academic integrity guidelines and
policies, which clearly finger and demonstrate that academic integrity is a priority to both
staff and students.

(6) Today’s college students represent tomorrow’s leaders

The university should be a place where students and staff uphold strong values and
convictions even in stressful situations, especially if these are future leaders of the
country/world Values and beliefs—circumstances may change from time to time, but having
values might make a person less prone to changing his or her mind in tough situations.
Having a strong grip on good values and beliefs prepares students for a better future.

7.4 THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUES OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

It is very important for academic institutions the world over not to underestimate the value of
academic honesty or integrity because it promotes scientific progress, and prepare students to
become responsible citizens in whatever roles they may undertake. As such the following five
fundamental values of academic integrity are important to observe.
1. Honesty – Academic integrity demands truthfulness, fairness, accuracy and overall
justice in academic institutions, performance as well as the behaviour patterns of the
students and the staff members.
2. Trust – In order to promote academic integrity there should be an environment of
mutual trust, communicating freely with each other and enabling everybody to be well
trained in order to achieve their potential goals.
3. Fairness – There should be prevalence of fair attitude, dealings in all interactions as
well as transactions that are carried out in an academic institution.
4. Respect – Teaching and learning processes require a clear exhibition of respect for
everybody else’s opinion, ideas, thoughts, feelings and performance. Respect is a
 conduit for gaining knowledge, testing new skills, achieving success and learning
from failure.
5. Responsibility – You must be responsible for upholding the academic honesty of
scholarship and research by making sure you get tasks and complete them. This also
means that try by all means to avoid errors even if you are under pressure from peers.
How is Academic Integrity violated or breached?
A breach of academic integrity can be defined as any behaviour that undermines the values,
norms, and practices of academic integrity. In more concrete terms, it includes but is not
limited to:
 Plagiarism
 Cheating in exams or assignments
 Impersonation in exams
 Collusion
 Theft of another student’s work
 Sabotage of another student’s learning/assessment
 Paying a third party for assignments
 Downloading whole assignments (or parts of assignments) from the Internet (including
file-sharing sites)
 Falsification of data
 Misrepresentation of records, and
 Fraudulent research and publishing practices.
COPYRIGHT

Copyright is a law that gives individuals ownership to their creative works. Creative works
might include text, artistic works, music, computer programs, sound recordings and films.The
copyright immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work and it comes
with certain exclusive rights. These rights might include the right to:

 reproduce the work

 prepare derivative works

 distribute copies

 perform the work

 display the work publicly

If one owns copyright to something, they can do what they want with it. It is the same as
owning a house or a car. They can sell it or they can lend it. Anyone who exploits any of the
exclusive rights of copyright without the copyright owner's permission commits copyright
infringement. You need to get permission from the copyright holder to reproduce their
creative works.

WORKS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

 Literary works (books, poems, plays, etc.)

 Music

 Choreography

 Graphic art (pictures, sculptures, comic strips, etc.)

 Audiovisual works (movies, TV shows, etc.)

 Sound recordings

 Architecture

 Computer programs

SPECIAL EXCEPTIONS TO COPYRIGHT

Under Zimbabwean Law, copyright is not infringed under certain circumstances. In this
module exceptions for libraries will be covered.

LIBRARIES

Libraries have a special set of exemptions from liability for copyright infringement when
they exercise some of the exclusive rights of copyright holders such as making copies,
displaying and performing works publicly, and distributing works to the public. The
following will not infringe copyright law as far as libraries are concerned:
 Making or supplying of a copy of an article from a periodical
 Making or supplying of a copy or part of published literary works, dramatic or musical
works.
In view of the above, the library will need to meet certain conditions that include:
 Not operating for profit
 Not supplying not more than one copy of the same article or part of the work
 Supplying copies only for research or private study

7.5 PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the biggest enemy of academic integrity defined in this work as “wrongful
appropriation”, “close imitation”, or copying of another author’s language, thoughts, ideas or
expressions and the representation of them as one’s original work. In other words, plagiarism
refers to the act of copying other people’s intellectual works without acknowledging the
source of information, thereby giving the impression that you are the rightful originator of
those ideas or expressions. The habit of plagiarism begins in the early stages when a student
copies something (e.g. assignments) written by a classmate.
Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered as academic
dishonesty or academic fraud. It is a serious criminal act and offenders are subject to
academic censure, up to and including expulsion.
Plagiarism is one of a number of practices deemed by universities to constitute cheating or in
academic circles as “a lack of academic integrity”. Plagiarism is manifested by one of the
following practices:
Collusion without official approval between two or more students, with the result that
identical, or near identical work, is presented by all involved
Falsification: where content of assignments, e.g. statistics, has been invented or falsely
presented by a student as their own work
Replication: where a student submits the same or very similar piece of work, on more than
one occasion to gain academic credit
Taking unauthorized notes into an examination
Obtaining an unauthorized copy of an examination paper
Communication with other students in an examination in order to help, or be helped, with
answers.
Impersonation of another person in an examination ( Jones et al. 2005).

However, as stated earlier, plagiarism, specifically, is a term used to describe a practice that
involves knowingly taking and using another person’s work and claiming it, directly or
indirectly, as your own. This ‘work’ is usually something that has been produced by another
person, ‘published’ in some tangible way, and presented formally into the public domain. It is
not the ideas per se that are being plagiarized, as ideas can occur to people all the time; it is
the manifestation of those ideas: in print, Internet, audio-visual, theatrical, cinematic,
choreographic or other tangible form. It can also include assignments either ready written, or
written to order, and sold from Internet sites, which are then presented to an institution by the
buyer as his or her own original work.

Why do people Plagiarise?

Dennis (2005) did a research to find why students cheated and the results showed that :

 They started too late and ran out of time.

 They simply could not do the coursework otherwise.
 They did not think it was wrong.
 They have to succeed.
 They got higher marks this way.
 They did not need to learn that material, just pass the module.
 They could not keep up with the work.
 They wanted to see if they could get away with it.
 They felt the tutor did not care, so why should they.
 They thought paraphrasing would be disrespectful (Dennis 2005).

Types of Plagiarism

Verbatim/Direct Plagiarism
This entails the use of another author’s exact words without citing the author. Direct
plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone else’s work, without
attribution and without quotation marks. To avoid this, you need to add quotation marks and
citation.

Self Plagiarism
Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her own previous work, or mixes parts
of previous works. For example, it would be unacceptable to incorporate part of an
assignment you wrote previously into another assignment. Self-plagiarism also applies to
submitting the same piece of work for assignments in different classes without previous
permission from both lecturers.
Mosaic Plagiarism
A kind of patchwriting in which parts from one or several sources are cobbled together with
some of the writer’s own words without adequate attribution.
Accidental Plagiarism
Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or misquotes their
sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar words, groups of words,
and/or sentence structure without attribution.

7.6 WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGIARISM?

There are serious consequences that emanate from plagiarism. These may be professional,
financial, legal or personal.

a) Plagiarism for student

Students may face suspension or expulsion when they are caught plagiarizing. Those
who are caught doing so hurt themselves by facing unnecessary penalties from
University authorities.

b) Plagiarism for Professionals

When professionals engage in plagiarism, the consequences could be much more
serious. Plagiarism may lead to dismissal from their work and when this happens, it
might be difficult to get employment in the same field. Public figures may be forced
to withdraw from public life and their reputation may be lost.

c) Legal Consequences of Plagiarism

Infringement of copyright means you are breaking the law. Breaking the law carries
with it penalties that might include heavy fines or going to prison.

d) Plagiarism for Academics

All academics are expected to publish original research papers in order to raise the
ranking of their University or research centre. If they plagiarise, they tarnish the
image of their employer and all their previous work will be viewed with suspicion.

How do you avoid plagiarism?

Referencing
One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including a reference page or page of
works cited at the end of your research paper or assignment. This page must meet the
document formatting guidelines or citation styles used by your faculty or department. This
information is very specific and includes the author(s), date of publication, title, and source.

Use of Quotation marks

Always quotation marks or indent for lengthy passages. Always remember to cite your
sources at the end.

Procrastination
Do not procrastinate with your research and assignments. Good research takes time.
Procrastinating makes it likely you will run out of time or be unduly pressured to finish. This
sort of pressure can often lead to sloppy research habits and bad decisions. Plan your research
well in advance, and seek help when needed from your lecturers.

Citation Errors
Common errors that lead to accidental plagiarism include using words or passages from the
original source without using quotation marks and/or without citing the source; using
different citation formats within the same assignment; or using a citation format incorrectly.

Poor Note-taking
Inexperienced students often forget to put quotation marks around notes taken directly from
text, or find that their notes are disorganized. As a result, they cannot tell which notes came
from which source when they are in the stages of writing up their assignment.

7.7 TURNITIN ANTI-PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE

Turnitin is web based anti-plagiarism software that checks for plagiarized content from the
internet. Turnitin checks for potential unoriginal content by comparing submitted papers to
several academic and research databases as well as websites. Students submit their
assignments or dissertations into the Turnitin system and it compares strings of text against
its massive database. When a student submits a paper, the paper is also stored in the Turnitin
databases to prevent other students from submitting that same paper.

A lecturer will receive a report showing the percentage of plagiarized content in a submitted
work. For students to use Turnitin, they need to receive an e-mail from their lecturer
containing details on how to create an account and how to submit a paper.
7.8 CONCLUSION
If students have integrity, this means they are honest and trustworthy for their personal
morals and values are a true reflection of their credibility and character. Complete academic
is required at universities while students earn their degrees as these would be true
representations of their academic achievements. Therefore degrees must be earned in fair and
honest ways. Lack of academic integrity whilst peoples are in college can be stubborn
following one into his or her workplace, something that may compromise professional goals.

Tracey Bretaga, T. et al (2013:378) cite a number of authorities (Bertram Gallant 2008, 2011;
Davis, Drinan, and Bertram Gallant 2009; Macdonald and Carroll 2006; Sutherland-Smith
2008) who advocate for what they term the holistic approach to promoting academic
integrity. Their view is to observe academic integrity in
“every aspect of the academic enterprise: from university mission
statements and marketing, to admissions processes, to nuanced and
carefully articulated academic integrity policy, to assessment practices and
curriculum design, to information during orientation, embedded and
targeted support in courses and at every level for students, to frequent and
visual reminders on campus, to professional development for staff, research
training, and the use of new technologies which both assist students avoid
academic integrity breaches, and as a tool to detect breaches when they
occur”.
UNIT EIGHT: SEARCH STRATEGIES AND EVALUATION OF INTERNET
SOURCES OF INFORMATION

8.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this lecture students should be able to:
 Understand what the internet is.
 Appreciate the uses of the internet.
 Evaluate internet Sources of Information
 Perform effective online searching
 Navigate the MSU Institutional Repository

8.2 ONLINE SEARCH STRATEGIES

Most online search services such as search engines, e-Journal databases or e-Book
databases will support the search techniques spelt out below. However you will need to
be familiar with the particular search service you are using be it a search engine, e-Journal
or e-Book database. You can also find additional tips in the “Help” section of the online
service.

1) Keyword Search

A keyword search retrieves words or phrases from the important fields of the database
records. A Keyword search looks for words anywhere in the record. Keywords represent the
main concept of your research topic and these are the words used in everyday life to describe
your topic.
Selecting keywords is a multi-step process that involves:
 identifying the main concepts of your topic
 brainstorming synonyms and antonyms that could also be used to describe your topic
 spell out abbreviations

2) Subject Search

A subject search involves searching the subject headings used in a database. Most databases
include subject headings that are assigned to each record.
Use subject searching when you know the Library of Congress Subject Headings and you
want to do a more precise search than you can with Keyword searching. A subject heading is
an assigned word (or phrase) used in a database to describe a concept. Search using this
standardized word instead of keywords, so you do not need to worry about synonyms and
spelling variations.
Subject headings are a way to group items on the same topic together even though the authors
of the materials may have used different terms. An example is death penalty and capital
punishment. LCSH assigns all books the subject heading Capital Punishment, regardless of
which term is used in the title.

For example, you may want to research the topic automobiles

Possible ways (synonyms) to state this topic include:

 Cars
 Motor Vehicles
 Buses
 Trucks

Keyword Versus Subject Heading Search

KEYWORD SEARCH SUBJECT HEADING SEARCH

 May search multiple fields including  Searches for subject or descriptor
subject, title, and abstract field only
 May retrieve irrelevant items  Controlled vocabulary from thesaurus
 Low precision, more results  High degree of relevancy

 Allows grouping terms to expand or

 narrow search  High precision, fewer results

 Requires knowing, finding subject

headings

3) Truncation and Wildcard

Truncation
Truncation, also called stemming, is a technique that broadens your search to include various
word endings and spellings.
 To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end.
 The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.
 Examples:
child* = child, children, childrens, childhood
genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

interact* = interact, interacting, interaction, interactivty

 Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: *, !, ?, or #

Notes:

 Be careful not to end the stem or root of a word too early to retrieve too many results.
Example: typing cat* will find cat, cats, catalog, catastrophe, catsup, etc.
 Different databases use different symbols to truncate words. However, most of our
popular online databases, such as our Library Catalog, Google and Yahoo! use
asterisk (*) as their truncation symbol. If in doubt, check the "Help" section for the
truncation symbol.
 Some search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google, automatically use truncation
without you having to type a truncation symbol.
4) Wildcard Symbols
Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word.
 This is useful if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning.

1. Examples:
wom?n = woman, women

Organi?ation = Organization and Organisation

colo?r = color, colour

Note: Again, check the Help or Tips links available on most library databases and Internet
search engines to verify the wildcard symbol that should be used (usually an asterisk (*) or
question mark (?) ).
Phrase Searching
Many search engines and other online searching services allow you to perform an exact
phrase search, so that pages with only the words you type in, in that exact order and with no
words in between them, will be found. The exact phrase search is a remedy for too many
irrelevant hits. To perform an exact phrase search at a search engine that permits it, put the
phrase in quotation marks e.g. "consumer product chemistry.”
Boolean Searching
Boolean searching is based on a system developed by George Boole, a 19th century
mathematician. Most online databases and Internet search engines support Boolean searching
to limit, widen or define your search. The power of Boolean searching is based on connecting
keywords with Boolean operators. The three basic operators are AND, OR and NOT.
Mathematically, they represented by these symbols:

AND +

OR /

NOT -

AND - narrows a search; Use to combine key concepts, for example: Water AND Pollution.

OR - broadens a search; Use to add concepts, for example: Pollution OR Water.

NOT - excludes search term(s). Use to eliminate a concept, for example: Water NOT

Pollution

8.3 THE INTERNET

Turban (2001) defines the internet as a network of networks. It is a global collection of
computer networks, cooperating with each other to exchange information. This network uses
different networking technologies such as fibre optic cables, coaxial cables, telephone lines,
power lines (Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as power-line Internet)and
wireless connections. The internet uses different protocols or standards to communicate with
one another and the most commonly used are the HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol,
VOIP – Voice over Internet Protocol and FTP - File Transfer Protocol.
End users do not need to know all the technical intricacies taking place in the background,
but a basic idea of its structure is what you need to know to get the most out of it.

Uses of internet
E-mail Services
E-mail is shorthand for electronic mail and is used for the exchange of messages over the
internet or intranets (Local area networks). An e-mail works by sending a message to a
specific address that looks like this

petermasharks@msu.ac.zw

File Transfer Servers using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

This is a system of transferring or exchanging (uploading and downloading) files over the
internet between two computers. Users need an FTP client installed on their computer to
enable this to work.
Examples of software clients that offer this services are Fileszilla and Secure Shell (SSh)

Chat Systems
This is technology that permits people to exchange textual information in real time (i.e.
synchronously) or with a short time lapse between messages.
Other examples of chat systems such as Google talk or Gtalk, Google Meet, Skype, Zoom,
empathy, yahoo chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger.

World Wide Web

This is a system of extensively hyperlinked documents that enable people to navigate from
one web document to the other on the same website or to an external website.

Voice over internet protocol (VOIP)

This is a way of communicating using voice and other sounds over the internet in real time
examples include Google talk or Gtalk, Google Meet, Skype, Zoom, Empathy.

8.4 FORMATS OF INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET

The internet is a multimedia system, i.e. it contains information in various formats
these include:

 Text documents such as portable document format (pdf) files, word documents
etc.
 Sounds
  Graphics or images
 Moving pictures or videos
 Software

BROWSERS
A browser is software used to display the World Wide Web and also the Internet in general.
Examples include:
1. Microsoft Edge
2. Mozilla Firefox
3. Opera
4. Safari
5. Google Chrome.

A browser sends requests to the internet and displays the results to the user in the form of
websites. A browser has an address bar where a user types in the URL (Universal Resource
Locator) or website address.

ONLINE SEARCHING TOOLS

These are computer softwares that are used to search information on the World Wide Web.
There are 3 main online tools that can be used to look up information on the internet namely
Search Engines, Meta Search Engines and Specialised full text and citation databases.

SEARCH ENGINES
Burke, (1999) defines search engines as software that is used to construct a database of
websites. Basically, a search engine is a software program that searches for sites based on the
words that you designate as search terms. Search engines look through their own databases of
information in order to find what it is that you are looking for.

The internet contains billions of documents all linked by hyperlinks. It is impossible to find
information on the internet without a tool that makes everything easy. This tool is called a
search engine. A search engine is a software program that is able to retrieve information from
the internet by using the words that you input as search terms or search expressions and
returns the results in the form of ranked list. Each result is called a hit and the number of
results is called hits. A search engine works by using spiders (a type of software) that crawl
the internet, index the pages and add the pages to its database or catalogue. Search engines
are continually crawling the internet to look for new websites that are being added every day.
You might imagine the search engine’s index as a massive electronic filing cabinet.
Some search engines index every word on a website whilst others only index certain words
contained within Meta tags on a webpage. Meta tags are invisible to a general internet user.
They are used to give special keywords or description about a webpage.
Examples of general search engines are:
SEARCH ENGINE UNIVERSAL RESOURCE LOCATOR
(URL)

Google http://www.google.com

Yahoo Search http://www.yahoo.com

Excite http://www.excite.com/

Bing http://www.bing.com

META SEARCH ENGINES

These are search engines that will send users’ search terms or requests to a group of different
search engines and then display the search results from each. Examples include Dogpile,
MetaCrawler, and Inference Find. Meta search engines do not have an index or database of
their own but they create a virtual database. They pass a user’s request to other search
engines such as Google and Yahoo and then compile the results.

All Meta search engines function differently and the technology they use is different from
any other Meta search engine. Some sort results according to relevancy, others search lesser
known search engines, others search particular search engines and others do not show where
they got their results.

Examples of Meta Search Engines are:

META SEARCH ENGINE URL

Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com

MetaCrawler https://www.metacrawler.com/

Yippy http://yippy.com/

MetaEureka http://www.metaureka.com
8.5 EVALUATING INTERNET SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Print Sources
 Quality standards of printed materials are controlled through a system of checks and
balances imposed by peer review, editors, publishers, and librarians, all of whom
manage and control access to printed information. This assures that published
materials have been through some form of critical review and evaluation, preventing
informal, poorly designed, difficult-to-use and otherwise problematic materials from
getting into the hands of users.
 In academic and other research libraries, most books and periodicals are a product of
the scholarly communication system. This system ensures that authors present
information in an orderly and logical manner appropriate to the topic.
 Printed information in books and periodicals follows established linear formats for
logical and effective organization.
 Materials in printed form are stable. Once in print, information remains fixed for all
time. New editions and revisions often are published, but these are separate and
distinct physical entities that can be placed side by side with the originals.

World Wide Web

 On the web, anyone can, with no supervision or review at all, put up a web page.
 On the Web, there is no systematic monitoring of much of what appears, except, of
course, for articles published in the online forms of otherwise reputable scholarly
journals and books. Biases, hidden agendas, distorted perspectives, commercial
promotions, inaccuracies, and so on are not monitored.
 There is no standard format for web sites and documents. Web pages exhibit fewer
clues regarding their origins and authoritativeness than print sources. Important
information, such as dates, author(s), and references are not always easy to locate.
While a reader can easily note this information in a book or periodical article, the web
user must often search through several pages, if the information is provided at all.
 Internet sources are also not stable. Web documents can be changed easily. And once
changed, the original is gone forever unless a specific effort is made to preserve it. In
fact, many Web documents are intentionally designed to change as necessary, and
with automatic changes as with manual changes, the original disappears.
 Web resources use hypertext links and need not be organized in any linear fashion.
One can easily be led astray and distracted from the topic at hand. But, of course, one
can also be led to additional information of value.
 The changing nature of the web and web documents create major problems with the
stability of information and with links between different units of information. Dead or
broken and links on the Web are common and others just disappear or are not
updated.
The section below shows the criteria scholars use to evaluate print information and how the
same criteria can be used to evaluate online resources.

Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information

Author (May be an individual, Organization or Publisher)

 Is there an author of the work? If so, is the author clearly identified?

 Are the author's credentials for writing on this topic stated, or is the author qualified
to write on the given topic?
 Have they written other articles or books?
 Is the author affiliated with an organization?
 Is there a link back to the organization's page or a way to contact the organization or
the author to verify the credibility of the site (address, phone number, email address)?
 Do they specialize in publishing certain topics/subjects?
 Is the publisher scholarly (university press, scholarly associations)? Commercial?
Government agency?
 Is the author an expert or researcher in the field?
 What does the domain name/URL reveal about the source of the information, if
anything?

Accuracy

 Is this page part of an edited or peer-reviewed publication?

 Can factual information be verified through footnotes or bibliographies to other
credible sources?
 Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so that the information can be
verified?

 If statistical data is presented in graphs or charts is it labelled clearly?

 Has the information been reviewed or refereed?

 Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?

Currency
Currency refers to the timeliness of information. In printed documents, the date of
publication is the first indicator of currency. Apply the following criteria to ascertain
currency:
 If timeliness of the information is important, is it kept up-to-date?

 Is there a date stating when the document was originally created?

 Is it clear when the site or page was last updated, revised or edited?
 Are there any indications that the material is updated frequently or consistently to
ensure currency of the content?
 If there are links to other Web pages are they current? If links to other Web pages are
not current this is a fairly good sign that the site is not well-maintained.

Links

 Are links related to the topic and useful to the purpose of the site?
 Are links still current, or have they become dead ends?
 What kinds of sources are linked?

Coverage/Scope

 What is the focus of the site?

 Are there clear headings to illustrate an outline of the content?
 Is the navigation within the website clear? Check the header for a clear title and web
site description
 Check the content for headings and keywords
 Check the navigation to reflect content outline within the web site

Biases and Affiliations

 Does it promote the ideas of a particular group--religious, political, etc.?

 Could the organization sponsoring the site have a stake in how the information is
presented?
 Is the author trying to influence your mind ?
 Are various points of view, theories, techniques, or schools of thought offered?

Clarity

 Is the text neat, legible and formatted for easy reading?

 Is the information clearly presented?
 If there are graphics, do they add to the content or distract?
 If there are advertisements, do they interfere with your ability to use the page?
 Are the pages well organized?
  Are there mistakes in spelling or word usage?

UNIT NINE: DATABASE ACCESS AND UTILIZATION

9.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students will be able to:
 Understand the importance of electronic journals in academic research.
 Search for full text research articles and book chapters from e-journal and e-Book
databases.
 Navigate and search the MSU Institutional Repository
9.2 INTRODUCTION
Electronic resources are online information resources that include e-books and e-Journals
offering full text access to book chapters and articles. With the information explosion, the
internet has revolutionised the research processes and made information retrieval very
convenient. The electronic resources which come in the form of e-books and e-journals
accessed through various online databases have made research activities conveniently
available (Noreh, 2009).
Advantages of Online Databases
 Greater and quicker access for students to materials to support their learning
 Convenience of access - people can access electronic resources anytime as long as
they are connected to the internet
 Timeliness - the currency of information, timely availability, the speed of access and
the ability to search text is the most important factor in choosing electronic resources
over print.
 One resource can be accessed by many people simultaneously
 Online Databases can be accessed from any computer on campus, off campus.
 Online Databases are easily searchable - each database can be searched quickly and
easily.
 Articles/issues appear online before printed version is available.
 Articles can be commented by the readers and amended quickly
 They are especially useful for finding information not yet available in books, or
obtaining up-to-date information on current events or issues.
Disadvantages of Electronic Resources
 All e-resource devices require power.
 Require high cost for technology infrastructure.
 Need special equipment to access e.g. laptops, desktops, e-book readers etc
 Lack of compatibility among different publishers – some articles may not be
accessible or readable on different platforms
 Copyright violation problem
 Current e-book format may not be readable by future e-book devices.
 Book reading devices are more expensive than most paper books.
 Lack of awareness on IT skills for usage of e-resource.
  Technological barriers – lack of adequate infrastructure e.g. network connectivity,
electricity etc.
 Lack of uniform standards in the retrieval of software products from different
publishers creates problems in their usage.
 Since reading of ICT based resources and services requires skills, the users have to
acquire certain skill before hand or take the help of intermediates like library
professionals to help them in accessing the electronic documents. Even the library
professionals have to learn the skill, if they desire to serve the users effectively and
efficiently.
 The libraries face a number of problems relating to the new media that are yet to be
popular among their users.
 Parthasarathy. R (2009). Impact of Electronic Resources on Academic Program in
arts and science colleges Tiruchirappalli A study. Retrieved from:
http://hdl.handle.net/10603/186505

9.3 STEPS IN ACCESSING E-JOURNAL DATABASES

1. Open browser and go to www.msu.ac.zw
2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Journals”
3. E-Journals are arranged alphabetically and under each e-Journal name
there is a short description of the subject coverage
4. You may use the A – Z index at the top to browse through e-Journal
collections
5. If you know the name of the database, type it in the search form e.g.
“JSTOR” and click on the “Search Databases” button
6. Click on the “JSTOR” link, you will be prompted for your registration
number and e-Learning password or your MSU e-Mail username and password
7. Click on the login button – this will re-direct you to the JSTOR database
8. Carryout your research in JSTOR

9.4 STEPS IN ACCESSING E-BOOK DATABASES

1. Open browser and go to www.msu.ac.zw
2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Books”
3. E-Books are arranged alphabetically and under each e-Book name there is a short
description of the subject coverage
 4. You may use the A – Z index at the top to browse through e-Book collections
5. If you know the name of the database, type it in the search form e.g. “proquest
central” and click on the “Search Databases” button
6. Click on the “Proquest Central” link, you will be prompted for your registration
number and e-Learning password or your MSU e-Mail username and password
7. Click on the login button – this will re-direct you to the Proquest Central database
8. Carryout your research in Proquest Central

9.5 PRACTICAL EXERCISES – ACCESSING E-JOURNAL DATABASES

ACCESSING JSTOR

1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw

2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Journals

Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Journals”
3. The Electronic Journals page has the journal databases arranged alphabetically. You can use the
A- Z index to browse through the collections. Each journal collection has a short description of the
subjects covered. You can use the search box to search for journal collections if you know the
name of the collection you want to use e.g. “JSTOR”

4. Click on the JSTOR link. You will be taken to an authentication screen where you need to enter
your Registration number and your e-Learning password.
5. Enter your Registration Number and E-Learning password in the fields provided and click the
Login button.

6. You are now re-directed to the JSTOR journal database. You simple enter your search terms
and carry out your research in JSTOR
9.5 PRACTICAL EXERCISES – ACCESSING E-BOOK DATABASES

ACCESSING SAFARI O’REILLY

1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw

2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-BOOKS

Point to “Libraries” and select “E-BOOKS”
3. The Electronic Book page has the e-Book databases arranged alphabetically. You can use the A-
Z index to browse through the collections. Each e-Book collection has a short description of the
subjects covered. You can use the search box to search for e-Book collections if you know the
name of the collection you want to use e.g. “Safari O’Reilly”

4. Click on the SAFARI O’REILLY link. You will be taken to an authentication screen where you
need to enter your Registration number and your e-Learning password.
5. Enter your Registration Number and E-Learning password in the fields provided and click the
Login button.

6. You are now re-directed to the Safari O’Reilly database. You simple enter your search terms
and carry out your research in Safari
Use the above steps to access all subscribed e-Journal or e-Book content from Midlands State
University.

UNIT TEN: THE MSU INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY

10.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students will be able to:
 Understand the concept of Institutional Repositories.
 Appreciate the benefits of Institutional Repositories.
 Easily search for research papers and student dissertations from the MSU Institutional
Repository.

10.2 WHAT IS AN INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY?

An Institutional Repository is a digital collection of an institution’s intellectual output. They
may contain a wide range of materials that reflect the intellectual wealth of an institution such
as dissertations and theses, research papers, conference papers, working papers, books and
book chapters, journal articles and past examination papers to mention a few. They may also
contain audio visual materials such as videos, pictures/images or sound recordings.

Some Definitions
  An Institutional Repository is an electronic archive of the scientific and scholarly
output of an institution, stored in digital format, where search and recovery are
allowed for its subsequent national or international use (Gonzalez, 2007).
 It is an information system that collects, preserves, disseminates and provides access
to the intellectual and academic output of the university community (Gonzalez, 2007).
 (Lynch, 2003) in (Prabhakar and Rani, 2018) says it is “a set of services that a
university/ institution offers to the member of its community for the management and
dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community
members”.
 An institutional repository (IR) is an electronic system that captures, preserves, and
provides access to the digital work products of a community (Foster and Gibbons,
2005).

An institutional repository can also be defined as a permanent, institution-wide repository of

diverse, locally produced digital works (e.g. Article preprints and post prints, data sets,
electronic these and dissertations, learning objects, and technical reports) that is available for
public use. (Johnson, 2009).

10.3 PURPOSE OF INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES IN UNIVERSITIES

According to Bailey (2008), there are many reasons why institutions of higher education such
as MSU should implement IRs. Here are some of the most common ones.

 To increase the profile, visibility and citation impact of the University’s scholarship.
 To provide unified access to the University’s scholarship i.e. to collect content in
single location
 To provide open access to the University’s scholarship.
 To preserve the University’s scholarship.
 Provision of self- archiving of institutional scholarly research output
 Institutional Repository is created to manage, preserve, and maintain the digital assets,
intellectual output, and histories of academic institutions.
10.4 THE MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY INSTITITUTIONAL REPOSITORY
(MSUIR)
The MSU IR contains the intellectual output of the Midlands State University. It contains
research output from various faculties and departments. These faculties and departments
translate into communities. Research output from is collected and stored in one its respective
faculty so that it will be easy to view all the work from each faculty.

Collections in the MSUIR

 Research Papers

 Dissertations/Theses

 Conference Papers

 Books and Book chapters

 MSU Journals The Dyke and Midlands State University Journal of Science and
Technology (MSUJSAT)

Materials in the IR are added on continuous basis and new communities may be added in the
future.
Benefits and Value of Institutional Repositories
Institutional Repositories are important to Universities for several reasons:
Stewardship
All Universities and research Institutes have digital documents that are of enduring value and
these documents need to be preserved for posterity. Doing nothing to try to preserve digital
works of enduring value guarantees their loss. Institutional Repositories are there to preserve
these digital works to guard against loss.

Showcasing Research Output

An IR also can showcase the research, teaching, and scholarship at an institution. In a
university setting, an IR provides a centralized digital showcase through which community
members can highlight their work. Through an IR, prospective students and faculty can
obtain a robust picture of the types and areas of scholarship in progress in a given department
(Gibbons, 2009).
Scholarly Communication
Institutional Repositories have a role to play in exposing a University’s intellectual output to
the widest possible audience of researchers around the world who would not otherwise have
access to it through traditional channels such as printed copies of books or journals.

Improved Ranking and Prestige of the University

Institutional Repositories provides Open Access to the University’s research output. Thus
means any user who has internet connection is able to freely download and cite articles from
the IR. Increased citation of a University’s output improves its ranking among other
universities. A high profile IR may be used to support marketing activities to attract high
quality staff, students and funding (Prabhakar and Rani, 2018)

10.5 HOW TO ACCESS THE MSUIR

To access the MSU IR follow the following steps:
1. Login to www.msu.ac.zw ;

2. On the MSU home page click on the “Libraries” link

3. On the Library home page click on the “MSUIR” tab

4. You will be taken to the screen shown below

5. Enter your search terms inside the search box and click on the “Search MSUIR”
button.
 6. You will be taken to the screen shown below

Search Results

Search results page

7. Click on a article title to get to the following page

Click on the pdf link

Click on the pdf link to open full text.

 8. Click on the PDF link to open the full text of article.

The MSU IR is organized according to communities; these communities directly translate

into faculties at MSU. Each Faculty is further divided into Departments and under each
department we get staff publications and student dissertations. Under staff publications we
get Conference Papers and Research Papers.
UNIT 11: USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN LIBRARIES

11.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
 Understand the concept of Social Media
 Appreciate the benefits of using social media in libraries
 Easily use social media in accessing library resources and services
 Understanding the capabilities of different channels and how they can be tailored to
suit library’s individual needs

11.2 SOCIAL MEDIA DEFINITIONS

Below are several definitions of what social media is.
 Web-based applications which provide functionality for sharing, relationships,
group, conversation and profiles (Kietzmann et al., 2011)
 Social media has been referred to as a set of information technologies which
facilitate interactions and networking (Sims, Wolf and Yang, 2017)
 A system of mobile and web based technologies that enable the creation of highly
interactive platforms which enable individuals and communities to share, co-create,
discuss and modify user-generated content (Kietzmann et al., 2011)
 Social media sites can be described as online services that allow users to create
profiles which are “public, semi-public” or both. Users may create individual profiles
and/or become a part of a group of people with whom they may be acquainted offline.
They also provide avenues to create virtual friendships (Sims, Wolf and Yang, 2017)

11.3 COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA ATTRIBUTES

The above definitions of social media all share three common attributes:
 They are web based
 They facilitate individuals to connect with other individuals and interact with content
from others.
 They are collaborative in nature
  They enable users to generate, distribute and consume content on their platforms.

Why People Use Social Media

People use social media for several reasons. Most people use social media platforms for the
some of the following reasons:
 Knowledge building
 Making Connections
 Building conversations and discussions
 Constructing and Reinforcing a Professional Identity

Social Media Functionalities

Building blocks of Social Media (Kietzmann, 2011)

Identity : refers to the representation of the user in the virtual world. It could include a
profile that has descriptive and personal information such as birthday, educational
qualifications, hobbies, family relationships etc., or could be as vague as an imaginary
pseudonym.
Conversations: allows users to interact with each other in a broadcast or dialogue manner
synchronously in real time or asynchronously with time lapse between statements.

Sharing: refers to activities through which existing content is spread or distributed to others
through the social platform.

Presence: allows users to know where other community members are (on/off-line and
actual/virtual location). Presence is the “illusion of being there or an experience of being
in an environment while physically situated in another location” (Sims, Wolf and Yang,
2017)

Relationships: allows community members to visualize their networks in many ways ranging
from “likes” and “followers-followed” to virtual representation of real-life relationships.
Groups: refers communities with common interests in certain subjects or topics.

Reputation: allows users to qualify the content provided by another user and establish trust-
levels between community members. These trust-levels can be made explicit, for example
through a scoring or ranking system.

11.4 COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

According to Musser and O'Reilly (2007), social media platforms and tools exhibit the
following key characteristics:
Enables web users to do more than just retrieve information. It enables users to actively
interact with the content as well as its creators. This is the foundation of user ‐generated
content.
 Enables users to execute applications straight from their browsers and they can own
and subsequently control data on the social media platform.
 Users are able to add value to the content they are accessing. This facility leads to a
seamless exchange of information building a robust body of knowledge that is
sometimes called collective intelligence.
 Utilizes simple, user friendly and “lightweight” interfaces that do not require
specialist knowledge to apply.
 Social media tools are greatly decentralized with no center of control or gates under
conventional media systems.
  Is transparent and uses open technology standards that rapidly grow into open
ecosystems of loosely coupled applications built on open data and reusable
components.
 It is emergent and does not rely on fully predefined application structures. Social
media structures and behaviours are allowed to emerge over time. This flexible,
adaptive strategy permits appropriate solutions to evolve in response to real world
usage and needs. It recognizes the fact that real success comes from cooperation and
not control.

11.5 ETHICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL MEDIA USE

As discussed above, social media interactions happen online among people who either know
each other in real life or among total strangers. Because of this nature of interaction, some
ethical considerations come into play. Some of the ethical considerations include identity
theft, violation of privacy, surveillance, friending, cyber bullying and user exploitation.

1) Violation of Privacy
This may occur when personal information such as health status, financial status, online
activities, location etc is made visible to groups other than those intended and this can
sometimes result in future negative outcomes. Some large companies use robotic software to
collect information about their clients without consent and pass it on to third parties for
targeted marketing and advertising according to the person’s profile and online activities.

1) Cyberbullying
Swenson-Lepper, 2019 defines cyberbullying as “willful and repeated harm inflicted
through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices”. Types of harm
that might occur include embarrassment, humiliation, a feeling of being threatened,
discomfort and being tormented just to mention a few.

2) Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is similar to offline stalking and is defined as “using the Internet as part of a
targeted campaign that causes fear, distress, or alarm” (Cavezza and McEwan, 2014). It
includes a variety of behaviours such as repeated unwanted emails or instant messages,
posting false or hostile information about victims online, using social networking sites to
harass the victim, subscribing to services or products in the victim’s name, hacking into
victim’s personal accounts, online identity theft, impersonating the victim online, spamming
or sending the victim computer viruses; and recruiting others to harass or threaten the victim
via the Internet.

Intellectual Property Rights

One attribute of social media is its ability to enable people to share information to one
group or multiple groups. This gives rise to copyright protected materials such as books,
articles, music and videos. Via social media, both private and public, links to the latest
uploads of copyrighted material (books, songs, episodes of television shows, or complete
movies) are easily shared.

11.6 SOCIAL MEDIA USE FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

The reasons for using social media services are those expected of any social networking site
(Nández and Borrego, 2013). The nature of social media enables information to be shared
among many people who are connected to different platforms. Social media can be used for
academic purposes to share information and complete research. Some activities that can be
carried out for academic purposes include:
 Collaboration with research projects and teams
 Dissemination of academic activities
 Research relevant discussions
 Follow other researcher’s activities
 Meet other researchers online
 Self-promotion and increase citations
 Edit materials quickly
 Industry Interactions
 Help, support and feedback

Examples of Social Media Platforms used for Academic Purposes

ResearchGate and Academic.edu
 Targets academics i.e. researchers, lecturers, students
  Academic specific features (publication, uploading, citation, indexing)

 Scholarly communication – researchers are able to privately or publicly communicate and to

discuss topics of interests

 Users are able to create profiles that include their educational levels and their research
interests

 Search for Articles of interest

Linkedin
A social networking site used mostly by professionals and businesses. Key characterisitics
include:
 Ability to create CV like profiles
 Ability to connect with past and current colleagues and increase connections to people
with the same professional interests
 Ability to get help and discuss specific topics in industry or at work
 Ability to find jobs

Google Scholar
This is a search engine that searches scholarly literature and other academic materials. Main
characteristics include:
 Ability to create personal profile
 Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
 Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
 Create virtual library where you can store your downloaded documents online
 Ability to find citations, export and import citations
 Ability to check an author’s metrics e.g. number of citations, number of publications
etc
Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager that can help you collect references, organize your
citations, and create bibliographies. It is also an academic social network that enables you to
share your research with others. Mendeley can help you connect with other scholars and the
latest research in your subject area. With Mendeley you can:
 Collaborate with other researchers online
 Find relevant papers based on what you’re reading
 Collect references from the Web
  Automatically generate citations and bibliographies
 Import papers from other research software
 Access your papers from anywhere online
 Read papers on the go with your iPhone or iPad
 Build a professional presence with your Mendeley profile
 From within your citation library, read, annotate and highlight PDFs

Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging social networking site that allows users to send short messages
called tweets. Twitter users follow others and you can follow people with similar academic
interests. By using Twitter, you can:
 Promote your research, for example by providing links to journal articles
 Reach a large number of people quickly through tweets and retweets
 Follow the work of other experts in your field
 Build relationships with experts and other followers
 Keep up-to-date with the latest news and developments, and share it with others
instantly
 Reach new audiences
 Get feedback about your work and give feedback to others
 Follow and contribute to discussions on events, for example conferences that you
can't attend in person

Slideshare
This is a presentation and documentation-sharing platform. Most of the information found on
Slideshare is in the form of PowerPoint presentations, videos and pdf documents. Slideshare
is a combination of social networking and an online learning platform.
By using Slideshare, you can:
 Create online webinars and training programs
 Create visualizations for presentations
 Upload PowerPoint presentations
BIBLOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

1.