SESSION 3:

Information Sources
 Learning Objectives
By the end of this session students should be able to:
• Identify the different classes of information sources.
• Identify the information access tools.
• Develop a search strategy using search techniques learnt
Types of Information Sources
 Information Classes
• Information sources can be primary, secondary or tertiary
• Originality and proximity to the sources or event determines
• Primary sources give first-hand information of an event e.g. data
collected for a science, engineering experiment, someone is
autobiography.
• What primary sources have in common is that the source comes
from someone who was there, or at least very close to an event.
e.g. journal articles not review articles, correspondence like
letters, emails, text messages and other texts.
 Autobiographies

An autobiography is when you

write a story or book about
yourself.
• Example: Nelson Mandela wrote
his autobiography about events
in his life called “Long Walk to
Freedom: The Autobiography of
Nelson Mandela.
 Primary Sources examples
Sound Recordings and interviews are considered primary
resources.
During the Great Depression and World War II, television had not
been invented yet. The people would often sit around the radio
to listen to President Roosevelt’s war messages. Those radio
addresses are considered “primary sources.”

During the 2008 election Barack Obama, had many

interviews that were televised. Those interviews are
considered primary sources.
 Secondary Sources of Information
• Secondary sources give a secondary account of an event
• Written with a hindsight to provided an analysis, an interpretation of an event or an
entry in a diary.
• Are removed from primary sources thus do not provide primary evidence.
• Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of
evidence.
• definition of a secondary source may vary depending on the discipline or context.
• Examples include: biographical works; commentaries, criticisms; review articles,
opinion and bibliographies
 Why Use Secondary Sources?
• Secondary sources can provide analysis, synthesis, interpretation, or
evaluation of the original information.

• Secondary sources are best for uncovering background or historical

information about a topic and broadening your understanding of a topic
by exposing you to others’ perspectives, interpretations, and conclusions

• Allow the reader to get expert views of events and often bring together
multiple primary sources relevant to the subject matter
 Tertiary Sources of Information
• These give an account that is twice removed.
• They draw upon and summarize primary and secondary
sources. e.g. handbooks and manuals, dictionaries,
encyclopaedias and textbooks.
• They provide a superficial overview of what the topic includes,
its basic terminology, and often references for further reading
• Take note: different sources of information can fulfil different
roles depending on the particular question being answered
 Information Access Tools
• We will focus on three information finding tools which are:
• Online public access catalogue (OPAC),
• The Internet; and
• Research databases.
 Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
• OPAC is an electronic database or catalogue of titles of sources of
information a library has in its collection
• The catalogue guides a library patron to the library’s holdings and
particular location of material on the shelves so consult it before
going to the shelves
• There are three main ways of searching for a library’s holdings on
the OPAC; by Author, by Title and by Subject
• You can check your library account on the OPAC if you are
registered
 Register and sign
in to access your
account here

Use these access points

to identify and locate
books
 The Internet
• A worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected
computer networks transmitting data by packet switching using
the standard Internet Protocol (IP); the Hypertext transfer
protocol (http)
• Thus a "network of networks" consisting of millions of smaller
domestic, academic, business, and government networks,
which together carry various information and services, such as
electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked
Web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web.
 The Internet continued
• The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) are different
• The Internet: a collection of interconnected computer
networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless
• connections, etc.
• In contrast, the World Wide Web is a collection of
interconnected documents and other resources, linked by
hyperlinks and uniform resource locators (URLs).
• The World Wide Web one such service accessible on the
Internet
 Research Databases
• A research database is a standardised collection of information
on a given subject discipline or disciplines
• Can find full-text books, book chapters, indexes of journal
articles, full-text journal articles, theses and dissertations
• Some research databases are accessible free of charge whilst
others are accessible upon payment of a subscription fee
• Examples of research databases include Google Scholar,
Scopus, Ebsco Host, Emerald Insight and JSTOR
 Types of Databases
Database Type Description
Bibliographic Provide citation details of full text articles in journals

Full-text Provide access to full-text articles in either portable

document format (pdf) and or hypertext mark-up language
(html) format.
Numeric Provide numerical data such as statistics.

Hybrid Provide a blend of records that include abstracts or full

text or both.
 E-Resources @HIT
• E-resources in, short electronic resources are collections of
electronic journals, books, repositories and multimedia
publications;
• Accessible online on an electronic device such as a smart
phones, laptops, desktop computers, iPads etc.
• Can be subscription based; thus access is paid for over a period;
annually etc.(examples include SAGE publications, Springer
journals, Taylor & Francis journals and e-books, Wiley, Emerald
Insight, Ebsco Host and Ebsco e-books, Proquest e-book Central
 E-Resources @ HIT continued
• Accessible on Campus and Off Campus
• Examples include:
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): http://www.doaj.org/
- African Journals on Line (AJOL):http://www.ajol.info/
- Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com
- Google Books : http://books.google.com
- PDF Drive: https://www.pdfdrive.com/
- Springer Open: http://www.springeropen.com/
- Wiley Open Access: http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/
 E-Resources @ HIT continued
• Password based with country eligibility are Research4Life
databases for both books and journals
- HINARI - health sciences http://www.who.int/hinari/en/
- AGORA – agric and environ scie http://www.fao.org/agora/en/
- OARE - environ scie research http://web.unep.org/oare/
- ARDI - scientific and tech inform http://www.wipo.int/ardi/en/
I NOW TAKE QUESTIONS TO END

Session 2 : Information Sources