GS 108: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION LITERACY

LECTURE 3:
Types and formats of information sources

LECTURER: Ms. Rosa Kinaka

Bishop McCauley Memorial Library
Email: mrosa@cuea.edu

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 Types and formats of information sources
Expected Learning outcomes

 By the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

— Explain the various types of libraries,
— Discuss the role of libraries in academic work
— Distinguish the various categories of information resources in
libraries
— Explain the role of various sources of information in a library
— Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of electronic
information in academic work

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 Types of library

i. School libraries
A school library (or a school library media center) is a library
within a school where students, staff, and often, parents of a school
have access to a variety of resources.
The goal of the school library is to ensure that all members of the
school community have equitable access to books and reading, to
information, and to information technology.

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 School libraries
The objectives of a school library are:-

i) To support the teaching programmes of the school.

ii) To further the general intellectual development of the pupils.

iii) To assist pupils to develop skills necessary in the use of books and
libraries.

School libraries play an active and leading role in the educational process.
It helps the pupils to continue with education effectively so that they can
learn by themselves.

•School libraries bear the slogan "Learn how to teach yourself and search for
information"
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 ii. Special Libraries
A special library exists to serve a specialized body of users within a
definite subject field. Special libraries are usually attached to a parent
organization which may be research institutions, government departments,
societies or associations.

It is also a library which is part of a company, organization, or other

groups aimed at meeting library needs of the specialized group.

Its a library which is part of a company, organization, or other group

aimed at meeting library needs of the specialized group

e.g. Research libraries, Law libraries, Medical libraries, Corporate

libraries: in business entities Government libraries

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 Characteristics of special libraries

1) Subject coverage. They have a limited nature of subject

coverage. The subject coverage is a reflection of the mission and
goals of the parent organization e.g. agriculture, medicine.
ii) Users of special libraries. The users of special libraries are
restricted to the employees of the institution or members of a
given organization.
iii) The predominant characteristics of smallness. Although there
are big special libraries, special libraries tend to be small.

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 Characteristics of special libraries

Therefore, cooperation between library staff and users of the

library is close.
iv) Services offered. Due to the number of users served, the
services offered tend to be personalized. There is a lot of
emphasis on information itself rather than document services
like Current Awareness (CAS). Selective Dissemination of
Information (SDI), abstracting and indexing services are
provided.
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 iii. Academic libraries
Academic libraries are organization set within a larger
organization – namely, within the academic institutions and
its various departments.
Academic libraries are established to serve a university,
university college or any other organization associated with
an institution of higher learning.
Academic libraries are set up to support the teaching and
research programmes of the university.

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 Academic libraries
They are libraries that serve colleges and university students,
staff and faculty.
Larger institutions may have several libraries on their
campuses dedicated to serving particular schools such as law
and science libraries.
Many academic librarians become specialists in an area of
knowledge and can have faculty status.
Academic libraries fulfil the following objectives:-
i) To serve the needs of the academic community.
ii) To provide appropriate reference materials to all major
stakeholders i.e. students, staff and faculty.
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 Academic libraries

iii) To provide study areas for users.

iv) To provide a lending service appropriate to the various
categories of users.

Academic libraries provide the following functions:

 An organized collection of printed or other materials, or a

combination both.
 A staff trained to provide and interpret such materials as
required to meet the information or educational needs of
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users.
 Academic libraries

 Digital repository management to disseminate scholarly

publications (support for the OAI harvesting protocol and
repository upload)
 Support for inter library Loan (ILL)
 Interoperability with RFID and self-check systems
 Information delivery functionality for users to receive
customized information in the right place, at the right time

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 Academic libraries

(SDI, journal availability and more)

Web OPAC which provide students access to course
materials in reading lists
Support for standard data formats and protocols such as
MARC 21
Comprehensive applications including an integrated library
system.

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 iv. Public libraries

A public library is described as an organization established,

supported and funded by the community, either through
local, regional or national government or through some other
form of community organization.
It provides access to knowledge, information and works of
the imagination through a range of resources and services
and is equally available to all members of the community
regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, religion etc.
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 Public libraries
They are libraries that serve communities of all sizes and
types.
As the name implies, public libraries serve the general
public.
Often they have departments that focus on areas of service or
separate collections for youth, teens and adults.
They can even be termed as the “people’s university”.

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 …Public libraries
They also provide information on education, Culture, Leisure etc.
Public libraries should be centrally located within the community
they serve.
They should be spacious enough keeping in mind: community
population; growing library collection, size of staff, services to be
offered.
The aim of a public library can be achieved through the following
objectives:-
i) Education – To Support both individual and self-conducted
education as well as formal education at all levels.

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 Public libraries
 ii) Information – To give the user quick access to accurate information
over the whole range of human knowledge.
 iii) Culture – To provide a centre for cultural life and actively promote
participation and appreciation of all arts.

 iv) Leisure and recreation – To provide general reading material and to

encourage its active use for leisure and recreation.

 v) Children and young people: To Create and strengthen reading habits

in children from an early age.

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 Public libraries

Public libraries provide information resources for the following

functions:
Social role. The public library has an important role as a public space and
meeting place. This is particularly important in communities where there are
few places for people to meet.

Education: public libraries support both individual and self-conducted

education as well as formal education at all levels e.g. students go to public
libraries and carry out their studies. They provides access to knowledge in
printed and other formats to support formal and informal education.

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 Public libraries
Leisure and recreation: Public libraries provide information
materials for general reading and encourage its active use for
leisure and recreation. Public libraries should be centrally
located within the community they serve.
Personal development: Public libraries provide opportunities
for personal creative development. Opportunity to develop
personal creativity and pursue new interests is important to
human development.
Children and young people: Public libraries meet the needs
of all groups in the community regardless of age and
physical, economic or social circumstances.
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 Public libraries
 Culture: An important role of a public library is to provide a focus for
cultural and artistic development in the community, help to shape and
support the cultural identity of the community. They provide information
resources on culture since they are the centre for cultural life as they
promote participation and appreciation of all arts.

 Information: Public libraries are the local centers of information

making all kinds of knowledge and information readily available to its
users.’ They provide accurate information over the whole range of human
knowledge.

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 v. National libraries
A national library is a library established by a government as a
country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public
libraries, these libraries rarely allow citizens to borrow books.
Their main function is to collect and preserve for posterity
the books, periodicals and newspapers published in the country
and about the country.
 They are formed through a law and these laws require
publishers to deposit copies of all publications they produce.
They also purchase books about the country published in
other countries

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 National libraries
A national library is that library which has the duty of
collecting and preserving the literature of the nation within
and outside the country.
The functions of the national libraries vary from nation to
nation. This includes the following:-
i) Acquisition of material of the nation published in and
outside the country.
ii) Preservation of the material for posterity
iii) Publication of the national bibliography.
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 National libraries

 iv) The development and maintenance of the world’s best literature.

 v) The provision of a national reference service.

 vi) To collect and preserve, periodicals and newspapers published in

the country and about the country.

 vii) They purchase books about the country published in other countries

 viii) They coordinate the library resources through the development

and maintenance of a union catalogue, exchanges and Inter Library
Loans (ILL).

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 Academic work that requires a library
i. Independent reading/further reading by the student to further
understand the topics
ii. Reading assignments as a prerequisites to attending
a lesson/lecture
iii. Writing assignments: term papers, journal article,
review book reviews, book report

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 Role of libraries in academic work
Introduction

Advancement in all branches of knowledge is based on analysis,

evaluation and synthesis of the already existing literature (or
knowledge) generated by others across space and time.
Libraries play a vital role in this process by providing access to a
broad spectrum of information resources and literature on all subjects.
It thus allows students, lecturers and researchers to interact with
ideas authorities, experts, and scholars in various disciplines
In the university setting, the library exists to assist students, faculty
members and researchers carry out their academic activities whether
it is learning, teaching or research.

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 Accordingly, you can receive the following services
from the library to fulfil your scholarly activities.
a) Access to information sources (books, journals,
etc.) to fulfill your research needs.
b) Assistance from the library staff to obtain
exhaustive information on the subject of your
research.
c) Tools for compiling bibliographies relevant for
your topic such as library catalog (OPAC) and
indexes.

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 d) Interlibrary loan service to enable you
access information sources in other libraries.
e) Reprographic service including word-
processing and photocopying.
f) Access to Internet-based information
sources such as e-journals, e-databases, etc.
g) Instruction on how to correctly reference
the sources you have used in your work.

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 h) Information literacy skills training on how to:
i. Define and refine a topic of research
ii. How to search and locate for information
related to topics in mind
iii. Identify legal information in various formats
and how to locate it
iv. Evaluate the quality of information and its
sources
v. Use information in an ethical manner.

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 The Role of Information professionals

Librarians are information specialists trained to ensure

proper development of libraries and their useful
utilization by its target group.
They organize the collection such that information
can conveniently be found by faculty members,
students and researchers.
They facilitate the use information sources through:
i. Information literacy training
ii. Research and reference servives
iii. Borrowing/lending services
iv. ICT-related services
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 The Circulation and Customer Care Services
Librarian will assist you to find a an appropriate
place to study in and borrow materials in the
library.

The Research/Reference Librarian will assist

you to learn how to use the library.

The Systems Librarian will assist you resolve

ICT related issues that you may have.

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 Categorization of information sources in an
academic library
i. Primary Sources

This is original information which report on new research, Original

documents.

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an

event, object, person, or work of art.
Primary sources provide the original materials on which other
research is based and enable students and other researchers to
get as close as possible to what actually happened during a
particular event or time period.

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 Primary Sources

a) A general collection of books that are relevant to your

research area
b) Scholarly Periodicals or Academic Journals and newspapers
in form of current issues and back issues.
Definition: Magazines tackling academic issues and
which are published at set periods on academic issues;
monthly, bi-annually, bi-monthly etc.
They contain journal articles: Writings called scholarly
or peer-reviewed journal articles: Academic articles

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 d) Reports from development agencies such as the World Bank and
United Nations.

e) Government publications (Sessional Papers, Statistical Abstracts,

Economic Surveys, laws of the country) etc.

f) Research reports of different research agencies both local and

international,

g) Manuscripts, undergraduate projects, postgraduate dissertations

and theses, etc.

h) Development agency reports from development agencies such as

the World Bank and United Nations.

i) Company literature e.g. annual reports, etc.

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 ii. Secondary Sources
This are repackaged sources used to summarize information in
primary sources and therefore used for finding primary sources.

Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment

upon, analyze, evaluate, summarize, and process primary
sources.
Secondary sources often lack the freshness and immediacy of
the original material.
On occasion, secondary sources will collect, organize, and
repackage primary source information to increase usability and
speed of delivery, such as an online encyclopedia.

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 Secondary Sources
Best example: Reference books
They contain facts that have been put together
from many sources such as:
i. Provide background information on your
topic,
Definitions of terms in a particular field.
Introduction and the development of the
subject area.
Trace the growth of important ideas in a
given subject area
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 ii. Authoritative information on major issues in
specific areas or topics.

iii. Description, location and evaluation of

literature in that field (bibliographies).

iv. Facts and statistics which indicate trends and

summaries of the events in a given subject.
The commonest types of reference works are:
Encyclopedias, Subject dictionaries, handbooks,
gazetteers, bibliographies, directories, indexes,
Almanacs, yearbooks
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 3. Tertiary Sources
A tertiary source consolidates and organizes primary and
secondary sources together into one source in order to facilitate
quick access to information.
 Tertiary sources are good starting points for research
projects because they often extract the essential meaning or the
most important aspects of large amounts of information into a
convenient format.

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 Tertiary Sources

They are sources used for finding secondary literature (and

sometimes primary) sources.
Examples are indexes, abstracts.

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 a) Indexes (Indexing Journals)

These are kinds of journals usually published

monthly and bound in annual volumes with both
subject and author index.
They serve to locate articles published within a
number of journals.
Examples of indexes are: Social Sciences Index

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 b) Abstracts (Abstracting journals)
These are summaries, which apart from listing articles
found in periodicals, they briefly describe each article.

It therefore saves the reader from going all the

way to look for the journal since this description
(abstract) will help to determine the relevance of the
article, hence researcher will decide in advance
whether to read it or not.

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 4. Grey Literature: These are information sources
which are not publicly/ easily available.
Pamphlets and newspapers
Reports of organizations e.g. company annual
reports , Conference proceedings & Maps

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 5. Electronic literature/resources

According to AACR2, an electronic resource is: "Material

(data and/or program(s)) encoded for manipulation by a
computerized device.
This material may require the use of a peripheral directly
connected to a computerized device (e.g., CD-ROM drive) or
a connection to a computer network (e.g., the internet)."

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 Electronic literature/resources
IFLA defines Electronic Resources as “to those materials that
require computer access, whether through a personal
computer, mainframe, or handheld mobile device. They may
either be accessed remotely via the internet or locally”.
Examples are:
Computer storage media (e.g. CD-ROMs and
DVDs) and equipment to use them,
Internet-based information sources such as e-
journals, and e-databases, internet-based
information

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 Advantages of E-resources:

i. Electronic resources make information available 24 hours a

day/7days a week.

ii. Electronic resources save time in looking up information and

retrieving information.

iii. Doing research online allows you to tackle more information as

e-resources are comprehensive

iv. All of the information is available in one place.

v. They give students access to information they wouldn’t
otherwise have, or that they might not have been able to find on

vi. Electronic resources present the user with vast amounts of

information.
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 Disadvantages of e-resources

i. It is easy to get distracted by the existence of too

much information.
ii. It is hard to determine when to quit searching for
information in order to start writing (undergraduate
students reported this as a major problem.
iii. The need to sort through the information to find
out which are legitimate sources.
iv. May lead to plagiarism.
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 Disadvantages of e-resources
Most e-resources are packaged in collections called e-
databases
Examples (Available in The CUEA Library webpage)
www.cuea.edu – Library – E-resources

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