Page 23 - DLIS105_REFERENCE_SOURCES_AND_SERVICES

Reference Sources and Services

Notes • Each has both strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages

• The weaknesses within any one method are balanced by the strengths of the others
• The strength of each is precisely that it is capable of turning up information or knowledge
records that cannot be found efficiently or often even at all by any of the others.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Information science is an ...... science and dissemination of information.
2. The most valuable assets of 20th coutury were its ...... equipment.
3. The most valuable assets of 21st century will be its ...... workers.
4. To search a database effecitively start with a ...... search.
5. Printed card is an example of ...... .
6. Talks between husband and wife, father and son are the examples of ...... communication.
7. A ...... is a photographic copy of an early plan for a building or machine with white lines on
a blue background.

1.5 Categories of Sources of Information

Different sources of information may broadly be grouped as documentary and nondocumentary
sources.
Printed documents are published in a variety of forms; documents are further grouped into primary,
secondary and tertiary documents.

Primary documents contain new or original idea or new interpretations of known facts.
Secondary documents are those derived from primary sources. Tertiary documents
are those that are based on the primary and secondary sources of information.

The information presented in the tertiary sources is highly condensed and the aim is to provide relevant
information in minimum number of expressions. They are primarly the aids to search primary and
secondary sources.
Sources of information are generally categorized as primary, secondary or tertiary depending on
their originality and their proximity to the source or origin. For example, scientific information moves
through a dissemination cycle. Initially, findings might be communicated informally by e-mail, and
then presented at meetings before being formally published as a primary source. Once published,
they will then be indexed in a bibliographic database, and repackaged and commented upon by
others in secondary sources. The designations of primary, secondary and tertiary differ between
disciplines or subjects, particularly between what can generally be defined as the sciences and the
humanities. Primary sources for critic studying the literature of the Second World War are different
from those for a research scientist investigating a new drug for arthritis. The critic’s primary sources
are the poems, stories, and films of the era. The research scientist’s primary sources are the results of
laboratory tests and the medical records of patients treated with the drug. You should always check
with your lecturer or tutor if in doubt.

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