Page 10 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 1: Documentary Sources of Information

When the concept of documents is generalized in this way it includes both textual publications Notes
(the primary object of libraries) non-published records (primary object of archives) and physical
objects (primary object of museums). It thus includes what Hjerppe (1994) designates the activities
of memory institutions.
Before 1990 – when CD-ROM-databases were introduced as tools for end-user searching – the
role of documentalists was primarily to make searches in commercial online databases for end
users. Those databases were mainly based on a high cost per minute of use. The documentalists
were mostly associated with special departments of documentation with major research libraries
such as Karolinska University Hospital and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm,
Sweden or Technical Knowledge Centre of Denmark and Danish National Library of Science
and Medicine in Copenhagen, Denmark. With the advent of end user based systems around 1990
disappeared the most important role of documentalists and the use of the concept “documentation”
declined in Scandinavia as it had earlier declined in the English-speaking world (cf., Hjørland,
2000b).

Did u know? Although the term “documentation” is still in use (e.g. in Journal of
Documentation) the trend has been to replace it with information science (or other phrases
in which the word information forms a part).
The goal of documentation is to explore the field of scholarly, scientific and professional
communication as well as cultural and educational intermediating in order to optimise the tasks
of the producers and users of knowledge.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

1. A library as a gateway of knowledge provides access to a variety of documentary sources
of information.
2. Original documents are scanned images of original legal documents.

3. Any legal document can be related to any other document.
4. Legal literature is writings that cover legal topics and carry the weight of a law.
5. In the English-speaking world, the term “documentation” was gradually replaced by the
term “information science”.
1.2 Printed and Non-printed Sources

The print media reigned supreme and unrivalled for about 500 years when at the 2nd half of the
20th century it faced a formidable challenge from non-print media. Now, a big question has
cropped up before the world whether the print media will be able to withstand the threat from
the non-print media and continue as usual in future, or it will yield to the pressure and gradually
vanish from the scene.

1.2.1 Print Sources

Print Source is a source of information that was originally published and made available to the
public by being printed on paper. This would include books, magazines, newspapers,
encyclopaedias, journals, letters, etc., anything that was originally made available to the public
through an ink-on-paper medium.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 5