Page 234 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Unit 12: Bibliographical Sources

Avoiding duplication in research and access to materials of interest can be provided Notes
especially to researchers;

Bibliographic control over the existing literature.
Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. The reference source that comprises bibliography of any type is called a ............................
2. Bibliography is a systematic guide to the .................................. of the subject.

12.3 Types of Bibliographical Sources

There are several types of bibliographies. Most bibliographies are subject bibliographies but
there cannot be effective subject bibliographies unless there are wide-ranging and efficient
general bibliographies. Besides the subject bibliographies, the national bibliographies, also
referred to as current bibliographies, are very popular as they can be used for searching current
and retrospective information. The other types of known bibliographies are the trade
bibliographies and the universal bibliographies. Let us have more details about the various
kinds of bibliographies.

12.3.1 Subject Bibliographies

The subject bibliographies form the largest group of enumerative bibliographies.
Ranganathan defines a subject bibliography as the one that is a document bibliography confined
to a specific subject field, instead of covering the entire universe of subjects.
Depending on the contents of subject bibliographies, they can be divided into several categories,
a few of which are given below:

Reference Bibliographies: The subject bibliographies, which are mostly used for reference,
fall into this category. These bibliographies are considered exhaustive bibliographies.
However, it is often quite impossible to compile exhaustive bibliographies. These types
of publications therefore only aim to be exhaustive within chosen limits, which should be
made clear by the bibliographers.

Notes Material published in foreign languages is also a major limitation.

Reading Lists: Large sized subject bibliographies are important, especially when they
have a wide coverage. But they are not enough, as anyone wishing to study a particular
subject, at whatever level, needs a carefully prepared select bibliography of it. The reading
lists are quite common and produced by people who know or should know the literature
they recommend. Teachers often prepare the reading lists for distribution to students.
A bibliography or a reading list supporting a research article or a review article is usually
very valuable for reference purpose as lot of effort goes into preparation of such lists.
Subject Indexes and Abstracting Services: A helpful scanning of literature can be carried
out by searching the indexes of books and periodicals. There are also serials available,
called indexing services, which include all details of the published documents in a helpful
sequence. In some cases, the entries also include summaries of the texts; these are known
as the abstracting services.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 229