Page 29 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes
• User generally directed to material • Generally exact and requisite provided
information
• Provision of information on demand • Provision of information in anticipation
• Attention paid instructing User in use • Less attention paid for instructions to
of documents on his own users

General Categorization of Reference and Information Service

The focal point of Reference Service is answering questions posed by the library user. Based on
the activity that are performed to meet the user demand, the Reference and Information service
can be categorised as follows:
(a) Instructional: Instruction in using the library and library resources (bibliography,
encyclopaedia, OPAC), assisting the end user to locate the appropriate material within
and outside the library, etc. are an important function associated with the Reference and
Information Service of a library. Questions that range from as simple as “Where are the
bound volume?” or “Where is the catalogue?” to research questions that may take hours
or even days to properly answer are to be dealt with in this section.
(b) Referral Service: It directs enquirers to a source of information which may be an organization
or an individual expert.

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Caution Generally, when a library or information centre does not have the material and
cannot obtain it from the sources but it knows the exact location of the document/
information, then it can refer the user to the sources of information.

(c) Information Scouting: Information scouting service consists of keeping abreast of who
has what information and where. Then it can refer the request to the appropriate person
and place in the organization or outside it or both. Information scouting is an extended
form of referral service.
(d) Citation Verification Service: Citation Verification Service is intended to verify the
citations/references and authentication of bibliographical details of books, articles, reports,
thesis and other published materials obtained from sources other than the authoritative
indexing and abstracting services offered by reputed publishers and licensed database
producers. The library patrons need this type of service for the preparation of assignments,
dissertations, theses, and project proposals.

(e) Literature Search/Bibliographical Survey: Literature search may be defined as a systematic
search for literature in any form on a particular topic. It forms the very first step of a
research pursuit. Otherwise, if a research work is duplicated the valuable time, money and
labour of the researcher will be wasted. The literature search is also needed to present the
latest available facts in writing articles or topic on any theme. Special library and
information centres generally provide literature search facilities to its patrons on demand.
Later, the result of the literature search is circulated to the enquirers.

Notes A sub type of this service is also known as Database Search Service (DBSS), which
intends to obtain information critical to the proposed or ongoing dissertations, theses,
post-doctoral research and other project work by consulting different online and offline
data bases.

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