Page 7 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services
Notes
2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY
1.1 Document
A document constitutes embodied thought which is a record of work on paper or other material
fit for physical handling, transport across space and preservation through time. It may include
manuscripts, handwritten and engraved materials including printed books, periodical, microform,
photograph, gramophone records, tape records, etc. The recent advances in science and technology
help originate another kind of document i.e. computer readable forms that includes CD, DVD,
pen drive, hard disk, web resources, etc. All documents are the records of human observation
and thought and in its creation direct human intervention is necessary. They provide some
information to its readers or users. A library as a gateway of knowledge provides access to a
variety of such documentary sources of information. It is generated out of a service to be
provided to the user. It is a kind of consolidation and presentation process giving tangibility to
information.
Did u know? The sources of documentary information can also be termed as an information
product.
In Library and information science and in documentation science, a “document” is considered a
basic theoretical construct. It is everything which may be preserved or represented in order to
serve as evidence for some purpose. The classical example provided by Suzanne Briet is an
antelope: “An antelope running wild on the plains of Africa should not be considered a document,
she rules. But if it was to be captured, taken to a zoo and made an object of study, it has been
made into a document. It has become physical evidence being used by those who study it.
Indeed, scholarly articles written about the antelope are secondary documents, since the antelope
itself is the primary document.” (Quoted from Buckland, 1998). (This view has been seen as an
early expression of what now is known as actor–network theory). That documents cannot be
defined by their transmission medium (such as paper) is evident because of the existence of
electronic documents. The concept of document has been defined as “any concrete or symbolic
indication, preserved or recorded, for reconstructing or for proving a phenomenon, whether
physical or mental”.
A much cited article asked “what is a document” and concluded this way: “The evolving notion
of ‘‘document’’ among (Jonathan Priest). Otlet, Briet, Schürmeyer, and the other document lists
increasingly emphasized whatever functioned as a document rather than traditional physical
forms of documents. The shift to digital technology would seem to make this distinction even
more important. Levy’s thoughtful analyses have shown that an emphasis on the technology of
digital documents has impeded our understanding of digital documents as documents (e.g.,
Levy, 1994). A conventional document, such as a mail message or a technical report, exists
physically in digital technology as a string of bits, as does everything else in a digital environment.
As an object of study, it has been made into a document. It has become physical evidence by
those who study it.
1.1.1 Types of Documents
There are several different types of documents in the library. Each type of document has different
characteristics. Each type of document may be related to other documents in the library.
The following sections explain these different types of documents.
Original Document
Original documents are scanned images of original legal documents. These may be provincial
gazettes or other printed legal documents that have been scanned, converted into Adobe Acrobat