There are many sources of information at our disposal. These forms can be broken into that of electronic and hard copies. Each have their benefits and drawback and serve in different ways.
Hard Copy Sources
- Benefits
- Organized and searched by librarians
- Often screened by experts for accuracy
- Easier to preserve and keep secure
- Drawbacks
- Time-consuming and inefficient to search
- Offer only text and images
- Hard to update
Electronic Sources
- Benefits
- More current, efficient, and accessible
- Searches can be narrowed or broadened
- Can offer material that has no hard copy equivalent
- Drawbacks
- Access to recent material only
- Not always reliable
- User might get lost
Key Points:
Internet Sources:
- Numerous formats exist such as journals, newspapers, and magazines
- Online News and Magazines
- Major news such as CNN and NPR broadcast and print in formats available on the internet
- Government Sites
- Government organizations have website that have information specific to that organization
- They also post information for research and reporting purposes
- Community Discussion Groups and Bulletin Boards
- Can provide ample amounts of information if evaluated correctly
- Blogs and Wikis
- Blogs - Offer updated and chronological information but must still be evaluated as with discussion groups and bulletin boards
- Wikis - A community encyclopedia where the information is updated by the community itself and only kept in check by them
- Email Lists
- An easy way to keep updated on specific topics
- Library Chat-rooms
- Allows referencing of a librarian via live chat
- Library Databases Searchable via the Internet
- Allows access to books, research material, and sometimes account information specific to the library site visited
- Other types of Websites
- Many other websites exist such as those of corporate interests or advertising and market. These should also be evaluated carefully
- Guidelines for Researching on the Internet
- Select key words or phrases that are varied and technical
- Look for web sites that are discipline-specific
- Expect limited results from any one search engine
- Save or print what you need before it changes or disappears
- Download only what you need
- Before downloading anything from the internet, consider the legal and ethical implications
- Consider using information retrieval services Inquisit or Dialog
- Credit all sources
Intranets and Extranets:
- Intranets
- An in-house network that uses internet technology to place a company's knowledge and expertise at any authorized user's fingertips
- Can have libraries, price lists, and progress reports
- Can list the specialized knowledge of employees
- Extranets
- A company's intranet with the global internet
- External users can browse non-restricted areas and download what they need
- Firewalls, encryption, and passwords are the primary forms of security for these systems
Other Electronic Sources:
- Compact Discs
- Portable databases capable of carrying full encyclopedias
- Online Retrieval Services
- Bibliographic Databases - lists publications in a particular field and sometimes includes abstracts for each entry
- Full Test Databases - display the entire article or document and will print it on command
- Factual Databases - provide up-to-the-minute stock quotations, weather data, and credit ratings for major companies -- among facts of all kinds
Hard Copy Sources:
- Reference Works
- Bibliographies
- Encyclopedias
- Handbooks
- Almanacs
- Directories
- Card Catalogs
- Guides to Literature
- Indexes
- Book Indexes
- Newspaper Indexes
- Periodical Indexes
- Citation Indexes
- Technical Report Indexes
- Patent Indexes
- Indexes to Conference Proceedings
- Abstracts
- Access Tools for U.S. Government Publications
- The Monthly Catalog of the United States Government - a major pathway to government publications and reports
- Government Reports Announcements and Indexes - a listing of more than one million federally sponsored research reports published and patents issued since 1964
- The Statistical Abstract of the United States - updated yearly, offers information on population, health, employment, etc.
- Microforms
- Allows large amounts of printed data to be stored in a small area
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