ReferenceSourcesandServices DLIS105 REFERENCE SOURCES AND SERVICES Copyright © 2012 Dr. Mathesh All rights reserved Produced & Printed by LAXMI PUBLICATIONS (P) LTD. 113, Golden House, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002 for Lovely Professional University Phagwara DLP-7761-073-REF SOURCES & SERVICES C-4702/012/02 Typeset at: Goswami Associates, Delhi Printed at: Sanjay Printers & Publishers (P) Ltd., Delhi SYLLABUS Reference Sources and Services Objectives: • To educate and expose students to various basic reference sources and services that can be used to cater for varying needs of library users in different libraries and information centres. • To equip the students to face the current trends in user demand for information in different formats. • To enable students to have adequate knowledge of location, application and usefulness of information sources. Also on-line searching (web search tools) as the current trends would be impacted on the students Sr. No Topics 1 Reference and Information sources :Documentary sources of Information ; print and non -print :categories: primary, secondary and tertiary: 2 Human and institutional sources of Information. Reference Services: Kinds and nature of reference services, Methods and Evaluation. 3 Users and Non users, User Education Program, Orientation, ready and long range reference service. 4 Reference and Information Sources: Types of Reference and Criteria for evaluation of Reference and Bibliographical sources. 5 Reference and Information Services: Concept, definition, need and trends. Basics of digital and virtual reference services. 6 Need, techniques and evaluation of CAS and SDI services. Bibliographic, referral, document delivery, and translation services. 7 Information Systems and Network: Services and products of Documentation and Information Centers, and Information systems and networks at national level: NISCAIR, DESIDOC, NASSDOC, INFLIBNET, DELNET. 8 Services and products of Documentation and Information Centers, 9 Information systems and Networks at international level: OCLC, AGRIS AND INIS. 10 Indexing and abstracting Services: Purpose and types. Development of abstracting services, Functions, types, uses and criteria of evaluation. : CONTENTS Unit 1: Reference and Information Sources 1 Unit 2: Human and Institutional Sources of Information 24 Unit 3: Reference Services 32 Unit 4: Library Orientation 45 Unit 5: Reference Sources 52 Unit 6: Reference and Information Services 61 Unit 7: Virtual Reference Services 70 Unit 8: Current Awareness Services 78 Unit 9: Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Services 86 Unit 10: Library Information Systems and Networks 93 Unit 11: Information Services and Products of Documentation 119 Unit 12: Some Important Information centers 130 Unit 13: Library Classification 145 Unit 14: Development of Abstracting Services 151 Unit 1: Reference and Information Sources Unit 1: Reference and Information Sources Notes CONTENTS Objectives Introduction 1.1 Documentary Sources of Information 1.2 Document Description 1.3 Print Media 1.3.1 Types of Print Media 1.3.2 Future of Print Media 1.4 Non-Print Media 1.4.1 Conventional Media 1.4.2 Electronic Media 1.4.3 Cybermedia 1.4.4 Print and Non-Print 1.5 Categories of Sources of Information 1.5.1 Primary Sources 1.5.2 Secondary Sources 1.5.3 Tertiary Sources 1.6 Summary 1.7 Keywords 1.8 Review Questions 1.9 Further Readings Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to: • Discuss documentary sources of information • Explain print and non-print media • Explain Primary sources, Secondary sources and Tertiary sources. LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 1 Reference Sources and Services Notes Introduction Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information. Practitioners within the field study the application and usage of knowledge in organizations, along with the interaction between people, organizations and any existing information systems, with the aim of creating, replacing, improving or understanding information systems. Information science is often considered a branch of computer science. However, it is actually a broad, interdisciplinary field, incorporating not only aspects of computer science, but often diverse fields such as archival science, cognitive science, commerce, communications, law, library science, musicology, management, mathematics, philosophy, public policy, and the social sciences. Information science focuses on understanding problems from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and then applying information and other technologies as needed. In other words, it tackles systemic problems first rather than individual pieces of technology within that system. In this respect, information science can be seen as a response to technological determinism, the belief that technology “develops by its own laws, that it realizes its own potential, limited only by the material resources available, and must therefore be regarded as an autonomous system controlling and ultimately permeating all other subsystems of society”. Within information science, attention has been given in recent years to human–computer interaction, groupware, the semantic web, value sensitive design, iterative design processes and to the ways people generate, use and find information. Today, this field is called the Field of Information, and there are a growing number of Schools and Colleges of Information. Information science should not be confused with information theory, the study of a particular mathematical concept of information, or with library science, a field related to libraries which uses some of the principles of information science. 1.1 Documentary Sources of Information “The most valuable assets of a 20th century company were its production equipment. The most valuable asset of a 21st century institution, whether business or non-business, will be its knowledge workers and their productivity”. Today’s workforce, largely professionals known as knowledge workers, spends a great deal of its time creating, using and communicating knowledge. Currently knowledge workers spend an average of 9.25 hours per week just gathering and analyzing data. For more than two decades, information seeking end-user research has consistently shown that professional knowledge workers spend, on average, 25% of their workweek seeking and analyzing information. Of that time, 50% is spent analyzing the information. Also, individuals intuitively cease information seeking after spending 20-25% of their time doing so because a) other work-related tasks have become more important and b) they perceive further effort will yield insufficient results to warrant more time expenditure. It is the generation, transfer, and reuse of both external and internal information in the form of knowledge that distinguishes information as an asset. If information is the raw material of knowledge work, then the relationship between an organization’s productivity and its information services is 2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY Unit 1: Reference and Information Sources critical to an information intensive industry such as the practice of law. An important application of Notes knowledge management involves the concept of intellectual capital, “knowledge that exists in an organization that can be used to create differential advantage”. Knowledge management (KM), defined as the deliberate modification of an organization to improve its information and knowledge creation and sharing, seeks to aggregate and manage an organization’s information environment to ultimately contribute to improved organizational performance and productivity. Empirical research exists that proves cost effective information services do provide its parent a competitive advantage. Because this issue crosses multiple disciplines, research findings are published in a scattered, sometimes obscure, body of literature across disciplines such as business, economics, social sciences and library and information sciences. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the generally accepted measures of information services contribution to productivity were based on valuing Library services. An example is cost savings accrued to the Library’s parent by having professionally trained librarians locate required information. Highly paid, highly productive employees can then focus on their primary duties instead of spending time finding information themselves. Organizations continuously strive for productivity improvements by seeking to maximize efficient and effective use of its resources (inputs) to produce maximum goods and services (outputs). Productivity has long been an accepted and highly desirable economic measure; one so important that high productivity can be a competitive advantage ensuring sustainable market share. 1.2 Document Description Men have been communicating with speech for about 100,000 years. This form of communication, i.e., the oral form, reigned unrivalled for thousands and thousands of years. Gradually, it dawned on man that message can be left on some surface using drawings or symbols. The great cave paintings of Altamira in Spain and Lascaux in France daubed on the cave walls some 20,000 years ago seem to convey some distinct message [Odhams]. Millennia passed by before drawings and paintings took the form of early pictorial writing. In some parts of the world pictorial writing gave birth to scripts. The oldest known writing we are aware of is that of Mesopotamia