Categories of Answer Providing Tools APTs Dr Dania Bilal IS 530 Fall 2007 Types of Sources Primary Sources Actual records of events that survived from the past Diaries personal journals personal accounts interviews original manuscripts artifacts poems etc Types of Sources Secondary Sources Offer an analysis or a restatement of primary sources Dictionaries encyclopedias books and articles that interpret or review research works Types of Sources Tertiary Sources Lead in tools to primary and secondary sources Indexes databases literature guides bibliographies etc Biographical Sources Information about people Biographical dictionaries directories indexes Adults young adults children General and specialized Print and online Examples Current Biography Who s Who Biography Index Online Catalogs List of titles held in a library collection Location service lead in tool Directs users to information about subjects authors etc but does not provide the information itself Type of questions Person subject specific publication Dictionaries Information about terms language historical background of a term syllabication pronunciation etc Adults children Abridged unabridged General specialized Print and online Encyclopedias Articles on subjects in a general or specific field of knowledge Multi volume one volume set Adult adult young adults children See comparison chart Katz I pp 229230 and detailed description evaluation of each encyclopedia on the following pages See page 246 Other Children s Sets Encyclopedias See Katz I pp 256 260 Lists multi volume encyclopedias in foreign languages Subject or specialized encyclopedias Various disciplines Evaluated and described in Katz I pp 260 275 Encyclopedias Type of questions answered in encyclopedias Background information on events Overview of a topic Profile of a person Outline chronology of events Other Geographical Sources Information about places Atlases maps gazetteers guidebooks Each provides a different type of information about places Adults young adults children Print online Gazetteers Geographic dictionaries Places physical features and information about them Spelling pronunciation of place names history of name changes population industries agriculture climate and history Maps Pictorial representation of earth s surface or a section of it Physical historical political information Information is more tabular and pictorial than narrative Print online Atlases Collection of maps Simple depiction of a geographical area to detailed information about aspects of an area such as population mineral and energy resources and agriculture Articles tables weather geology zip codes Guidebooks Information about a specific country region city building museum travel information etc Unique information appropriate for answering specific reference questions Guides to the Literature Specific subject area or discipline Cover available sources related to subject or discipline May cover more than one subject area Guides to the Literature Lead in tools Selection and evaluation tools May include bibliographies guides indexing abstracting services periodicals dictionaries encyclopedias and other sources along with annotations of each title Handbooks Manuals Compact sources Information on a specific area discipline or discipline in a concise or comprehensive form Compilations of literary historical and statistical data Handbooks Manuals Narrative information with charts tables graphs formulae etc Directed toward specialist or practitioner Examples Physician s Desk Reference PDR APA Style Manual U S Government Manual Indexes Guides to the contents of a source of knowledge Systematic arrangement of contents using different schemes Examples Book index periodical index online catalog Bibliographies Bibliographic control and access tools Used to identify verify locate and select Trade limited to materials published within a given country e g BIP National NUC all books published by LC and member libraries locally and overseas Indexing Abstracting Sources Indexes with citations and abstracts of articles and other materials Journal magazine and newspaper indexes User language vs system language Subject headings lists thesauri Indexing Abstracting Sources Types of indexes General Print and online Reader s Guide Expanded Academic ASAP Specialized Print and online Social Science Index Social Science Citation Index SocialSciSearch Dialog Yearbooks Almanacs General or specialized Current information in descriptive and statistical form Information about people places organizations numeric information measurements etc almanacs Chronology of world events and other info Non biographical Directories Directories with no emphasis on people Information about organizations agencies societies clubs official bodies institutions manufacturers businesses professions regions and the like Evaluation Each type of tools has specific evaluation criteria see Katz I in addition to the general criteria we discussed in class Many types and titles within each type are provided in Katz I Class Activity Match the question to the most suitable APT Address of the White House Synonyms for the verb negate Date of assassination of president John Kennedy Causes of death of Kennedy Jr Name of the CEO of Coca Cola Co Citation for latest article published by Bilal Wang Meaning of IEEE Calories of an average size bagel Conversion formula from Centigrade to Fahrenheit A review of the movie Fahrenheit 911 Overview of Assignment 1 Read assignment 1 Peruse the chapters on APTs in Katz I Raise any questions about the assignment in class