Answer-Providing Tools (APTs)

Dr. Dania Bilal

IS 530

Spring 2006

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, 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 Adults/children/young adults Print & online

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

Specific country, region, city, building, museum, etc.

Unique information appropriate for answering specific reference questions

Guides to the Literature

Specific subject area or discipline Available sources related to subject or

discipline May cover more than one subject area

Guides to the Literature

Lead-in tools Selection 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

Writings or publications such as books, journal articles, etc. on a given subject or by a given author

Bibliographic citations

Example: Bate’s Bibliography of Works on Information Seeking, Indexing, and

Information Retrieval Systems

Abstracting Sources

Indexes with citations and abstracts of articles and other materials

Lead-in tools

Monographs and Texts

Treaties on a subject or class of subjects Intended to be read completely Detailed discussion of a subject Tables, illustrations, bibliographies Not typical reference sources

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

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