Categories of Answer-Providing Tools (APTs)

Dr. Dania BilalIS 530Fall 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, 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. 229-230 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.