Identifying Information Sources

UDSM Library

How Information is Generated

• By government. The government generates information through: Procedures Judicial Legislative Treaties Reports etc.

• By academic institutions Faculties and departments (reports, procedures etc), academic research in departments/faculties students theses and dissertations etc.

How Information is Generated

• Private sectors Commercial newspapers, magazine and book

publishers the film and television industry corporate laboratories, business research etc.

Why should you know about how information is generated?:

• Knowing how information is generated will determine where to go to locate and access information

• Knowing how information is generated will determine how you would evaluate information and sources

Primary & Secondary Sources

• Primary sources Person Interview E-Mail contact Event Discussion Debate Community Meeting Survey Artefact Observation of object

(animate and inanimate) etc.

• Secondary sources Reference Materials Books CD Rom Encyclopaedias Journals Magazines Newspapers Video Tapes TV www etc

Web-Based Information landscapes

• There are various landscapes of information in the world.

• These include:• Search Engines

Scirus Google Yahoo etc

• Information gateways (Subject Portals) TZ Online Pinakes etc

Web-Based Information landscapes

• Web Applications Blogs YouTube Wikipedia Delicious etc

• Online Databases Indexes (LISA, MEDLINE, ERIC etc.) Full Text (Emerald, Ebsco Host, Agora,

Blackwell Publishing etc.)

Search Engines

• Three main types: keyword searching tools, e.g. Google, AltaVista, All

the Web web directories/portals, e.g. Lycos, Yahoo

Yahoo for example, organise information by subject categories

meta-search/multi-search engines, e.g. Dogpile Most have huge databases of web resources, created

by automated robots But there are differences between most search

engines - experience can help in choosing which to use

Search Engines

• You can use Search Engines for: Finding lots of information Getting a feel for what is out there Doing a fairly specific search Searching for organisations, people, pictures

etc Doing quick and extensive searches

Search Engines

• Search engines do the following: While searching, some search engines can

suggest for spellings Search engines find websites by trying to

match the words contained in the search box Most search engines list sites found by

ranking their relevance to the search

Comparisons of Sources

• Those with high authority Books Journals Magazines Newspapers Reports

• Those with low authority www E-mail Newsgroups Other informal sources

(such as individuals etc)

Summary

• In this session, you have been able to: understand how information is generated understand the difference between primary

and secondary sources of information examine various web resources identify sources with higher and lower

authority