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.
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