Tuesday, 3 December 2013

Topic-2 : Structure of Information

Salaaaaaaam



This topic was very useful and knowledgeable. Our lecturer started to explain the meaning of information resources that refer to any place or thing (attribute) where user can get the information. Information resources can be book, people, internet, or many more. The producers of information resources are include students, teacher, researchers, government, organization, and many more. The format of information can be printed such as books or non-printed such as internet sources. 



After that, our lecturer explained the types of information which are three types. The first type of information is called primary sources. Primary sources are the first hand sources and original sources. For example, diaries, journals, autobiographies that means someone write about himself or herself, historical documents, original documents such as birth certificate and court documents, sound recording, interviews, video and photographs, letters, and many other sources that written as first hand draft. 


The second type of information is called secondary sources. Secondary sources can be defined as something written about primary sources. So, it can be called as second draft sources. It is interpretation of primary sources. The examples of secondary sources are Almanac, encyclopedia, biography that mean someone write about another person, history books, text books, and other sources. To make us understand these sources, our lecturer asked us to search in groups and find information and then presented it. My group topic was about Almanac.

The third type of information is called tertiary sources. Tertiary sources are distillation and collection of both primary and secondary sources. The examples of tertiary sources are bibliographies of bibliography, directories of directories, and guide to literature. In fact, most types of references are tertiary sources.


Then the lecturer gave us small activity to see our understanding. In that activity, the lecture asked about the articles in magazine and newspapers are they primary or secondary sources. Therefore, some of us said primary and other said secondary sources. Then, the lecturer explained that articles can be primary or secondary sources. For example, if the article written at the time something occurred so it became primary sources. However, if someone wrote an article taken the information from another person so, it became secondary sources.
 



In the second session of the topic, the lecturer explained about the reference sources. Reference materials are materials that provide quick, factual information on a topic. These materials designed to be consulted rather than read through. Reference materials can be books, serials, on-line database or the Internet. Then, lecturer said that there are two types of reference materials which are general and specific. Reference materials can be arranged alphabetical or in classification order such as chronological or topical orders. They also provide definition and general information. Then, she gave us the importance of reference materials where they are often the best place to start your research because they, provide a good introduction to a topic, provide brief, factual information, define unfamiliar terms, and they identify additional relevant sources.


After that, the lecturer explained to us some example of reference materials. The first example of reference materials was encyclopedia. Encyclopedias are books that contain concise, factual information on topics or concepts. They usually arranged in alphabetical order. However, encyclopaedia may be general Encyclopaedia Britannica or subject specific such as Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science.

 
  

The second example of reference materials was dictionaries. Dictionaries provide information about words such as definitions, pronunciations, synonyms, usages, and slang. Moreover, dictionaries can be divided into six categories. The first category of dictionaries is called general dictionaries which provide definitions, pronunciations, syllabication, and usage. The second category of dictionaries is called historical dictionaries which provide the history of words. The third category of dictionaries is called etymological dictionaries which emphasize the linguistic and grammatical history of the word usage. The fourth category of dictionaries is called Period or scholarly specialized dictionaries which focus on a particular place or time period. The fifth category of dictionaries is called subject dictionaries focus on word definitions in a subject area, such as finance or law. The sixth category of dictionaries is other dictionaries which include dictionaries of slang, abbreviations, synonyms, acronyms,, idioms,  and phrases. In addition to that, there are different names for dictionaries such as glossary, lexicon, thesaurus, and vocabulary. Glossary is an alphabetical list and the definitions of terms. Lexicon is a dictionary of words of a language, arranged alphabetically giving-meaning in another language. A thesaurus is a dictionary of synonyms or words with same meaning. Vocabulary used for a stock of words and phrases with brief explanations and meaning.



The third example of reference materials is biographical sources which are directories of prominent persons, usually arranged alphabetically by surnames, with biographical identification that range from brief outline to extended narrative such as International who’s who. 

The fourth example of reference materials is geographical sources which provide information about places. In fact, there is several types of geographical sources. The first type of geographical sources is called maps. A map is a flat piece of paper that describes a place or part of the world. The second type of geographical sources is globes which are three dimensional model of earth.  The fourth type of geographical sources is Guidebooks that provide brief historical information about a particular place with some detailed descriptions of hotels, museums, restaurants famous sites and other information useful to travelers. The fifth type of geographical sources is Atlases which contain collections of maps. They provide information on geographical or political changes. However, there are three types of Atlases which are national, world, and thematic Atlases. The sixth type of geographical sources is called Gazetteers which referred as geographical dictionaries and provide descriptions of places. Gazetteers list of place names. It has two types which are general and regional gazetteers.
    

The fifth example of reference materials is year book. The aim of this book is to record the yearly development is a geographical area, in an organization, or in subject discipline. 


The sixth example of reference materials is periodical publication. Periodical publication can be journals, articles, or magazines which published regularly.




In the last session of this topic we studied the format of information.  The first format is audiovisual media. These materials provide sight or sound to present information. These materials are instructional materials such CD and DVD. These materials are organized in library or information agency listed in catalogue or OPAC. They are put in separate files in special rooms arranged according to subject and classification.  The second format is microforms which referred any document that has been reproduced in "micro" format.  Microform helps libraries to save rare and old materials. It also helps to save space since it store thousands of materials in a few cabinets. Furthermore, there are two common types of microforms. The first type is microfilm that is A strips of film on which printed materials are photographed at greatly reduced size for ease of storage. The second type of microform is microfiche that is a small sheet of microfilm containing multiple images arranged in standardized columns and rows.

The third format of information is bibliographical databases. The databases of bibliographical records, an organized digital collection of references including journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books. They give information about materials within a specified subject area. They also cover publications from a range of different countries and years.

At the end of this knowledgeable topic, our lecturer gave us some exercises to let us distinguish the differences between several references that we learnt. Therefore, I hope that you learnt with me.
 

  Thanks



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