Chapter 2 : Information Sources And Resources Flashcards
Article
A piece of writing on a specific topic forming an independent part of a publication, such as a newspaper, journal or magazine.
Bibliographic database
Contains summary representations of documents, including their titles, abstracts and keywords. It indicates the author, date of publication and the name and location of the publisher. They do not contain the full text of documents
Dictionary
List of words and their definitions, or a list of words and their translations in one or more languages
Digital library
A collection of documents in electronic format so that they can be accessed by the computer.
Digital libraries are also called virtual libraries, electronic libraries or e-libraries.
Directory
List of names of people living in a particular area, organisations operating in a particular field of individuals in a particular profession.
Document
Written, printed or electronic material that provides information. The term document applies to information in a range of formats, including books, articles, maps, web pages, photographs and videos
Encyclopaedia
Collections of paper-based or digital knowledge in written format.
Can be general, dealing with a range of topics or subject-specific, for example, medical encyclopaedias.
Gateway
Serves as a single point of entry to many information sources
Internet
Network of computer networks that operates worldwide using a common set of communication protocols.
The internet is the broad name given to several communication technologies used on the worldwide network, eg, email, chat rooms and the world wide web
Invisible web
The part of the web which is not accessible to general search engines.
Consists of pages that are not linked to any external pages.
It’s also called the deep web of hidden web
Journal
Collection of academic reports and articles that is published on a regular basis and is available in print form and/or internet
Periodical
Published at regular intervals, for example, weekly or monthly.
They usually keep the same title and the issues are numbers consecutively.
As a rule, several people contribute to a single issue.
Publication
A work that is produced and made available to the public.
Some publications are for sale and others are free.
Examples of publications are books, songs, software, videos and journals
Text
Can be broadly defined as the written or printed material that forms the main body of a publication
World Wide Web (www)
The www is part of the internet that a browser can access
Yearbook
A publication that contains current information for a particular year.
The subject material may be general or specific and is provided in brief descriptive or statistical form.
Also known as annuals
Timeline of the development of the internet and its applications
(See picture)
Communication services
Email, Skype, etc
Discussion services
Newsgroups, blogs, etc.
Example of a URL
(See picture)
Corporate website
Provides information about the company, institution or organisation.
Personal website
“Vanity sites”
Individuals or small groups create them and often do so purely for pleasure
Dictionary
Alphabetical list of words with definitions or a list of words with translations in one or more languages
Examples of dictionaries
(See picture)
Thesaurus
Book that lists words for each entry that have similar, related or opposite meanings for each entry.
Does not supply meaning of words
Biographic database
Do not contain full-text documents.
They contain representations of documents by providing details of the title, abstract and keywords, also name of author and place of publication
Bibliographies
Bibliographies are compiled lists of publications of either a single author
or all the books and articles on a particular topic. They are also
sometimes compiled according to all the books published in a certain
country or within a particular time span.
Bibliographies do not exist for every possible topic, but they are a useful
source of information for the topics they do cover.
Directories
Directories are lists of names of people living in a particular area,
organisations operating in a particular field or individuals in a particular
profession. Directories can be found in both printed and electronic form.
Almanacs
An almanac is an annual publication that lists events for the next year
such as planting dates for farmers, oceanic tide tables, phases of the
moon and times for sunrise and sunset.
Important dates
(See pictures)
Orthophoto maps
An orthophoto is an aerial photograph that has been corrected so
that there are no distortions, for example, due to the earth’s
curvature. Orthophotos are used to measure the true distances
between objects.
Relief maps
Relief maps show the geographical features of an area, for
example mountains
Distribution maps
Distribution maps focus on particular subjects and can show how,
where and when they occur. For example, distribution maps can
indicate which languages are spoken in a particular geographical
area or the prevalence of a disease in different parts of the world
Topographical maps
Topographical maps illustrate topographical features, for example
dams, mountains, towns, roads and farm boundaries.
Street maps
Street maps provide a lot of detail and are used to navigate small
areas such as towns or suburbs in a city.
Road maps
Road maps are less detailed than street maps and are used to
navigate large areas, for example, across countries.
Atlases
An atlas is a collection of maps.
Geographic information system (GIS)
A geographic information system (GIS) creates and manages spalial
data using a computer system. Geographic information is referenced
and stored so that people can use it interactively by analysing and
integrating the information available.
Conference proceedings
Conference proceedings are published records of conferences. Usually
the full text of the papers presented at a conference is published
However, sometimes only an extended abstract or slides are made
available
Diaries
Diaries are personal accounts of events and are often handwritten
Scientists sometimes use diaries to record the progress of their
experiments.
Government publications
Government publications are official publications published by a
govemment’s printing facility. Printed copies of government publications
are stored in national and parliamentary libraries, but most government
departments make relevant documents available on their websites.
Grey literature
‘Grey literature stands for manifold
document types produced on all levels of government, academics,
business and industry in print and electronic formats that are protected
by intellectual property rights, of sufficient quality to be collected and
preserved by libraries and institutional repositories, but not controlled by
commercial publishers.
Reports
A report is a written description of a completed research project or an
interim description of progress made towards the completion of a
research project.
Theses or dissertations
A thesis or dissertation is an academic report or treatise that is written as
part of a higher degree or diploma. Whether to use the term dissertation’
or thesis’ depends on the institution.
Bulletin boards
Bulletin boards and groups are similar to emails and electrohic mailing
lists as they are forms of communication among people.
Blogs and vlogs
The term ‘blog is short for web log or weblog. Vlog’ is short for video
blog, and makes use of video or includes video clips. Personal blogs are
like online diaries, The owner can post messages from time to time and
allow others to comment. This creates a discussion forum or a virtual
community around a particular person or interest.
Wikis
Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for ‘fast’ or ‘quick’. Wikis are
mediated public spaces open to participation. Anyone can edit, change
or delete text on a wiki. Wikis are based on the collaborative sharing of
knowledge
Microblogging
Microblogging is a combination of blogging and text messaging that
allows users to post a short message on their profile. Microblogging
evolved from blogging, as people began to post shorter or condensed
versions of their blogs
Social media and social networking
Social networking, which uses social media, is the process of
establishing and building online relationships with others for social,
professional or educational purposes. In other words, social networking
enables people to come together online around shared interests or
causes.
Photo sharing
Photo sharing is the publishing or transferring of digital photos online,
allowing them to be shared with others, either publicly or privately.
Photographs can be organised into online groups, sets, categories,
events or albums.
Video sharing
Video sharing allows websites or software users to distribute their video
Olips. Some video-sharing services may charge for their services, but the
large majority do not.
Podcasts
The term podcast actually applies to both audio and video recordings.
However typically, it only refers to audio broadcasting
Podcasts allow anyone to create their own talk show, interview
educational or training seminar, sermon, speech, presentation or music
file that can be distributed worldwide for people to download and listen
to
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a web-based service where people share internet
bookmarks. With social bookmarking, users store lists of internet
sources that they find useful on a public website and tag them with their
own keywords.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
RSS is a way to automatically feed your web pages, blogs, audio, video
and photographs to people who subscribe. Every time that you create
something new on the internet and hit Publish’, a feed goes to everyone
who has asked for an update.
Social libraries
Social libraries are sites that allow users to keep track of their
collections, such as books, records and DVDs. Users can also use social
libraries to share their collections.
Data
Research published in journal articles and books is often based on
empirical data - data collected by the researcher(s) and analysed and
summarised in the article or book. Up to quite recently, such data were
regarded as proprietary.
