In a Library there are two types of information sources are available. They are (A) Documentary sources and (B) Non- Documentary Sources.
(A) Documentary
Sources:- All sources in the
form of documents are documentary sources. A Selective list of documentary
sources are given below:-
(1)
Treatises:- It is a long and
serious piece of writing on a particular subject. It is considered as a
secondary source of information.
(2) Monograph:- It presents a detailed study on a single
subject, class of subjects, or a person and is usually accompanied with a
bibliography.Some publishers bring out monograph series as well.
(3) Textbooks:- A text book is a book that is used by
students as a standard work for a particular branch of study.It uses in
schools, colleges, universities to update the knowledge, prepare class notes,
clarify doubts etc.
(4) Reference Books:- It used to find answers of queries.
(5) Dictionaries:- A list of words of a language in alphabetical order and explains what they mean or gives a word for them in a foreign language. In monolingual dictionary , we get the meaning, definition, explanation etc of a word in the same language in which the dictionary is written. In bilingual dictionary we will get the meaning of a English word in one other language (Eg. English – Bengali). In Multilingual dictionaries we gets meaning of a word in different languages.
(5) Dictionaries:- A list of words of a language in alphabetical order and explains what they mean or gives a word for them in a foreign language. In monolingual dictionary , we get the meaning, definition, explanation etc of a word in the same language in which the dictionary is written. In bilingual dictionary we will get the meaning of a English word in one other language (Eg. English – Bengali). In Multilingual dictionaries we gets meaning of a word in different languages.
(6) Thesauri:- It gives a particular word which is best
suited for a particular context. So it
is defined as a book that list words in group of synonyms and related concepts.
(7) Encyclopedias:- It contains informative articles of
varying length ranging from a few lines to hundred pages or more There are two
types of encyclopedias are there, ie General encyclopedias which categorized by
volume, subject and user. The other type is Subject encyclopedias and which
devoted to a particular subject like
physics or more that subject like science and technology. Some of these
enclopedias are in one volume and are in two or more volumes.
(8) Handbooks:- It is small enough to held in the hand and are
meant for practitioners and includes formulas, definitions, values of various
constants, and so on which are required by practitioners. It is always devoted
to a particular subject or subjects.
(9) Manuals
: A manual is a book that gives
instructions about how to use a machine and many other things.
(10) Data
Books and Tables:- These are
mostly used by statical and metrological departments for making datas in
tabular forms for publications.
(11) Catalogues:- The catalogue holds bibliographic information
about millions and millions of books emanated all over the world.
(12) Bibliographies:- A bibliography is a list of documents
arranged in some logical order. An entry in a bibliography provides information
about the author, title, edition, collaborators, imprint, collation etc of a
book.
(13) Directories:- A directory lists names of person,
institutions or organizations of a particular area.
(14) Yearbooks:- A yearbook, as the name suggests appears
annually and updates information every year. They are various types and are
categorized as, general and subject oriented, national, regional and
international. The yearbooks portray the development in the particular subject
during the preceding year.
(15) Almanacs:- It is an annual calendar containing
important dates and statical information such as astronomical data. The various
almanacs published in our country provide data in chronological order of all
the days of the year.
(16) Biographical
Dictionaries:- Biographical
dictionaries are three types: Who is Who, Who was Who and a combination of
both.
(17) Maps:- A map is a sheet of paper or similar
material on which the earth’s surface, or part of it is shown indicating
countries, oceans, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, roads and so on.
(18) Globes:- A globe is a sphere the surface of
which shows countries, oceans, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, etc. Just like
a map. It is mounted on a stand and can be rotated around its axis.
(19) Atlases:- An atlases is a book that usually contains
maps and as index of places and other geographical entities indicating their
locations in particular maps. Generally, by the term atlas, we mean only
geographical atlases; however there are non-geographical atlases as well.
(20) Gazetteers:- A gazetteers is a dictionary of place names
and other geographical entities with descriptive, statical, economical,
geographical and historical information. It can be categorized as
international, national, state and district.
(21) Guidebooks:- Guidebooks are usually meant for tourists and
provide them various information as required by them. For a place of tourist’s
interest these books provide such informations when to go, how to go, where to
stay, what to see, what to eat and so on.
(22) Manuscripts:- Before the advent of printing men used to write
in hand on papyrus, parchment, vellum, bhurjapatra, palm leaves, papers and
other materials. Books produced in this way earned the name manuscripts. These
manuscripts are unfolded a great deal of information about the ancient
civillisations of the world.
(23) Periodicals;- A periodical is a publication with a
distinctive title which appears At stated or regular intervals, without prior
decisions as to when the last issue shall appear. Periodicals are categorized as
primary, secondary, tertiary, research periodical, technical periodical, trade
journal and house journal.
(24) Patents
:- It means an official right given
to a person to make , use or sell a product ,process, design, etc. invented by
him/her for as fixed number of years. The patents are issued by the patent
office of the country.
(25) Standards:- A standard is something set up and
established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent,
value or quality. Here , we concerned with the documents that provide the
detailed description of a standard published by a standard issuing institution
of a country like our Bureau of Indian Standards.
(26) Theses:- A Thesis or dissertation is a document
the contains details of a research conducted under the guidance of an expert.
Apart from the hypotheses, objectives, scope , methodology, and results of the
study, a thesis contains a detailed literature survey, which is useful for the
compilation of a bibliography on the subject.
(27) Conference
documents:- Thousands of
conferences are held every year throughout the world and they generates
different types of documents, announcements, call for papers, programs etc. It
is called conference documents and it can be divided into two types, ie pre-conference
documents and post-conference documents.
(28) Souvenirs:- A souvenir is something that is given to
someone as a memento. When a souvenir takes the form of a publication, more
often that not it becomes a good source of information. It act as a good
reference source.
(29) Festschriften:- A festschrift is a collection of writings
published in honour of a learned person. Usually in a festschrift the
biographical sketch of the person, discussion on his/her contributions,
personal narratives about the person are included. In addition, a number of
articles contributed by his/her professional colleagues, students, friends and
others are also included.
(30) Reports:- Various types of reports are technical
reports, administrative reports, trip reports etc.
(31) Articles:- An article is a piece of writing
included with others in a periodical, newspaper, conference proceedings,
festschrift and so on. Articles can also be categorized as popular , technical,
research, review articles and soon.
(32) Diaries:- Writers, scientists, scholars and many
others maintain diaries. These diaries provide most authentic biographical
material and plenty of other information. Normally these diaries are
handwritten and sometimes depending on their importance they are published
also.
(33) Letters:- The practice of writing letters for
communicating messages is very old. Even today this particle is continuing
though with the spread of telephones and mobile phones it is showing signs of
decline especially in the case of personal letters. With the advent of
internet, the channel of communication has also undergone change Now, a huge
number of letters has taken the form of e-mails.
(34) Office
files:- All decisions, big or
small, taken by the government, governing body of an academic body, industrial
enterprise, a research institution, a society and so on are recorded in files.
(35) Computer
files:- A computer file is a
collection of records or programs stored under s single filename. A digitized
form of a book, a periodical, a thesis etc. can be a computer file.
(36) Database:- A database is a collection of
cross-referenced files so designed as to retrieve information from a number of
angles. There are a number of vendors that posses plenty of online databases.
Obtaining password from the vendor one can search all these databases from a
single access point.
(37) Video
Recordings:- A video recording
harbours sound, colourful pictures and animation. Many documentary films
recorded in videotapes are excellent sources of information. Here, one not only
gets the narration, but also the relevant pictures along with animation. This
gives much better impact on the minds of the people.
(B)
Non-Documentary sources :- There
are two types of non documentary sources of information. They are Humans and
Organisations.
(a) Humans:- Under humans there are numerous
categories, some of the categories under the humans are,
(1) Consultants:- A consultant is a professional who provides
advice usually on payment basis. There are various categories of consultant
such as legal consultants, engineering consultants etc.
(2) Experts:- An expert is a person who posses sound
knowledge on a subject, technique and so on. On many occasions we takes the
help of these experts to solve some problems.
(3) Resource
Persons:- A resource person is a
person who have much intellectual power for giving outputs as per the
situation.
(4) Extension
Workers:- The meaning of the extension
worker is varies depending on the context. Examples of extension workers are
Agriculture extension worker, Medical extension worker etc.
(5) Representatives
of Firms:- A representative is a
person who is employed by a firm for sales promotion and allied activities.
His/her activities among others, include sales promotion, market survey, study
of user reaction, identifying competitors in the field, locate prospective
buyers and so on.
(6) Technological
Gatekeepers:- A
technological gatekeeper is a well-informed person in a particular field.
Usually some scientists, technologists and professional in business etc have
got a tendency to acquire information from various sources, to keep himself
abreast of the development in the field and to disseminate the information to
the person or group who may be interested in the information.
(7) Common
Men:- In our day-to-day life ,
we gather plenty of information from common men.
(b) Organisations :- Organisations are also important
sources of information. There are different categories of organizations and
they provide different types of information. Information provided by an
organization is generally considered to be authentic.