Teacher: Michele Hardy michele.hardy@chisholm.edu.au
Breakdown of the Unit
In this unit, we will be covering 4 elements:
- Determine customer information needs
- Clarify details of required information resources
- Search external and networked sources
- Obtain and return information
Information Literacy
Take the Information Literacy Quiz
Sources of Information
What are your sources of information? In other words, how do you acquire information?
Your general knowledge?
Your intuition?
Your experiments, direct research or observations?
FROM - other people’s work?
what they write?
books, articles, manuals, notes, doodles, blogs, wikis, diaries, letters, emails, tweets,
what they say?
interviews, discussions, news footage, broadcasts, lectures, tutorials, lessons
what they make?
software, artefacts, films, photography, creative works (e.g. paintings, musical compositions)
Primary Sources
These are items that are "from the horse's mouth"
Examples include:
- Artefacts (e.g. coins, fossils etc,)
- Audio recordings (e.g. radio programs)
- Diaries and journals;
- Email, listservs, wikis, blogs etc.
- Interviews in person or recorded
- Letters and other correspondence
- Minutes of meetings
- Newspaper articles written at the time being researched
- Original documents (birth certificate, wills, passports etc
Other Primary Sources
- Patents
- Photographs
- Records of organizations, government agencies (e.g. annual report, treaty, constitution,
- Speeches/Lectures
- Survey Research e.g., market surveys
- Video recordings e.g. television programs;
- Works of art, architecture, literature, and music
- Web site (though not all its content)
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources are less easily defined than primary sources.
Generally, they are accounts written after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.
They are interpretations and evaluations of primary sources.
Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence
Examples:
- Biographical information
- Journal articles (other than those reporting original research findings by the actual researchers which are a primary source)
- Most Non-fiction books including encyclopaedias, dictionaries etc.
- Content of most websites other than personal websites, blogs, wikis etc
- Radio and television documentaries
Tertiary Sources
Usually bibliographies, indexes, lists of references, program guides etc. are referred to as tertiary sources.
Examples include:
- Textbooks
- Manuals
- Guidebooks
- Dictionaries
- Encyclopaedias
What source is best?
This depends on why you want the information and what you plan to do with it! Horses for courses!
e.g. Historical researchers would require primary source material such as diaries, letters, eye-witness accounts, genealogical records etc. as well as secondary source materials such as journal articles on their chosen topic
e.g. VCE students studying history would require secondary source material such as text books and journal articles
Information Needs Analysis
What do you need to know so that you can help your customer find the relevant information?
- Does the information need to be up to date?
- Does the information need to be in a summarised form or very detailed?
- Does the information need to be primary source material or secondary source material or a mixture?
- Does the information need to be scholarly and authoritative?
- Does the information need to be general or specific to a particular time, place or aspect of a topic?
- Does the information need to be in a particular format e.g statistics, graphs, photographs etc.
Where do I get information from?
If the information needed is from other people’s work there are a few obvious places to trot off to locate it
- The Internet
- A library
- A person or group of people who may possess the needed information
Think about the following topics:
- History of Cranbourne
- Growing vegetables at home
Where could you find information for each of these topics and what type of information might you need?
History of Cranbourne
Sources could include:
- Visiting the local historical society
- Talking with someone who has lived in the area for a long time
- Statistics/Census information from ABS via database or online
- Old maps or survey information - online or State library of Victoria
- Old photos or film - State library Victoria or local historical society
- A book that details the local history
Growing Vegetables at Home
Sources could include:
- Someone qualified in horticulture - local nursery or community garden
- Books, magazines or journals
- Internet sites - lots of sites with local information
- Photos or videos
- TV programs
Facilitating Information
Have a look at the Monash University Library website, The National Library of Australia website, Mornington Peninsula library, Chisholm TAFE library, and the City of Greater Dandenong Library website and note how they facilitate the customers' access to information
Facilitate - make (an action or process) easy or easier. (Oxford dictionary online)
Things to consider:
- How is the side laid out? Is it intuitive?
- What types of information are available?
- Is it obvious where everything is?
- Is it easy to use and locate the various resources?
- What help or guides are available?
- Anything else that you notice about the sites
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