Information Sources and Classification

Where does Information Come From?                  

 People  TV  Newspaper  Internet  Magazines  Journals  Books

Information Cycle Produced by Penn State University Library infocycle/infocycle.html

The Organization of Information  Libraries organize and catalog information so people can find it  Organizing information is subjective  Information seekers approach a search in different ways

Classification in Libraries An attempt to organize materials with the same subject matter together. Used to make sense of the vast amount of information available

“Call Number” A combination of numbers and letters which is used to identify a particular book or item in a library's collection. Items are arranged on the shelves by call number.

What type of library are you using?  Every library has an intended community of users  Public libraries Most offer public Internet access Social goals are to support learning, inform citizens, provide resources with “cultural significance”

Academic (College) Library  Focus on curriculum and research needs of students & faculty Different depth in undergrad vs. graduate libraries Rely on cooperation with other libraries – interlibrary lending Issues in scholarly publishing have a big effect (price, access)

Classification Systems Libraries try to shelve materials about the same subject together - classification systems are used to assign a call number to a book, specifies location on the shelf Many books are about more than one idea – but have to end up in just one place on the shelf. Two major classification systems Dewey Decimal System Library of Congress Classification System

Why Two Systems??  Dewey Decimal System Used by most public and school libraries Places books into subject categories  Library of Congress Used by the Library of Congress, large public libraries and most academic, special and research libraries The LOC designed subject headings around the books in their collection

The Dewey Decimal System  Designed by Melvil Dewey, 1876 Prior to Dewey, patrons were not allowed to get their own books  “All the world’s knowledge” in 10 broad numeric categories  Western cultural bias  New knowledge & disciplines require new subject categories

Library of Congress  Developed by Library of Congress, Washington D.C., early 1900’s  Dewey was not considered flexible enough  Used by most research & academic libraries and many larger public libraries  Knowledge organized into 21 categories, A - Z missing I, O, W, X and Y  Many, many sub-categories  Unlike Dewey, doesn’t attempt to divide all knowledge, but is based on actual books owned by Library of Congress

Where would I find a book on Accounting?? Dewey 300 Social Sciences 320 Political Sciences 330 Economics 340 Law Library of Congress H: Social Sciences and Business HD: Industries, Land Use, Labor HG: Finance (money, accounting, banking, investment) J: Political Science K: Law

Subject Headings  An “official” way to organize and classify information.  A term or phrase to group together materials on the same topic.  Why do we care?? We can research topics based on subject headings.

Using Subject Headings  Classification (call number) gives you only limited information  Subject headings describe what a book (or video, article, etc.) is about using standardized language (controlled vocabulary)  Most important, users (you!) can search for information using subject headings

Rodrigues p17-29  Research Paper General topic What would you like to learn? What do I already know? Is there some aspect I am truly interested in? Who are the individuals who might know something about this topic?

Materials in B&S Library  Reference books and materials Dictionaries Encyclopedias Atlases  Books in Stacks that support academic needs  Career sources  Computers!

Journal Entry 3  Exploring a research topic

References Minneapolis Community and Technical College P_files/frame.htm P_files/frame.htm Penn State University Library