Lesson 1 Contents:

Learning Objectives

I. The Information Age
* The Information Explosion
* What is Information and Who Produces It?
* Information Anxiety

II. Recording and Storing Information: A Brief History

III. Understanding the
Information Universe: Formats, Sources, and Types
* Information Formats
* Information Sources
* Types of Information

IV. Finding the Information You Seek

V. Key Points to Remember

Lesson One Quiz

Lesson One Exercise

IV. FINDING THE INFORMATION YOU SEEK

Now that we've defined information and discussed how it's recorded, stored, and presented, how do you sift through the mountains of information that's available and find what you're looking for? In other words, how do you access information that's relevant to your particular topic or interest?

Locating information, whether it be a book, Website, or a single fact, depends on your skillful use of the appropriate access tool(s). Access tools provide organized lists (and sometimes the full-text) of the information sources described earlier (books, periodicals, Websites, etc.), depending on the specific tool you’re using. Without access tools, the plethora of information that exists on most topics would be a hopelessly disorganized jumble and carefully planned research would be nearly impossible.

There are four types of information access tools:

• Indexes: lists of articles published in selected sets of magazines, journals, or newspapers during a specified time period. Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature is an example of a general periodical index available in both print and computerized versions.
  
  
• Catalogs: a list of every item (primarily books) held by a library or group of libraries. Computerized catalogs known as OPAC's (Online Public Access Catalog) have replaced card catalogs in libraries.
  
  
• Bibliographies: available at the end of a book, chapter, or article, they provide a list of materials on a certain subject or by a certain author. Bibliographies can also appear as separately published books, articles, or Websites. (Note: Do not confuse "bibliography" with "biography." A bibliography is a list of books and articles, whereas a biography is the story of a person's life.)
  
  
• Web "search tools": Web subject directories and Web search engines provide access to all types of Websites and other Internet documents.

You will be learning how to use each of these four types of access tools in this course, as well as how and where they fit into a formal, systematic method of finding information known as the research process. Therefore, before learning the basic operations of specific access tools, you must understand the broad outlines of the research process, which is the topic of Lesson 2.