WEEK 2: INFORMATION ORGANIZATION AND RETRIEVAL

Information sources
• Primary sources
• Secondary sources
• Tertiary Sources

Primary Sources
Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation.
– Diaries
– Interviews (legal proceedings, personal, telephone, e-mail)
– Letters
– Original Documents (i.e. birth certificate or a trial transcript)
– Patents
– Photographs
– Proceedings of Meetings, Conferences and Symposia.
– Survey Research (such as market surveys and public opinion polls)
– Works of Literature

Secondary Sources
Secondary sources 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 or evidence.
– Biographies
– Commentaries
– Dissertations
– Indexes, Abstracts, Bibliographies (used to locate primary & secondary sources)
– Journal Articles
– Monographs

Tertiary Sources
Tertiary sources consist of information which is a distillation and collection of primary and secondary sources.
• Almanacs
• Encyclopedias
• Fact books


Why Organize Information?
• The main reason: you can find things more effectively
• Effective retrieval must be based on some sort of organization applied to information resources
• Historically there have been many institutions and tools devoted to information organization
– Libraries
– Museums
– Archives
– Index


REFLECTION:
After hearing the explanation from En Abd Razak, I have realized the importance of this system. It easier for consumers to borrow and retrieve items checked. The system is very systematic and user-friendly.