Transcript Answer-Providing Tools

Categories of AnswerProviding Tools (APTs)
Dr. Dania Bilal
IS 530
Fall 2009
Biographical Sources
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Information about people
– Biographical dictionaries, directories,
indexes
– Adults, young adults, children
– General and specialized
Examples: Current Biography, Who’s
Who, Biography Index, biography.com
Online Catalogs
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List of titles held in a library collection
– Location service/lead-in tool
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Directs users to information about subjects,
authors, etc. but does not provide the
information itself
– Type of questions: Person, subject,
specific publication
Dictionaries
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Information about terms, language,
historical background of a term,
syllabication, pronunciation, etc. See
Text, chap. 7
– Adults & children
– Abridged & unabridged
– General & specialized
– Print and online
Encyclopedias
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Articles on subjects in a general or
specific field of knowledge
– Multi-volume & one volume set
– Adult/adult-young adults/children
– Subject or specialized encyclopedias
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See Text, chap. 7
Encyclopedias
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Type of questions answered in
encyclopedias
– Background information on events
– Overview of a topic
– Profile of a person
– Outline/chronology of events
– Other
Geographical Sources
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Information about places
Atlases, maps, gazetteers, guidebooks
– Each provides a different type of
information about places
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Adults, young adults, children
Print & online
Gazetteers
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Geographic dictionaries
Places, physical features and
information about them
Spelling, pronunciation of place
names, history of name changes,
population, industries, agriculture,
climate, and history
Maps
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Pictorial representation of earth’s
surface or a section of it.
Physical/historical/political information
Information is more tabular and
pictorial than narrative
Print & online
Atlases
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Collection of maps
Simple depiction of a geographical
area to detailed information about
aspects of an area, such as
population, mineral and energy
resources, and agriculture
Articles, tables, weather, geology, zip
codes
Guidebooks
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Information about a specific country,
region, city, building, museum, travel
information, etc.
Unique information appropriate for
answering specific reference questions
Guides to the Literature
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Specific subject area or discipline
Cover available sources related to
subject or discipline
May cover more than one subject area
Guides to the Literature
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Lead-in tools
Selection and evaluation tools
May include bibliographies, guides,
indexing & abstracting services,
periodicals, dictionaries,
encyclopedias, and other sources
along with annotations of each title
Handbooks & Manuals
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Compact sources
Information on a specific
area/discipline or discipline in a
concise or comprehensive form
Compilations of literary, historical, and
statistical data
Handbooks & Manuals
Narrative information with charts,
tables, graphs, formulae, etc.
 Directed toward specialist or
practitioner
Examples:
Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR), APA
Style Manual, U.S. Government Manual
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Indexes
Guides to the contents of a source of
knowledge
 Systematic arrangement of contents
using different schemes
Examples:
Book index, journal index, online
catalog
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Bibliographies
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Bibliographic control and access tools
– Used to identify, verify, locate, and select
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Trade: limited to materials published
within a given country (e.g., BIP)
National: NUC – all books published by
LC and member libraries (locally and
overseas)
Indexing & Abstracting
Sources
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Indexes with citations and abstracts of
articles and other materials
Journal, magazine, and newspaper
indexes
User language vs. system language
(Subject headings lists & thesauri)
Indexing & Abstracting
Sources
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Types of indexes
– General
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Print and online
– Reader’s Guide; Expanded Academic ASAP
– Specialized
Print and online
 Social Science Index; Social Science Citation
Index (SocialSciSearch – Dialog; Web of
Science)
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Yearbooks & Almanacs
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General or specialized
Current information in descriptive and
statistical form
Information about people, places,
organizations; numeric information,
measurements, etc. (almanacs)
Chronology of world events and other
info.
Non-biographical
Directories
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Directories with no emphasis on
people
Information about organizations,
agencies, societies, clubs, official
bodies, institutions, manufacturers,
businesses, professions, regions, and
the like
Demo of RR Sources: IPL
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Go to www.ipl.org
Explore the features
Explore RR collection
Class Activity
Match the question to the most suitable
APT:
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Address of the White House
Synonyms for the verb negate
Date of assassination of president John Kennedy
Causes of death of Kennedy, Jr.
Name of the CEO of Coca Cola Co.
Citation for latest article published by Bilal & Wang
Meaning of IEEE
Calories of an average size bagel
Conversion formula from Centigrade to Fahrenheit
A review of the movie Fahrenheit 911