GS 108: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION LITERACY

LECTURE 3:

Types and formats of information sources

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 Types and formats of information sources
Expected Learning outcomes

 By the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:

i. Explain the various types of libraries,
ii. Discuss various services provided in libraries
iii. Discuss the role of libraries in academic work

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 Types of library

i. School libraries
A school library (or a school library media center) is a library
within a school where students, staff, and often, parents of a school
have access to a variety of resources.
The goal of the school library is to ensure that all members of the
school community have equitable access to books and reading, to
information, and to information technology.

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 School libraries
The objectives of a school library are:-

i) To support the teaching programmes of the school.

ii) To further the general intellectual development of the pupils.

iii) To assist pupils to develop skills necessary in the use of books and
libraries.

School libraries play an active and leading role in the educational process.
It helps the pupils to continue with education effectively so that they can
learn by themselves.

•School libraries bear the slogan "Learn how to teach yourself and search for
information"
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 ii. Special Libraries

A special library exists to serve a specialized body of users within a

definite subject field. Special libraries are usually attached to a parent
organization which may be research institutions, government departments,
societies or associations.

It is also a library which is part of a company, organization, or other

groups aimed at meeting library needs of the specialized group. Examples

of such are Research libraries, Law libraries, Medical libraries,

Corporate libraries: in business entities Government libraries

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 Characteristics of special libraries

1) Subject coverage. They have a limited nature of subject

coverage. The subject coverage is a reflection of the mission
and goals of the parent organization e.g. agriculture, medicine.
ii) Users. The users of special libraries are restricted to the
employees of the institution or members of a given organization.
 iii) They have predominant characteristics of smallness. Although there are big
special libraries, special libraries tend to be small.

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 Characteristics of special libraries

Therefore, cooperation between library staff and users of the

library is close.
iv) Services offered. Due to the number of users served, the
services offered tend to be personalized. There is a lot of
emphasis on information itself rather than document services
like Current Awareness (CAS). Selective Dissemination of
Information (SDI), abstracting and indexing services are
provided.
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 iii. Academic libraries
Academic libraries are organization set within a larger
organization – namely, within the academic institutions and
its various departments.
Academic libraries are established to serve a university,
university college or any other organization associated with
an institution of higher learning.
Academic libraries are set up to support the teaching and
research programmes of the university.

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 Academic libraries
They are libraries that serve colleges and university students,
staff and faculty members.
Larger institutions may have several libraries on their
campuses dedicated to serving particular schools such as law
and science libraries.
Many academic librarians become specialists in an area of
knowledge and can have faculty status.
Academic libraries fulfil the following objectives:-
i) To serve the needs of the academic community.
ii) To provide appropriate reference materials to all major stakeholders
i.e. students, staff and faculty member.
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 Academic libraries

iii) To provide study areas for users.

iv) To provide a lending service appropriate to the various
categories of users.

Academic libraries provide the following functions:

 An organized collection of printed or other materials, or a

combination both.
 A staff trained to provide and interpret such materials as
required to meet the information or educational needs of
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users.
 Academic libraries

 Digital repository management to disseminate scholarly

publications (support for the OAI harvesting protocol and
repository upload)
 Support for inter library Loan (ILL)
 Interoperability with RFID and self-check systems
 Information delivery functionality for users to receive
customized information in the right place, at the right time

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 Academic libraries

(SDI, journal availability and more)

Web OPAC which provide students access to course
materials in reading lists
Comprehensive applications including an integrated library
system.

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 iv. Public libraries

A public library is described as an organization established,

supported and funded by the community, either through
local, regional or national government or through some other
form of community organization.
It provides access to knowledge, information and works of
the imagination through a range of resources and services
and is equally available to all members of the community
regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, religion etc.
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 Public libraries
As the name implies, public libraries serve the general
public.
Often they have departments that focus on areas of service or
separate collections for youth, teens and adults.
These libraries should be centrally located within the
community they serve.
They should be spacious enough keeping in mind:
community population; growing library collection, size of staff,
services to be offered.
They can even be termed as the “people’s university”.
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 Public libraries

Public libraries provide information resources for the following

functions:
Social role. The public library has an important role as a public space and
meeting place. This is particularly important in communities where there are
few places for people to meet.

Education: public libraries support both individual and self-conducted

education as well as formal education at all levels e.g. students go to public
libraries and carry out their studies. They provides access to knowledge in
printed and other formats to support formal and informal education.

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 Public libraries
Leisure and recreation: Public libraries provide information
materials for general reading and encourage its active use for
leisure and recreation. Public libraries should be centrally
located within the community they serve.
Personal development: Public libraries provide opportunities
for personal creative development. Opportunity to develop
personal creativity and pursue new interests is important to
human development.
Children and young people: Public libraries meet the needs
of all groups in the community regardless of age and
physical, economic or social circumstances.
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 Public libraries
 Culture: An important role of a public library is to provide a focus for
cultural and artistic development in the community, help to shape and
support the cultural identity of the community. They provide information
resources on culture since they are the centre for cultural life as they
promote participation and appreciation of all arts.

 Information: Public libraries are the local centers of information

making all kinds of knowledge and information readily available to its
users.’ They provide accurate information over the whole range of human
knowledge.

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 v. National libraries
A national library is a library established by a government as a
country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public
libraries, these libraries rarely allow citizens to borrow books.
They are formed through a law and these laws require
publishers to deposit copies of all publications they produce.
The functions of the national libraries vary from nation to
nation. This includes the following:-
i) Acquisition of material of the nation published in and
outside the country.
ii) Preservation of the material for posterity
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 National libraries

iii) Publication of the national bibliography.

 iv) The development and maintenance of the world’s best literature.

 v) The provision of a national reference service.

 vi) To collect and preserve, periodicals and newspapers published in

the country and about the country.

 vii) They purchase books about the country published in other countries

 viii) They coordinate the library resources through the development

and maintenance of a union catalogue, exchanges and Inter Library
Loans (ILL).
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 Academic work that requires a library
i. Independent reading/further reading by the student to further
understand the topics
ii. Reading assignments as a prerequisites to attending
a lesson/lecture
iii. Writing assignments: term papers, journal article,
review book reviews, book report

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 Role of libraries in academic work
Introduction

Advancement in all branches of knowledge is based on analysis,

evaluation and synthesis of the already existing literature (or
knowledge) generated by others across space and time.
Libraries play a vital role in this process by providing access to a
broad spectrum of information resources and literature on all subjects.
It thus allows students, lecturers and researchers to interact with
ideas authorities, experts, and scholars in various disciplines
In the university setting, the library exists to assist students, faculty
members and researchers carry out their academic activities whether
it is learning, teaching or research.

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 Accordingly, you can receive the following services
from the library to fulfil your scholarly activities.
a) Access to information sources (books, journals,
etc.) to fulfill your research needs.
b) Assistance from the library staff to obtain
exhaustive information on the subject of your
research.
c) Tools for compiling bibliographies relevant for
your topic such as library catalog (OPAC) and
indexes.

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 d) Interlibrary loan service to enable you
access information sources in other libraries.
e) Reprographic service including word-
processing and photocopying.
f) Access to Internet-based information
sources such as e-journals, e-databases, etc.
g) Instruction on how to correctly reference
the sources you have used in your work.

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 h) Information literacy skills training on how to:
i. Define and refine a topic of research
ii. How to search and locate for information
related to topics in mind
iii. Identify legal information in various formats
and how to locate it
iv. Evaluate the quality of information and its
sources
v. Use information in an ethical manner.

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 The Role of Information professionals

Librarians are information specialists trained to ensure

proper development of libraries and their useful
utilization by its target group.
They organize the collection such that information
can conveniently be found by faculty members,
students and researchers.
They facilitate the use information sources through:
i. Information literacy training
ii. Research and reference servives
iii. Borrowing/lending services
iv. ICT-related services
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 The Circulation and Customer Care Services
Librarian will assist you to find a an appropriate
place to study in and borrow materials in the
library.

The Research/Reference Librarian will assist

you to learn how to use the library.

The Systems Librarian will assist you resolve

ICT related issues that you may have.

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