Card Based Systems:
A card based catalogue is a handwritten card system where data is written and stored on cards in files in alphabetical order about books and information in the library.
This is a good and efficient system because it is easy to use and very cheap but anyone can use it and you need no training. This system does have problems including the loss of information and mistakes that can occur. Even though anyone can use it only one person can use it at a time and to search for information on a book takes longer and harder.
Paper based sources:
- Encyclopaedia ~ arranged by topics in alphabetical order
- Dictionaries ~ show spellings and their definitions in alphabetical order
- Newspaper & magazines ~ daily, up to date
- Yellow pages ~ used to find suppliers and other businesses which are arranged by type e.g. all TV repair companies together.
- Brochures
Transferring the information can be done by scanning into a computer, E-mail or photocopy.
Dewey Decimal System:
A system which uses numbers to arrange all books on similar subjects together. Each category has a number in the hundred’s to start and as each category is split into different sections for different topics on the subject the hundred number is then split into further divisions using the tens column and then the units.
This is helpful because you can easily find a relevant book as you know which section and where about the book should be. It is good because many authors do not just write on one subject.
I.C.T. Based Sources:
CD ROM: Easy to carry; cheap; fast; can hold multimedia; fixed data
Teletext: Cheap; updated regularly; one way communication; poor pictures
Internet: Vast content; quick to access; difficult to find some things; biased content; not trustworthy; information overload
Intranet: good content; only accessible in the company or school
To transfer I.C.T. based information you can use floppy disk or a CD ROM, send files by
E-mails, download files from the internet.
CD ROM’s contain fixed information so they are not up to date but are checked to make sure they are correct. The internet has up to date data but you cannot be sure that it is always reliable.
Searching and refining searches:
If you want to make sure you have relevant information being given to you and not just hundreds of thousands of links that you might not need, you have to refine your search by being more specific to reduce the no. of web pages. You can use speech marks to search for a particular phrase in a website and if you type your search in lower case the computer will look for those words in any case in the websites.
