MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

INFORMATION LITERACY
SKILLS2020
UNIT 1: OVERVIEW OF LIBRARY SERVICES, COLLECTION AND FACILITIES
Learning Outcomes
 Participants identify the MSU Libraries.
 Participants distinguish the various MSU Library Sections as well as the services they
offer.
 Participants gain knowledge on the various types of collections, facilities and services
offered by the library.
 Participants identify the value of the library in support of their teaching and learning
needs.
 Participants are knowledgeable of the rules and regulations of the library.

Library Overview
Vision
To be a technology-driven information resource centre that provides quality
services and outstanding collections.

Mission
To provide world-class and innovative services that allow access to robust
information resources and services in support of the University’s teaching,
research, community engagement, innovations and industrialisation obligations.

Goals
1. To build and enhance research collections that are responsive to current
and future teaching and research needs of the University.
2. To facilitate increased use, access and management of library resources and
collections through efficient and effective utilisation of Information
Communication Technologies.
3. To provide high-quality services through active participation in the
university's quality assurance and marketing processes.
4. To establish and maintain linkages and partnerships for resource sharing.

Core Values
1. Accountability- The University Libraries will operate on a strong foundation
of ethical principles and professional integrity. In our service to the
academic community and the students, we will provide equity of access,
respect intellectual property rights, and protect the privacy of our users.
2. Innovation - We will nurture an environment that encourages a
collaborative and enthusiastic approach to the pursuit of knowledge. We
will leverage on new technologies and forge cross-disciplinary collaborations
to create new ideas and ways of knowing. We will be open to change and
new ideas.
3. Openness and Access - We will believe in openness and equitable access to
scholarship and resources. We will ensure that information is readily
available to our community.

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 4. Client-centred services - We will respect the humanity, knowledge, and
expertise of the university staff members and its community. We will
exceed the expectations of our clients.
5. Transparency and Communication - We will value transparency and, open
communication in our Libraries.
6. Teamwork- We will bring the best out of our library staff by encouraging
team effort.

Access Control to the Library

a) Baggage Room

No bags are allowed into the library. Students must leave their bags in the
baggage room where they will be given a tag with a number. The tag should
be presented when one is collecting their bags. A lost tag attracts a fine of
the value stipulated in the Library Fine Policy document. Students are
advised not to leave valuable items in the baggage area.

b) Entry Point Procedures

Only registered students are allowed to use the Library. Students must
present their student ID at the library entrance. All student IDs are scanned
at the entry access point to check whether they are registered or not.
Students are allowed to bring their laptops and other smart devices into the
library for Wi-Fi access. Please note: do not leave your laptops and any
other valuable possessions unattended in the library.

c) Exit point procedures

Students are subject to search by the security guard stationed at the exit
point. All books borrowed from the circulation desk have to be checked at
the exit point to verify whether they are in the student’s account.
Attempting to take out materials that have not been borrowed at the
circulation desk will result in the student being suspended from using the
library.

Library Security Systems

a) Electronic

The library has an elaborate electronic security system of CCTV cameras as

well as a 3M at the circulation entrance and exit points. The 3M system is
there to safeguard library materials taken illegally out of the Library.
Attempting to take out materials not borrowed will trigger the 3M system
alarm as well as blocking the student from passing at the exit point.

b) Physical Guarding

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 Apart from the electronic security systems, the library also makes use of
library and security personnel at the entrance and exit points. On entering
the library they will verify whether you are a registered student and on exit,
they will check whether you have procedurally borrowed any books.

Circulation Desk
At the circulation desk Check-out point, a student needs to scan their IDs so
that the circulation system displays their account on the computer. The
circulation librarian then scans the barcode of each of the materials being
borrowed, stamps the due date and de-sensitises the materials before they
are taken out. Books to be returned are submitted to the Librarian at the
circulation desk check-in point. The Librarian scans the book barcode to
check-in an item and cancels the due date.

Library Collections
a) Open shelf
With regards to the open shelf, there is self-service where clients locate
books of their choice from the shelves and borrow them from the circulation
desk in the main reading hall. These books are borrowed for a maximum
period of seven (7) days and are returned to the library on or before the due
date. Failure to bring the book on or before the due date, the client’s
library account accrues a fine of one dollar per day until the book is
returned. Clients obtain the classification numbers that enable them to
locate books on the shelves from the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
or e-catalogue. The OPAC is accessible through computers in the Library
main hall.

b) Reserve section
The reserve section also houses books which are deemed scarce by the
Library personnel to ensure their fair circulation amongst clients. Due to the
nature of the books housed on reserve, it is a closed access area for
students. Books from the reserve are borrowed for a maximum period of two
(2) hours starting from 09:00 until 3:00pm. Clients can only start borrowing
books from the reserve section for overnight use from 3:00pm up to
10:30pm when the library closes. Books borrowed for the two hour periods
are supposed to be returned on or before the lapse of that loan period and
those borrowed for overnight, are supposed to be brought back on or before
09:00 the following day. Failure to abide with these loan periods is a penal
offence which attracts a fine of one dollar per hour in both cases.

c) Core textbook collection section

The core textbook collection section is comprised of core textbooks that are
suggested by lecturers from all the academic departments at MSU. Due to

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 the nature of the books housed on reserve, it is a closed access area for
students. Books borrowed for three days.
Library Research Support points

a) The Information desk

The Information desk serves as an enquiries/reference desk for library

clients. There is always a duty librarian stationed at the desk when the
library is open. The information desk is there to assist students who need
assistance on how to access library print and electronic resources. It is also
the first port of call for any type of question a student might have
concerning the library. Students who have finished their studies and those
with library fines also get cleared at the information desk.

b) Reference section

Reference sources are materials housed in the Client Services Librarian’s

office in the main reading hall or under closed access areas in other branch
libraries. These contain factual information for reference purposes e.g.
Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias, Almanacs, etcetera. They are borrowed for a
maximum period of two hours and they are for in-house use only. In-house
use means that clients can only use the reference sources in the library and
that they cannot borrow the materials for use outside the library. Reference
sources are supposed to be returned on or before the lapse of the two hour
loan period and failure to do so will attract a fine of one dollar per hour.
Classification numbers for these materials are also obtainable from the
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC).

c) Special Collections
Most of the materials circulated in the Special Collections are for in-house
use except for novels written by African writers. Other materials which can
only be borrowed for in-house use include dissertations, newspapers, past
examination papers, journals, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, reports, magazines,
professional journals and all statutory instruments. A computer mouse for
computers in the e-resource centre is borrowed from the Special Collection.
A student has to fill in his/her details before they are given a mouse.
Borrowing Privileges and Library Opening Hours

Type of Client No. of items Period

Undergraduates 3 7
Postgraduates 3 7
Non-teaching staff 6 1 month
Teaching staff 8 1 month

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Library Opening Hours

During Semester

Monday - Friday 9 am – 10:30 pm

Saturday and Sunday 8 am – 5 pm

Public Holidays Closed

During Vacation

Monday - Friday 9 am – 4:45 pm

Saturday and Sunday Closed

Public Holidays Closed

d) Online Public Access Catalogue

The library catalogue can be regarded as the library index (the same as a
book index). It tells exactly where materials needed by a student can be
found. Students can search the catalogue using keywords, phrases, book
titles, authors, and the call number. The OPAC is the key for one to retrieve
any library resource in all MSU libraries. Students have to start by searching
for a book or journal from the OPAC before they head to the shelves. The
OPAC shows the book title, its call number, locations as well as its status in
terms of availability. The OPAC can be accessed anywhere where there is
internet besides library computers.
Library Services

The Midlands State University Library strives to provide access to information

resources that support quality research and teaching through the following
services:

a) Lending services
b) Information Literacy Training Services
c) Research Support
d) Interlibrary Loans
e) Electronic Resources
f) Photocopying Services

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 g) Reading and Study Space
Library Organisation
Books in all the MSU libraries are arranged according to the Library of Congress
Classification Scheme. A classification scheme brings books on the same subject
together on the shelves. It also facilitates easy retrieval of books from the shelves.
The LC system arranges items in alphanumeric order. This means that all the
materials are filed alphabetically and in numeric order, including decimals.

Each book is assigned a classification number (call number) which depicts its
subject. This class number is on the book’s spine and books are shelved
sequentially according to that class number. The main library shelf arrangement
starts from the north wing then into the library main hall and ends in the south
wing. There are shelf guides pasted on each shelve to direct students on the
library classification sequence.

Electronic Resource Centre

MSU libraries have e-resource centres that provide access to the internet, library
catalogue and electronic books and journals. Students require an e-learning
password to access the e-books and e-journals that the library subscribes to. There
are IT technicians and librarians available to always assist students with their
research at every e-resource centre. Computers in the e-resource centres are
strictly for academic searches only. Removal of network cables or computer mouse
from Library computers is strictly prohibited.

The Research Services also utilises the electronic resource centres when
conducting training on the usage of e-resources and Turnitin anti-plagiarism. The
e-resource centres are also used for self-directed learning where students conduct
their research without the instruction of Librarians or Lecturers.

Reading Area
MSU libraries have Wi-Fi hotspots in all reading halls to facilitate online research as
students read print resources. As per University policy students are encouraged to
have laptops to promote online research. Reading desks in all libraries have power
points for students to connect their laptops and access the internet through Wi-Fi.
Laptops brought into the library must have a power-pack with a plug. Connecting
live wires on library sockets is strictly prohibited as this might start a fire.

MSU Branch Libraries

The emphasis of libraries is to ensure that the information needs of the clients are
met through the provision of valid, relevant and user-driven information resources.
The Midlands State University (MSU) Library consists of a network of individual
libraries and electronic resource centres. Through this network, the MSU Library
can provide resources that fully support the teaching, learning and research needs
of the MSU community taking a discipline based approach.

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The MSU Library has various branch libraries which are located on all MSU
campuses. The following are the branch libraries namely;

1. Disability Resource Centre (DRC) Library

The DRC Library offers its services to the disabled students from all the
departments of the Institution. Most of the resources circulated in the DRC
Library are in Braille format to cater to the visually impaired students.

2. Medical School Library

The Medical School Library which is situated on the main campus is a
specialised library which caters for the medical school students. It offers
journals, serials and textbooks which have a strong bias towards the medical
fraternity.

3. Batanai Library
Batanai Library is situated at the Batanai campus in Senga Township. The
collection of the library has a strong bias towards the programmes offered
at that campus. The programmes are Tourism and Hospitality Management,
Food Science and Banking and Finance.

4. Graduate School of Business and Leadership Library

The Library offers services to Master of Business and Administration,
Executive Master of Business and Administration and other Master of
Commerce students at the Graduate School of Business and Leadership and
Law campus.

5. Law Library
The Law Library is also a specialised library which caters for law students
only. The Library is situated at the Graduate School of Business and
Leadership and Law campus.

6. Zvishavane Campus Library

The Library is situated in Zvishavane and it caters for students in the mining
programmes, Politics and Public Management and Peace studies.

7. Harare Campus Library

8. School of Social Work Library

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MSU Library Sections
The MSU Library has sections that offer a variety of services to its clients. The
various sections are as follows:
Client Services Section
The Client Services section is responsible for
Content Management Section
The content management section is responsible for the cataloguing and
classification of all library resources. The section uses the latest international
standards and procedures in these activities to ensure that all materials are
adequately described and captured in the catalogue for easier discoverability by
all clients.
Research Support Section
The research section is responsible for assisting library users with support to
conduct their research and learning activities mainly through electronic resources.
These electronic resources include e-books, e-journals, institutional repository and
the e-catalogue. The section receives requests for research assistance through
email ([email protected]). Group bookings and walk-ins are permitted.
The section is also responsible for conducting training on e-resources usage as well
as Turnitin anti-plagiarism software. Training on the usage of e-resources and
Turnitin anti-plagiarism software is done to all clients of the MSU Library.
The Research Support Section also undertakes other activities that include
management of the MSU Institutional Repository (MSUIR), management of e-
Resources, Research Data management, training in the use of e-Resources and
other research tools.
Marketing Section
The emphasis of the Marketing Services Section is on total quality management in
every facet of the library. This section is juxtaposed with all sections in the library
paying particular attention to all front office services to ensure a good image of
the library and corporate image of the institution as a whole. The Section also pays
particular attention to the Library systems to ensure quality in library service
provision. The Section embarked on a variety of marketing strategies to market the
Library services and resources. These include the library WhatsApp platform, use
of notices (physical, staff portal and e-learning), brochures, e-resources user
guides, flyers and newsletters to reach the MSU community. Social networking sites
such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are also used to market the Library
services. The library also uses the Information or help desk in the main library for
face-to-face assistance.
Exhibitions such as the MSU Open day, Research and Intellectual Expo and
Agricultural shows are useful in marketing the MSU Library to both its internal and
external stakeholders. The Section also has a team of Library Ambassadors to assist
in their marketing initiatives. The responsibility of these Library Ambassadors is to
ensure the quick and easy flow of communication of information related to library

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services and activities between the Library and the students. A user survey
available on the MSU website is meant to get feedback from the users on Library
services in order for the Library to constantly review policies for the betterment of
service provision. The Marketing Section also makes use of the orientation and
Information Literacy Skills programmes to rigorously market Library services.
Digital and Media Services
The Library WhatsApp line (0786755935) is dedicated to clients’ enquiries related
to library services. The WhatsApp platform is operational during the Library
opening hours. The library also has social networking accounts such as Facebook
and Twitter where it communicates with the clients on issues related to the
Library. The Library offers some photocopying facilities and clients are charged a
fee for this service. Currently the fee charged for the photocopying facility is not
regulated by the MSU Library since the photocopier is privately owned.

Library Rules and Regulations

The main purpose of the rules is to safeguard the common interest of all library
users and to enable the library to function as efficiently as possible. Library rules
and regulations are as follows;
1. Users must present a valid MSU ID card to the security personnel upon
entering the Library.
2. Do not exchange student IDs to gain access into the Library or for borrowing
purposes.
3. Unauthorised borrowing will be treated as theft.
4. For security reasons, bags and cases may not be taken into the library. They
should be left in the baggage room just by the Library entrance.
5. Loss of baggage disks attracts a fine.
6. Smoking, eating and consumption of beverages in the Library is strictly
prohibited.
7. Readers are expected to observe silence in the library. A fine will be
charged to all students who answer cell phones in the Library. Cell phones
should be put on silent mode upon entering the library.
8. Mutilation of library materials by marking, underlining, removing pages or
portions of pages is strictly prohibited.
9. The Library does not issue out torn or defaced books; should readers lose
damage or deface library resources, they will be requested to replace.
10. All items taken in and out of the Library are subject to the security check at
the Library exit point.
11. Library clearance will not be done for staff and students with overdue
materials and unpaid fees.
12. The Library will suppress results for all students with outstanding library
fines and or lost books.
13. Loss of Library materials should be reported immediately
14. Library materials are not to be re-shelved by users.
15. Journals, dissertations and past exam papers are reference sources for in
house use only.
16. Settle your overdue fines before you leave for vacation to avoid suppression

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of results. All forms of payments are to be done at the cash office (Bursar)
or bank; receipts are to be brought to the library for verification.

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UNIT 2: INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION LITERACY AND THE BASIC
LIBRARY RESEARCH PROCESS

“Over the course of your lifetime, the more you learn and thereby
come to know, but especially the sooner you master and adopt
proficient learning skills, habits and attitudes – finding out how,
from where, from whom and when to search for and retrieve
the information that you need to know, but have not yet learned
– the more information literate you thereby become. Your competency
in applying and utilising those skills, habits and attitudes
will enable you to make sounder and timelier decisions to cope
with your personal and family health and welfare, educational,
job-related, citizenship and other challenges.” - Forest Woody Horton, Jr

Introduction
Several scholars have labelled the 21st Century as the “knowledge society”; people
are interested in finding out what has been discovered in research and they want
to use that same information to solve daily problems to develop a better world.
Furthermore, people also want to share or communicate research results for the
furtherance of knowledge (ACRL, 2010). The knowledge society is characterised by
participatory knowledge acquisition, retention, sharing and solving real-life issues.
Central to knowledge acquisition is the ability to understand the need for new
knowledge the nature of knowledge acquired, where to find and how to retrieve
such knowledge and how to profit from the knowledge without infringing on the
knowledge creator’s rights. This ability is what is embodied in INFORMATION
LITERACY.
Key Definitions
1. Knowledge
(Hunt, 2003) Defines knowledge as beliefs that are true and are justified.
(Cortes Ramirez et al., 2006) defines it as justified true belief

2. (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017) defines it as facts, information, and

skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject.

3. Information
(Patricia Margaret Alexander, 2003) says “information has a meaning ... (it)
comes from selecting data, summarising it and presenting it in such a way
that it is useful to the recipient.”

4. (INTRONA 1992) defines information as “data that is organised and

meaningful to the person receiving it. Data is therefore raw material that is
transformed into information by data processing. Information can be

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 defined in terms of its surprise value. It tells the recipient something he did
not know.”
5. (Introna 1992) also says “... information comes into being as the receiver
appropriates the data and gives it meaning”

6. (Checkland and Howell 1998) state “Information is that which results when
some human mental activity (observation, analysis) is successfully applied to
data to reveal its meaning or significance.”

7. The term ‘information’ has also been described as the structured, organised
and processed data, presented within context, which makes it relevant and
useful to the person who wants it.

Information is the data that is transformed and classified into an intelligible form,
which can be used in the process of decision-making. In short, when data turn out
to be meaningful after conversion, it is known as information. It is something that
informs, in essence, answers a particular question.

The main characteristics of information are accuracy, relevance, completeness and

availability. It can be communicated in the form of content of a message or
through observation and can be obtained from various sources such as newspaper,
television, internet, people, books, and so on.

The Information Literacy Concept

Paul Zurkowski was the first to coin the term “Information Literacy” (Ane, Daniela
and Angela, 2020). Several definitions of information literacy have been put
forward by different bodies and authors.

1. American Libraries Association defines information literacy “as a set of

abilities requiring individuals to recognise when information is needed and
have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed
information” (ALA 2018).

2. According to IFLA (2005) Information Literacy lies at the core of lifelong

learning. It empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and
create information effectively to achieve their personal, social,
occupational and educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital
world and promotes social inclusion of all nations.

3. Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced

judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as
citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with
society. (CILIP Information Literacy Group 2018)

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 4. (ACRL, 2010) defines information literacy as a set of abilities requiring
individuals to “ recognise when information is needed and have the ability
to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”

5. (UNESCO 2005) in (Secker, J, & Coonan, E 2013) - “Information Literacy

empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use, and create
information to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational
goals”

In sum, information literacy, also referred to as information competency, is the

ability to access, evaluate, organise, and use information from a variety of
sources. It is a skill that cuts across computer literacy, library literacy, media
literacy, network literacy, and digital literacy. This means that an information
literate person is one who can identify access, locate, use and communicate
information via computer systems, traditional libraries, tools or technological
machines, internet environment, and graphic media. This can be illustrated further
to mean the ability of a person, in this case the student, to use computer systems,
libraries, electronic gadgets, the Internet, printed and published resources
effectively in order to determine, find, assess, arrange, use and communicate
information, both in formal and informal settings. It is a bundle of skills that
transforms students into life-long learners.

Information literacy has several components as postulated by Lau and Bonila in

their concept of Information Literacy. The concept is depicted by the figure below.

Concept of information literacy (Lau 2014)

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Objectives of Information Literacy
The Association of College and Research Libraries states that Information Literacy
forms the basis of lifelong learning and it is part of our everyday living. It is
common to all environments, all levels of education and all learning environments
(ACRL Taskforce on Information Literacy Competency Standards, 2005).
The objectives of information literacy are:
 Creating a thinking style that is appropriate to the demands of the contemporary
information society expressed by information access capacity, analysis of the
information environment and development of alternative information systems;
 Creating skills and working abilities with information sources; and
 Independent solution for each problem by accessing, processing, storing and
sending information.

Adapted from Ane, L., Daniela, P. and Angela, R. (2020)

Information literacy is a skill set that is helpful for a lifetime. It equips students
with skills that will enable them to survive academically, at the workplace and
during everyday life. Below is a diagram summarising the main components of
information literacy.

Basic Components of Information Literacy Concept of information literacy

(Lau 2014)

21ST CENTURY SURVIVAL LITERACIES

(Stambler 2013) states, “because technology has increased the intensity and
complexity of literate environments the 21st Century demands that a person
possess a wide range of abilities and competencies”. (Woody, 2007) proposes that
the 21st Century requires people to have six categories of literacies to enable them
to meet their educational, societal and occupational needs. These are:

1. The basic or core functional literacy fluencies (competencies) of reading,

writing, oral and numeracy.
2. Computer and technology literacy
3. Media literacy
4. Distance Learning and E-Learning
5. Information Literacy
6. Cultural Literacy

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The boundaries between these categories overlap, but they should be seen as a
closely-knit family. In this view, literacy is comprehensive in the sense that it
includes many learnable skills, and positive attitudes and behaviours that affect
every aspect of one’s life.

INFORMATION LITERACY COMPETENCY STANDARDS – SKILLS POSSESSED BY

INFORMATION LITERATE INDIVIDUALS
Certain analytical and technical skills are possessed by information literate
individuals and these permit them to have the ability to identify, select, evaluate,
and analyse texts and other information, and to use information in accordance
with societal legal, and organisational norms (Patrick 2013). An information
literate individual is able to:

 Determine the extent of information needed.

 Access the needed information effectively and efficiently.

 Evaluate the information and its sources critically and incorporate selected
information into one’s knowledge base.

 Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

 Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of
information; and

 Use information ethically and legally.

Standard One – The information literate student determines the nature and
extent of the information needed.

 The information literate student defines and articulates the need for
information.
 The information literate student identifies a variety of types and formats of
potential sources for information.
 The information literate student considers the costs and benefits of
acquiring the needed information.
 The information literate student re-evaluates the nature and extent of the
information need.

Standard Two – The information literate student accesses needed information

effectively and efficiently.

Performance Indicators:

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  The information literate student selects the most appropriate investigative
methods or information retrieval systems for accessing the needed
information.
 The information literate student constructs and implements effectively
designed search strategies.
 The information literate student retrieves information online or in person
using a variety of methods.
 The information literate student refines the search strategy if necessary.
 The information literate student extracts, records, and manages the
information and its sources.

Standard Three – The information literate student evaluates information and its
sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her
knowledge base and value system.

Performance Indicators:

 The information literate student summarises the main ideas to be extracted

from the information gathered.
 The information literate student articulates and applies initial criteria for
evaluating both the information and its sources.
 The information literate student synthesises main ideas to construct new
concepts.
 The information literate student compares new knowledge with prior
knowledge to determine the value-added, contradictions, or other unique
characteristics of the information.
 The information literate student determines whether the new knowledge
has an impact on the individual’s value system and takes steps to reconcile
differences.
 The information literate student validates understanding and interpretation
of the information through discourse with other individuals, subject-area
experts, and/or practitioners.
 The information literate student determines whether the initial query
should be revised.

Standard Four – The information literate student, individually or as a member

of a group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.

Performance Indicators:

 The information literate student applies new and prior information to the
planning and creation of a particular product or performance.
 The information literate student revises the development process for the
product or performance.
 The information literate student communicates the product or performance
effectively to others.

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Standard Five – The information literate student understands many of the
economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and
accesses and uses information ethically and legally.

Performance Indicators:

 The information literate student understands many of the ethical, legal and
socio-economic issues surrounding information and information technology.
 The information literate student follows laws, regulations, institutional
policies, and etiquette related to the access and use of information
resources.
 The information literate student acknowledges the use of information

The above skills are summarised in the diagram below:

Importance of Information Literacy

We now have a knowledge society where everyone is interested in getting
information that will be transformed into knowledge. The process of this
transformation requires a set of skills: the ability to determine, find, evaluate,
organise, use and, in addition, share information from a variety of sources.
Below are some points about information literacy that reinforce its importance:
 Information Literacy education teaches students how to extract credible
information from an increasing variety of both print and digital information
sources.
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 Information Literacy imparts in students the abilities to identify and source
for the most up-to-date and authoritative information that would assist
them in doing their work more effectively.
 It imparts in students the ability to expand their knowledge, ask informed
questions, and sharpen their critical thinking skills for further self- directed
learning.
 Empowers students to become life-long learners.
 Information Literacy is not just for students at their studentship levels but
also position men and women in their workplaces to be possessors of needs
determination skills, needs assessment skills, research-based problem
solvers, information analysers, knowledge creators, etc.
 Information Literacy broadens the thinking horizon of students‟ vis-à-vis
their quest to know how to know and learn how to learn.
 It exposes to students the various categories and sources of information for
knowledge creation.
 Information Literacy inculcates in students the ability to evaluate and
determine the right information for every knowledge problem.
 Information Literacy inculcates in students the knowledge of how to use
information, elegantly and coherently, to create new knowledge.
 Information Literacy inculcates in students the ability to use information
resourcefully and legally.
 Information Literacy arouses the interest of students to become self-
motivated learners and thinkers who are creative, analytical and effective.
 Information Literacy inculcates and improves research skills in students.

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UNIT 3: ORGANISATION OF INFORMATION INLIBRARIES

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this unit students should be able to:
 Define classification
 Identify purposes of organising information
 Familiarise with the Library of Congress Classification scheme
 Understand the meaning of a call number

Information Organisation
Libraries organize information. Otherwise, nothing that is in a library could ever be
found. The organisation of information in Libraries is done through the application
of two core concepts in the Library science field namely classification and
cataloguing. In this chapter, the classification of library material will be the main
focus. The term classification has been defined by various scholars differently but
maintaining the same meaning altogether. Classification provides a descriptive and
explanatory framework for ideas and a structure of the relationship among the
ideas.
The following are some of the definitions by various authors as indicated by the
Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology;
 Margaret Mann says. Classification is the act of arranging things according to
their likeness and unlikeness. She further says it is a sorting or grouping of
things.
 According to Richardson, Classification is putting together like things.
 Berwick Sayers defines library Classification as The arrangement of books on
shelves or description of them, in a manner which is the most useful to
those who read.
 New Encyclopaedia Britannica defines library classification as a system of
arrangement adopted by a library to enable patrons to find its material
quickly and easily.

Purposes of Organising Information in Libraries

The following are the major reasons for creating a systematic library system:
Helpful sequence – Collocation of Items
The core purpose of classification is to arrange documents in a way convenient to
the users as well as to the library staff. The arrangement of documents in classes
gives a mutual relation between them. This brings together closely related
subjects.
Correct placement of documents.
When documents are taken out from the shelves by the users or library staff, there
should be a system that enables the placement of the documents on their proper
shelving places

19
Mechanised arrangement
This is done by allocating notation, which expresses order. Thus, it becomes
possible to easily insert or reinsert the various documents in their correct places.
This is how a mechanised arrangement is achieved.
Addition of new documents
A library acquires new documents from time to time and this requires a system
that enables Library personnel to find the most appropriate place for each of these
among the existing collection of the library. In case of a newly emerging subject,
which may not have been provided for in the existing scheme, there should be
inbuilt qualities which may allow the fixing of a position of the newly emerging
subject amidst another subject having a literary warrant.

Withdrawal of documents from stock

In case, the need arises to withdraw a document from the stock for some reason,
the library should facilitate such a withdrawal.
Categorisation for browsing
It is easier to browse books on the same subject if they are placed together.
Information Organisation in Libraries
Taylor (2006) notes that collections of any appreciable size are arranged according
to some system, and the arrangement is generally referred to as classification.
Taylor further surmises that classification provides logical, or at least a
methodical, approach to the arrangement of documents. Libraries use different
types of classification schemes and this is dependent on various reasons which
include the type of Library, type of clientele, availability of resources and the size
of the collection. In this chapter, the focus is going to dwell on two schemes only
namely Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LC) and the Dewey Decimal
Classification Scheme respectively.
Library of Congress Classification Scheme (LCC)

The system divides all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, each identified by
a single letter of the alphabet. Most of these alphabetical classes are further
divided into more specific subclasses, identified by two-letter, or occasionally
three-letter, combinations.

Below is an outline of the Library of Congress Classification scheme;

20
CLASS SUBJECT(S)

A General works

B – BJ Philosophy, Psychology

BR – BX Christianity, Bible

C Auxiliary sciences of history

D – DR History (General) and History of Europe

DS – DX History of Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

E–F History: America

G Geography. Maps. Anthropology. Recreation

H Social sciences

J Political science

K Law (General)

KB Religious law

KD Law of United Kingdom and Ireland

KDZ,KG – KH Law of the Americas, Latin America, and the West Indies

KE Law of Canada

KF Law of the United States

KJ – KKZ Law of Europe

KJV – KJW Law of France

KK – KKC Law of Germany

KL – KWX Law of Asia and Eurasia, Africa, Pacific area and Antarctica

KZ Law of Nations

L Education

21
M Music and Books on Music

N Fine Arts

P – PA Philology and Linguistics (General). Greek language and

literature. Latin language and literature

PB – PH Modern European languages

PJ – PK Oriental philology and literature, Indo-Iranian philology and

literature
PL – PM
Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania. Hyperborean, Indian
and artificial languages
PN
Literature (General)
PQ
French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese literature
PR, PS, PZ
English and American literature. Juvenile Belles letters
PT
German, Dutch, and Scandinavian literature
Q Science

R Medicine

S Agriculture

T Technology

U–V Military science. Naval science

Z Bibliography. Library science. Information resources

Source: Taylor, A.G. (2006:428-429) Introduction to cataloguing and

classification. 10th ed. (Referencing needs corrections)

The Meaning of Call Numbers and Their Arrangement on the Shelves

The LC number appears in three main parts and may contain additional
parts that together provide a unique identifier for the item. One or more parts

22
may be omitted and this represents the judgment of the cataloguer that the
remaining parts suffice to provide a unique identifier. The three main parts are
organized in this way:

a. The first letter or letters e.g. (HF)

A single letter represents a broad or general subject for example: H =

Social Sciences and multiple letters mean a narrower subject within
it, for example: HF = Commerce, a subdivision of the main subject
represented by H in the LC scheme.
This part of the call number is arranged alphabetically on the shelves,
so G would come before H which would come before HF

b. A number (HF 5549 ARM)

This middle part further defines the subject. For example in the
subject area of commerce, it designates a type of material. 5549 =
Personnel Management/ General works. To determine the
arrangement of the call number on the shelves, read these numbers
the way you would count: 50 come before 500 which comes before
5000.

c. The last letters e.g. (HF 5549 ARM)

The last three letters represent either the first three letters of the
Author’s surname or the first three letters of the title of the
document. For example, ARM represents the author’s surname which
is ARMSTRONG. In the case that there is no author or the authors are
more than three then the first three letters of the title would be used.
If the title reads ‘Personnel management’ then the call number would
be HF5549 PER

d. One or more Cutter numbers (HF 5549 .A76)

Named after a Cataloguer, this number represents the beginning letter
of a person's (author or editor) last name with a number that
interpolates it between other names beginning with the same letter
For Example:
Armstrong, M. = .A76
Atkins, A.T. = .A85

The above number may be preceded by a cutter number that further

divides the subject, or gives some information about the form of the
item, such as whether it is an outline, form book, or case book. To
determine the arrangement on the shelves, read Cutter numbers the
way you would read a decimal: .3 comes before .301 which comes
before .31.

23
UNIT 4: ACCESSING INFORMATION SOURCES

Introduction
The library has different types of information sources that include hard copy
books, journals, magazines, reports and past examination papers among others.
These can be accessed using the Online Public Access Catalogue, which is the
primary tool used to search for the library’s print resources.
The Information Access Model
Most accounts of the information access process assume an interaction cycle
consisting of query specification, receipt and examination of retrieved results, and
then either stopping or reformulating the query and repeating the process until a
perfect result set is found. In more detail, the standard process can be described
according to the following sequence of steps:
1. Start with an information need.
2. Select a system and collections to search.
3. Formulate a query.
4. Send the query to the system (OPAC)
5. Receive the results in the form of information items.
6. Scan, evaluate, and interpret the results.
7. Either stop or,
8. Reformulate the query and go to step 4.

The Information Access model

24
Finding Books
The Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) is the main tool that is used to find
hard copy books in the library. The OPAC can be accessed online at any time from
the library webpage. Books are placed into various categories or shelving locations
such as:
1. Open shelf
2. Reserve
3. Core collection
4. Reference
Information Provided By the OPAC
The OPAC provides some information that will assist you in locating the desired
book such as:
1. Author of the document
2. Title
3. Publisher
4. Date of publication
5. The physical location of the document (Main Library, Batanai Library,
Zvishavane Library etc)
6. Shelving location e.g. Open shelf, Reserve, Core Collection and Reference
7. Call number of the document
8. Availability of document e.g. whether it is loaned out or readily available
9. Item type e.g. whether it’s a book, journal, dissertation or electronic
resource

How to Search the Midlands State University OPAC

Follow the steps below to search the OPAC:
1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw
2. Click on the “Libraries” link
3. On the library home page click on Electronic Resources and on the drop
down menu select “CATALOGUE”
4. On the Online Web OPAC page there is a search box. If you click on the drop
down arrow it gives a list of options of how you may do your search e.g. by
 Title
 Author
 Subject
 ISBN
 Series
 Call Number
5. Type in your search terms using any of the above options and click on the
“GO” button
6. You will be re-directed to a screen showing the number of search results
and a brief description of each record

25
 7. On a result of your choice, click on the title of a record; this will take you to
a detailed page showing:
 Item type e.g. Book, Periodical, Reserve Item
 Current Location
 Call Number
 Copy Number
 Status i.e. Availability
 Due Date
 Barcode Number
8. Check the availability of the book and its location and note down its Call
Number
9. Approach the appropriate shelf to retrieve the book

Finding Hard Copy Journals

Journals are located in the Special Collections section of the library. A journal is a
publication that contains articles written by academics or researchers in various
disciplines. Most journals are discipline-specific i.e. they publish articles in a single
subject field e.g. “Journal of Biochemistry” or “Journal of African History”.
Journals are also published at regular intervals such as monthly, bi-bimonthly,
quarterly, annually etc.

To find journals using the OPAC, follow the steps below:

1. Go to http://www.msu.ac.zw and point your mouse to “Libraries”

2. Select “Catalogue”
3. On the Online catalogue page click on “Advanced Search”
4. Enter your keywords in the search form provided
5. Under “Item Type” select “Journal” to limit your results to journals only
6. Click on the “Search” button to get results
7. Click on a journal-title of your choice to get the Call number
8. Approach appropriate shelf in the Special Collections section to retrieve the
journal.

Finding Past Examination Papers

You can find past examination papers by following the steps below:

1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw and click on “Libraries”

2. Click on “Electronic Resources” and select “Past Exam Papers”
3. You can browse papers by faculty by using the navigation panel on the left
hand side
4. Type in the paper code in the search box e.g. CS101 and click on “Search
Exam Papers” button

26
 5. On your results page click on a result of your choice.
6. You will be asked to enter your registration number and E-Learning
password or your Staff Portal username and password
7. Your papers will be downloaded or displayed in the browser.

THE BASIC RESEARCH PROCESS

Step 1: Identifying the Problem

The first step in the process is to identify a problem or develop a research

question. You need to identify a topic that is of interest to you to make it easy
along the way.

Step 2: Review the Literature

Once the problem has been identified, it is time to gather information related to
the problem or topic. Gathering literature about the topic will give you more
insights into what has already been published by other researchers, how they
researched the problem and the results or conclusions they got. You will need to
use the library’s resources to get this information. These include the library
catalogue, electronic books, electronic journals and indexes.

Step 3: Research Purpose/Design

This is a practical framework for answering the research questions. This involves
making decisions about the type of data that you are going to collect, how you are
going to collect it (methods), time scale and the location of your research.

Step 4: Collect Data

This step involves collecting data about your research problem from the
participants in your research. Data can be collected in the form of interviews,
questionnaires, observation etc.

Step 5: Analyse and Interpret Data

All the activities that were carried out in the above steps now culminate into this
step. Here you will analyse data so that the research questions can finally be
answered.

Step 6: Report and Evaluate

In this stage, you are now writing about the results that you got from the research.
What were the conclusions about the problem you were researching on? What are
your recommendations? What can be done to improve things or avoid negative
things?

27
(Blankenship, Diane Applied Research and Evaluation Methods in Recreation, Human Kinetics 2010)

The above processes can be summarized with the diagram below:

The research process (By Lee Rusty Waller)

28
UNIT 5: INFORMATION ACCESS TOOLS

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this unit students will be able to:
 Define information access tools.
 Use various information access tools for both printed and electronic
resources in finding information

Information Access Tools

Information access tools are utilities that are used to locate information. They are
information finding aids that are meant to enable users to locate pieces of
information quickly and easily in a source that contains large amounts of
information such as a book, library, the internet or a database. Different access
tools are used to find different kinds of information. Retrieval tools are crucial for
retrieving information for educational outcomes. Information retrieval tools
according to Edom (2012) are the simple mechanisms or apparatuses that aid the
library user to locate, retrieve and use the needed documents from the library or
information from a book or document.

Types of Information Access Tools

Some of the most commonly used information access tools are: Indexes,
Bibliographies, Abstracts, and Library Catalogues.
a) Indexes
An index is a list of words or phrases ('headings') and associated pointers
('locators') to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in
a document. The pointers or locators are usually page numbers, paragraph
numbers, book sections, or chapters. In a typical back-of-the-book (BoB)
index, the headings might include author names and the pages they are
cited, subjects, place names events and concepts selected by the book
writer as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. An
index can simply be an alphabetical list of the subjects discussed in a book
with a corresponding page number; also a separate publication that points
to information found in other sources.
According to Cook (1981), stand-alone indexes are tools designed to make
readily available information that appears in other separate publications.
The purpose of an index is to save the time of the reader by grouping
certain related concepts or subjects and giving their locations in a
document. An index as an aid to finding information may contain cross
references all over the book linking related topics or subjects e.g. see or
see also.

29
Types of Indexes
There are two main types of indexes and these include:
 Name or Author index
 Subject index

TYPE OF DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES

INDEX
Author Index Name or Author index as the name Abbeduto, L. 233, 235, 239
implies provides an alphabetic list of
authors in a document and the page Aboud, F. 425
numbers where they are cited. Abrams, D. 422
Acredolo, L.P. 49, 50
Adams, M.J. 189
Adamson, L.B. 68
Ahmad, Y. 344, 34
Ainsworth, M.D.S. 82, 86,
87, 88, 89,

Subject Index A subject index lists subjects and their Adolescence, 383–399
related concepts in a book. It makes
alcohol & drugs, 408, 357
extensive use of cross-referencing to aid
the reader to quickly find related terms and employment, 405, 416
and concepts in a document.
and gender identity, 391,
394, 406
and gender, 394
see also Adolescence,
theories
and psychoanalysis, 383
and puberty, 391
and sex, 391, 392, 395, 405

b) Bibliographies
A bibliography “directs us to sources which contain the required
information”, Behrens (2000). In other words, bibliographies tell us where
to find the information in recorded form.

30
 A bibliography is a list of literary works by a particular author or a list of
works on a particular subject or a list of works published in a certain
geographical area.
Chowdhury (et al., 2008) notes that bibliographies are usually categorised
by their content, such as:
Author bibliography: A bibliography of works by and about a specific
author, e.g. World Shakespeare bibliography Online
(www.worldshakesbib.org)
Subject bibliography: A bibliography of documents in a given subject, e.g.
Digital Library Evaluation and Assessment Bibliography
(www.uni.edu/digitalbibeval.html)
Trade bibliography: A bibliography that provides the record of the
publication output of various publishers, e.g. Books in print
(www.booksinprint.com/bip)
National bibliography: A bibliography that records a nation’s publishing
output, and this is the single most authentic and comprehensive source of
information on the publication output in and about a country e.g. Zimbabwe
National Bibliography published by the National Archives of Zimbabwe.

c) Abstracts
An abstract is a summary or synopsis of the most important parts of a
document. It is a highly condensed version of the original document itself.
Most abstracts are between 50 and 250 words in length. The prime function
of an abstract is to summarise the nature of your research project, its
context, how it was carried out and what its major findings were. Abstracts
provide more information about the contents of the source and by reading
the abstract it is possible to draw conclusion whether the original source is
worth consulting for more detailed information.

d) Library Catalogues
Libraries are concerned with storing and retrieving the information,
consequently as the quantities of information grow there is need to make
use of information retrieval tools to facilitate easy access of the information
stored. A library Catalogue is one of the retrieval systems used to retrieve
information. The Library Catalogue is a very crucial information source in
the library as it guides the reader/client where to locate the books and
helps clients to know the library’s comprehensive holdings.
The Library catalogue indicates where the books are on the library shelves.
Apart from indicating the location of every book in the library, it will also
indicate whether or not the library has a particular book on a particular
discipline. A Library catalogue is an essential tool, especially when a library
has a large collection. It serves as a key to the resources of a library.
Without library catalogue, it would be difficult to know what is available
and where it can be located. It is also known as a retrieval tool. The

31
 information retrieval system acts as a bridge between the organisers of
information or generators of information and their clients.

The Midlands State University Library has an online catalogue also called the
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) that can be used to locate many
sources of information such as books, journals and electronic resources. The
OPAC is available on the internet.
Kasimani and Rajendran (2019) posit that, An OPAC (Online Public Access
Catalog) is an online bibliography of a library collection that is available to
the public … because it allows the users to search about the collection and
resources of the library. Online public access catalogue (OPAC) provides
facilities for library users to carryout online catalogue searches, and then
check the availability of the item required.

Kumar and Singh (2017) says that,

Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) are the interfaces that help users to
communicate with the collections of a library. Online Public Access Catalogues
(OPACs) allow users to search the library’s catalogue, and also provide other
facilities, such as checking borrower records, reserving reading materials.

Behrens (2000) defines a library catalogue as “a systematic list of the

information sources which are held in a library collection. The catalogue
describes each source in sufficient detail to identify it uniquely and
indicates where the sources can be found in the collection”.
Purposes of Library Catalogues
1. They enable a person to find a book of which either author, title, subject is
known
2. It also directs the user where the materials are located.
3. Show what the library has for a given author, on a given subject
4. To assist with the choice of the book by edition or by its character (literary
or topical)
5. To show the availability status of an item i.e. whether it is readily available
or loaned out.
The Midlands State University Library has an online catalogue also called the
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) that can be used to locate many
sources of information such as books, journals and electronic resources. The
OPAC is available on the internet.

32
UNIT 6: INFORMATION AND ITS SOURCES

Learning Outcomes
1. To define information need

2. To determine the information need

3. To define the information source

4. To identify the various sources of information

5. To distinguish the types of information

Introduction
Information can come from virtually anywhere, i.e. from media, blogs, personal
experiences, books, journal and magazine articles, expert opinions,
encyclopaedias, and web pages, and the type of information an individual needs is
dependant mainly on the question one is trying to answer. In this Unit, we discuss
the information need, categories and formats of information, and conclude with
types of information sources.
The Information Need
Scott (2012) states that information need is the question that needs an answer. In
the context of school, it is that research question that an individual attempts to
answer in an assignment or research project. In one’s personal life, it could be
finding the best cell phone deal for the individual’s intended use. In professional
life, it could be finding out how much money an average consumer spends on
ordinary bread and whether the market is big enough for another supplier of
bread.
Some researchers may need quick facts or little background on a particular
subject. This information need is not that big and the researcher may be able to
find the answer in one source. If a researcher needs information that requires
additional facts and background information, plus the latest research articles
related to the subject under study, it becomes a complex question that requires
information from different sources. Scott (2012) notes that recognising that a
question is big, that it cannot be answered by a single source, that it has multiple
facets, and that it requires background information to understand all aspects of it
is a very good beginning.
Recognise your Information need
Varshney (2011) notes that one knows that he or she needs information when given
a project/assignment by a lecturer, has a personal need that requires certain
information before a decision can be made and generally, whenever one is
uncertain that he or she can find information that will help to make the correct
decision. It is prudent to note that one needs information not just for study
purposes but for most decisions in everyday life. One may need to make a good
decision to buy the right merchandise at the right time for the right reasons.

33
Think about your need

A researcher needs to think about the need, that is, to think about the problem;
question or topic one needs information on? Varshney (2011) states that when you
have established that you need information and have a vague idea about the topic,
the next step is that you have to formalise your central search question before
starting to look for information. In cases where one is given a specific topic by the
lecturer, there won’t be any need to identify one by yourself. When it comes to
decisions in your personal life, you will have to identify your need and formulate
your search question to be able to start searching for information

Read about your topic

When searching for information, one needs keywords to amply locate the authentic
information required to solve the problem. To achieve this, one should read about
the topic to have a foretaste of what is required of him or her. Varshney (2011)
believes that the best place to start reading is in the Reference Section of the
Library. The reference section contains many different types of dictionaries,
encyclopaedias, thesauruses, etc., all of which will supply you with more than
enough information to start identifying keywords and begin your search.

Defining Keywords

Once you have read generally about your topic, you should have a better idea of
the keywords under which you will probably find information about your topic. So,
before you can start your search, you should define your keywords accurately

Cost of Information

Varshney (2011) highlights that when choosing the information resources to use for
searching, one should bear in mind that some resources are free and others are at
a cost. In the case of MSU students, no library resources are accessed at a cost by
registered students. When one registers for that particular Semester,
automatically he or she becomes a bonafide library user who is allowed to borrow
the stipulated number of library resources at any given time. When one wants to
use external sources other than those covered by the interlibrary loan facility,
then some costs may be incurred.

Information Sources

Varshney (2011) defines information source as a source of information for

somebody, i.e. anything that might inform a person about something or provide
knowledge to somebody. Information sources may be observations, speeches,
documents, pictures, organisations etc. Varshney further states that the various
types of information sources can be divided into two broad categories, which are;

1. Documentary Sources
2. Non-Documentary Sources

34
Source:
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/40587/9/11_chapter2.pdf

Documentary sources are published or recorded documents of knowledge as shown

in the diagram below;

35
Documentary sources

Source:
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/40587/9/11_chapter2.pdf

36
 Below is an explanation in tabular form of the documentary sources of
information;

SOURCE DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES SOURCES

OF
INFORMA
TION
Primary  These are original  People's accounts of  Autobiographi
materials on which events at which they es
other research is were present.  Corresponden
based.  Original artwork. ce
 They are usually the  Firsthand
first formal accounts
appearance of  Handwritten  Diaries
research results in the manuscripts.  Interviews
print or electronic  Artefacts such as  Personal
literature. arrowheads, pottery, narratives
 They present furniture, and buildings,  Paintings
information in its  Research article on the  Photographs
original form, neither discovery of a new virus  Res
interpreted nor earch
condensed nor journals
evaluated by other
writers.
 Not translated by
anyone else.
 Has not been
published elsewhere.

Secondar  Secondary sources are  An article that critiques  Biographies

y edited primary a novel/ Newspaper  Bibliographies
sources. editorial.  Books &
 Repackaged papers on a
 They represent  Newspaper Report on a topic
someone else's journal article.  Literary
thinking. criticism &
 They interpret,  Notes borrowed from interpretation
analyse and evaluate classmates for a missed  Historical
the primary sources. class. criticism
 They comment on and  Political
discuss the evidence analyses
provided by primary  Review
sources. articles
 Lead to primary  Analyses of
sources. social policy

Tertiary  A selection or  Bibliographies,  Abstracts

compilation  Bibliographies
of primary and  library catalogues,  Dictionaries
secondary sources of  Directories.  Encyclopaedi

37
 information.  Reading lists. as
 Survey articles.  Directories
 Tertiary sources tend  Encyclopaedias  guidebooks
to be more focused and manuals
on the identification  Population
of scholarly work than registers
on the content itself.

 In some instances
tertiary sources
embrace both
secondary and
tertiary sources,
presenting on the one
hand commentary and
analysis, while on the
other attempting to
provide a synoptic
overview of the
material available on
the topic.

 Tertiary sources are

usually not credited
to a particular
author. They provide
a superficial overview
of what the topic
includes, its basic
terminology, and
often references for
further reading.

Non-documentary sources

Varshney (2011) notes that non-documentary sources of information form a

substantial part of communication especially in science and technology. These
sources provide information which other sources do not.

Types: - There are two kinds of sources:-

(1) Formal Sources:-

 -Research Organisation
 -Societies
 -Industries
 -Govt. Dept.

38
  -Universities
 -Consultants

(2) Informal Sources:-

 Conversation with colleagues

 Visitors
 Attendance at Professional Meetings.

When one has established the various sources of information to use, he or she will
now be in a position to distinguish the different sources in print or non-print
format. The following table shows a number of examples of information sources
that a researcher can use to conduct any type of research;

BOOKS INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

Books cover when looking for lots
virtually any topic, of information on a
fact or fiction. For topic
research purposes,
you will probably be to put your topic in
looking for books context with other
that synthesise all important issues
the information on
one topic to support to find historical
a particular information
argument or thesis.
to find summaries of
Libraries organise research to support
and store their book an argument
collections on
shelves called
"stacks."
Encyclopaedias INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES
Encyclopaedias are when looking for
collections of short, background
factual entries information on a
often written by topic
different
contributors who when trying to find
are knowledgeable key ideas,
about the topic. important dates or
concepts
There are two
types of
encyclopaedias:
general and
subject. General

39
 encyclopaedias
provide concise
overviews on a
wide variety of
topics. Subject
encyclopaedias
contain in-depth
entries focusing on
one field of study
Academic Journals INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES
A journal is a when doing
collection of articles scholarly research
usually written by
scholars in an to find out what
academic or has been studied
professional field. on your topic

An editorial board to find

reviews articles to bibliographies that
decide whether they point to other
should be accepted. relevant research

Articles in journals
can cover very
specific topics or
narrow fields of
research.
Databases INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES
A database contains when you want to EBSCOhost
citations of articles in find articles on
magazines, journals, your topic in
and newspapers. They magazines, journals
may also contain or newspapers Sabinet
citations to podcasts,
blogs, videos, and
other media types.
Some databases Emerald
contain abstracts or
summaries of the
articles, while other
databases contain ScienceDirect
complete, full-text
articles.

Jstor
Magazines INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

40
 A magazine is a to find information Drum
collection of articles or opinions about
and images about popular culture
diverse topics of
popular interest and to find up-to-date You
current events. information about
current events
Usually, these articles
are written by to find general Time
journalists or scholars articles for people
and are geared toward who are not
the average adult. necessarily
specialists about National
Magazines may cover the topic Geographic
very "serious"
material, but to find
consistent scholarly
information, you
should use journals.
Newspapers INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES
A newspaper is a to find current Daily Dispatch
collection of articles information about
about current events international,
usually published national and local
daily. Since there is at events Sunday Times
least one in every
city, it is a great to find editorials,
source of local commentaries,
information. expert or popular Mail & Guardian
opinions

City Press
Library Catalogue INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES

A library catalogue is to find out what

an organised and items the library
searchable collection owns on your topic
of records of every
item in a library and to find where a
can be found on the specific item is
library home page. The located in the
catalogue will point library
you to the location of
a particular source, or
group of sources, that
the library owns on
your topic.

41
Internet INFORMATION USE EXAMPLES
The Web allows to find current
you to access most information
types of www.ufh.ac.za
information on the to find
Internet through a information
browser. One of about
the main features companies www.google.co.za
of the Web is the
ability to quickly to find
link to other information
related from all levels www.education.gov.za
information. The of government -
Web contains federal to local
information beyond
plain text, to find both
including sounds, expert and
images, and video. popular opinions

The important to find

thing to do when information
using the about hobbies
information on the and personal
Internet is to know interests
how to evaluate it!

Source: University of Fort Hare Library Guides

http://ufh.za.libguides.com/c.php?g=91523&p=590868

Researchers should remember that when they are using these various sources of
information, the information found in those sources may come in different types
such as; Factual, objective, subjective and analytical.
Types of Information

Type Definition Examples

Factual Made up of facts  Today's date
 Historical Events
Analytical Interpretation of facts  Lecturer explaining
aparticular paragraph
in your history
textbook.
Subjective Personal opinions or  Classmate's
viewpoints and some facts. evaluation of your
lecturer.
 Editorial in a
newspaper
Objective Non-judgemental and  Balanced political

42
balanced reporting. report
Presenting all sides of a
topic.

43
 UNIT 7: REFERENCE SOURCES AND PERIODICALS

LESSON OUTCOMES

By the end of this unit students will be able to:

 Define reference sources of information.

 Identify examples of reference sources of information
 Define periodicals.
 Identify the types of periodical literature.
 Understand the role of periodical literature in research.
 Evaluate the articles in periodicals.
 Find periodicals in the MSU Library.

INTRODUCTION TO REFERENCE SOURCES

According to Behrens (1994), a reference source supplies authoritative information. It
is intended to be referred to briefly for specific factual information only, and not to
be read from cover to cover. Reference sources provide answers to specific
questions, such as brief facts, statistics, and technical instructions; provide
background information or direct you to additional information sources. Reference
sources are not scholarly (peer-reviewed). In most libraries, reference sources do not
circulate and are located in a separate reference collection. This practice makes
reference sources readily available and easily accessible.

A reference source is designed by the arrangement and treatment of its subject

matter to be consulted for definitive items of information rather than to be read
consecutively. To facilitate its ease of use, particular attention is paid to the
systematic arrangement of items within it. Reference materials can be arranged
alphabetically, topically, or chronologically. There are thousands of reference
sources available that cover practically every subject. In most libraries, these books
are not issued and are located in a separate reference collection. This practice makes
reference sources readily available and easily accessible. Most of the reference books
are specifically designed to provide the required information quickly and in the most
convenient form. Although the term reference "book" is frequently used, reference
sources can be books, serials, on-line databases or information found on the Internet.
A large part of using reference sources well is choosing the right one for your needs.

44
Quick guide for selecting the right type of reference source (Collins, 151):

For information about... Choose...

1. Words Dictionaries
2. General information/Overview of topic Encyclopaedias
3. Names & addresses of people, Directories
organisations, institutions, companies
4. Profiles of people Biographical Dictionaries
5. Places/Maps Gazetteers or Atlases
6. Facts and Statistics Almanacs
7. Formula, Tables, How-To-Do-It Handbooks and Manuals
8. A person's work Reviews or Criticisms
9. Dates, outlines, historical timelines Historical tables, Chronologies,
Historical yearbooks
10. Periodical Articles Indexes or Abstracts
11. Books and other sources Bibliographies or Guides to
Literature...

CHARACTERISTICS OF REFERENCE SOURCES

1. They are intended primarily for occasional consultation.

2. They are consulted for definite items of information.
3. The information included in them is collected from a vast number of
sources.
4. It is a miscellany of information and facts.
5. The arrangement of information is such that it can be conveniently and
quickly recalled.
6. It follows some methods of arrangement e.g. Alphabetical, Chronological or
other methods.
7. They include only an overview of the topics and rarely deal with them in
depth.
8. They usually concentrate on facts.
9. They are normally not issued on loan and kept for use in the library only.
10. Information in a reference book is so organised that anyone can easily get
their desired information.

CATEGORIES OF REFERENCE SOURCES

In the following section different categories of reference sources, their
characteristics and uses are discussed.

DICTIONARY
According to Katz (1997), a dictionary gives the modern meaning of words.
Behrens (1994) defines a dictionary as a list of the words of a language or
45
languages, or a list of words relating to a specific subject. The words are
arranged systematically, usually alphabetically. There are four types of
dictionaries.

A dictionary is a book containing words of a language arranged alphabetically with

their meanings. Most dictionaries list pronunciations, grammatical labels,
illustrative quotations, synonyms, antonyms, usage notes, etymology and other
information. Some dictionaries give derivation and history of the words too.

TYPES OF DICTIONARIES

Based on the number of words, scope and coverage of other items of information,
the dictionaries can be categorised into the following groups:

i. GENERAL LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES

General language dictionaries cover all the words of a language and give
meanings, definition, and explanation of the words in the same language. It
covers all the words of a language, including past as well as currently in use
words.

ii. SUBJECT DICTIONARIES

Subject dictionaries concentrate on the definition of the terms in a given

subject. Subject dictionaries are becoming increasingly common, due to an
increase in study and research in different subject areas ranging from arts,
humanities, social sciences to science and technology.

iii. SPECIAL DICTIONARIES

The special dictionaries deal with special types or special aspect of the
words. A special type or class of words includes obsolete words, acronyms,
abbreviations etc. Special aspect of the word includes linguistic aspect of
the words (such as pronunciation, synonym and antonyms, etc.), or literary
aspect of the words (such as quotations, idioms, proverbs, etc.).

iv. BILINGUAL AND MULTILINGUAL DICTIONARIES (TRANSLATING

DICTIONARIES)

The bilingual dictionaries give the meaning of a word from one language to
another language. For example, an English-Hindi dictionary will list words in
English and give equivalent words in Hindi. This type of dictionary is called a
bilingual dictionary. A multilingual dictionary gives the meaning of a word in

46
 more than two languages. These dictionaries are also called translating
dictionaries. Many of them are limited in scope to certain subject fields
such as astronomy, biology, electronics, etc.

THESAURUS AND GLOSSARY

Thesaurus is a book in which words that have the same or similar meaning
(synonyms and sometimes antonyms) are grouped. In contrast to a dictionary,
which helps to find meaning and pronunciation of the words, a thesaurus helps to
find the most appropriate word to express an idea and also other related words.

A glossary is an alphabetical list of words related to a specific subject, text or

dialect with an explanation. A glossary is usually provided at the back of the book
showing the definitions of technical terms in that particular field of knowledge
used in that book.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA

It is a book or set of books giving information on all branches of knowledge or

certain wide fields with articles arranged alphabetically. An encyclopaedia
contains information about people, places, events, and things. It may deal with all
areas of knowledge or it may be limited to just one subject area. Articles in the
standard encyclopaedia are written by subject specialists and then edited by the
encyclopaedia staff editors to conform to policies of the encyclopaedia in terms of
content, style and punctuation. Most encyclopaedias are arranged alphabetically
from A to Z. Some are topically arranged, such as one volume may be devoted to
'Animals', another to 'Plants', 'Earth' and Universe', or some other subjects.

TYPES OF ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

i. GENERAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA
General Encyclopaedias cover all fields of knowledge, for example,
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Subject Encyclopaedias cover either a single
subject such as Encyclopaedia of Physics or a group of subjects such as
Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology.) General encyclopaedias can be
further categorised according to size (single volume-set or multivolume-set)
and target users (for adults, students or children).

General encyclopaedias provide information about nearly every topic. Using

an encyclopaedia is an effective way to quickly get a broad overview of a
subject. Some encyclopaedias will provide more in-depth information than
others. However, any general encyclopaedia is a good source to consult for

47
 background information of your chosen subject area. Most encyclopaedias
provide the following:

 Main concepts
 Titles of important books written about the topic
 Names of authors who have written about the topic
 Keywords and subject terms related to the topic
 Lists of related articles or additional resources

ii. SUBJECT ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

A subject encyclopaedia provides detailed information on a specific area of
knowledge such as arts and humanities, science and technology, social
sciences, etc. There are thousands of subject encyclopaedias ranging from a
broad subject area to a very narrow subject field. There are multivolume as
well as single volume subject encyclopaedias. Some subject encyclopaedias
are meant for subject specialists and some are for students and general
readers interested in that subject.

Subject encyclopaedias provide more detailed and technical information on

a specific area of knowledge such as arts, science and technology or social
sciences. The specialised encyclopaedia is also known as a subject
encyclopaedia. They are important background sources of information.
Unlike general encyclopaedias which cover a wide range of topics, subject-
specific encyclopaedias focus their information in one particular subject
area. Some features of subject-specific encyclopaedias include:

 Detailed articles written by experts within a field

 Extensive and comprehensive bibliographies of an important resource

YEARBOOKS
Yearbook, as the name indicates, is a book of information that is updated and
published annually, i.e., every year. The basic purpose of a yearbook is to record
events and developments of the previous year in a country or the world. Based on
their scope and type of information covered yearbooks can be categorised as:-
International Yearbook, National Yearbook, Subject Yearbook. An International
Yearbook provides reliable and handy statistical information about each country of
the world. For example, The Statesman's Yearbook 2014 published by Macmillan,
provides a political, economic and social account of every country (194 countries)
of the world together with facts and analysis.

ALMANAC
An almanac provides brief statistical information and facts, both current and
retrospective (e.g. World Almanac & Book of Facts). This is usually a one-volume

48
work with statistics and a compilation of specific facts. An almanac is a
compendium of useful data and statistics relating to countries, personalities,
events, subjects and the likes (Katz; 1997). Almanacs are usually published
annually.

Almanac is a reference book usually published once a year and contains many kinds
of information. Almanacs originally provided a calendar of the months with
eclipses, the movement of planets and the rising and setting of the sun, moon and
stars. Present-day almanacs include a comprehensive presentation of statistical
and descriptive data covering the entire world.

Major topics covered are geography, government, demographic data, agriculture,

economics and business, health and medicine, Science & Technology, transport,
sports, awards and prizes. Contents also include articles focusing on events of the
previous year as well as summary of recent events. Now the almanacs are more
like yearbooks. Both depend on government sources for statistical data. The only
difference is that almanacs present astronomical data, which is absent in the
yearbooks.

HANDBOOK
The word handbook is derived from the German word 'Handbuch' meaning a small
book giving useful facts. The literal meaning of the term 'handbook' is a book which
is 'handy' to use as it contains useful facts and handy to carry it conveniently.
Handbook by definition is a concise reference book providing specific information
or instruction about a topic or a subject. The subject handbook gives brief
information such as facts on a subject. They are designed to be easily consulted
and provide quick answers. Behrens (1994) describes a handbook as a reference
source that provides basic information on a specific subject. It presents one broad
subject in brief, or gives a brief survey of a subject (e.g. Handbook of American
Popular Culture).

MANUAL
The ' term manual' is derived from Latin term 'manuals' meaning a guide book.
Manual provides step-by-step instructions on how to do a particular job or operate
a particular machine. When a customer buys any home appliances, such as a
television, an air conditioner, an oven or even a mobile phone, he/she is provided
with a manual which gives proper instructions on how to use that appliance. For
example, a cookbook or a book providing step-by-step instructions to assemble a
computer is a manual. Behrens (1994) describes a manual as a book that contains
rules and procedures relating to a specific subject. It explains how things are done,
for instance, how a machine operates; or how an organisation operates (e.g. MLA
Handbook, and Broadcast News Manual of Style).

49
DIRECTORY
A directory is a list of names and addresses of people and organisations.
Directories are also very important reference tools in the library to answer
directory type of enquiries from the users. Directories can be broadly categorised
as General Directories, and Special Directories.

i. General Directories

A telephone directory comes under the category of general directories. You

must be familiar with the telephone directory. Every city in a country has a
telephone directory giving information about telephone numbers of the
subscribers. It also provides addresses along with the telephone numbers of
the subscribers. These directories are usually compiled by post and
telegraph departments.

ii. Special Directories

Directories of organisations are called special directories and can be broadly

grouped into following three types:

a) Directories of academic institutions

This directory lists institutions of higher education and learning such

as universities and colleges. Under each academic institution, the
information provided is, the type of courses and facilities offered,
eligibility criteria, names of the senior staff members, etc. These
directories may be international or national in coverage.

b) Professionals Directories:

There are thousands of learned societies and associations in the

world, in almost every significant field of knowledge. Members of
these associations are scholars in their respective areas of
specialisation. These associations also compile directories listing
details of their members.

c) Trade and Business Directories:

These directories provide information about trade, business and

industries.

50
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOURCES

Geographical information sources include maps, atlases, globes, gazetteers,

and guide books. These sources provide information about places, people,
rivers, mountains, forests, lakes etc. To meet the information needs of the
users, libraries maintain geographical information sources in their reference
collection. This collection comprises the following four types:-

i. MAPS
A map is a pictorial presentation of the earth's surface or part of it,
showing countries, cities, rivers, lakes and mountains. A map can also be a
drawing of the sky showing the position of stars and the planets.

TYPES OF MAPS:

There are many types of maps. Most familiar types are:-

a) GENERAL REFERENCE MAPS

General reference maps identify and locate a variety of geographic
features. Such maps may include land features, boundaries of water,
political boundaries, cities and towns, and many other elements.
People use general reference maps to locate things.

b) POLITICAL MAPS:
Maps that depict boundaries of countries, states, continents and
other political units are called political maps.

c) PHYSICAL MAPS:

Maps that depict the location of physical features of the earth's

surface such as mountains, rivers and lakes are called physical maps
or terrain maps.

d) ROUTE MAPS, STREET MAPS AND CHARTS:

Some maps are designed to help people to find their way from one
place to another. These are maps for travel on land, on water or in
the air. Maps showing different categories of roads, such as
motorways, four-lane, or six-lane roads are called road maps, They
also show the cities, towns, parks and other places connected by
those roads. Street maps are similar to road maps, but a street map
shows a much smaller area in much more detail.

51
 e) THEMATIC MAPS:
These maps show the distribution of a particular feature such as,
population, rainfall or natural resources like coal, petroleum, metals
and minerals on the earth. Many thematic maps express quantities
utilising symbols or colour.

ii. ATLAS:
A book containing a collection of maps is called an atlas. A big atlas contains
the map of every county. The Globe is a map that has been pasted or
printed on a hollow sphere. Only a globe can give a correct picture of the
earth as a whole, as the surface of the globe is rounded like the earth's
surface. A globe represents all parts of the earth's surface correctly. The
proportions and positions of the earth's land features and oceans in relation
to each other are seen on a globe exactly as they are on the earth. National
Maps and Atlases the reliability of maps and atlases depend upon the
expertise of editorial staff and the cartographers.

iii. GAZETTEERS
A dictionary of geographical places (no maps) (e.g. Webster’s New
Geographical Dictionary). Whittaker (1963) describes a gazetteer as a
reference source that provides the latitude and longitude of places,
together with a brief description of them. For example, if a gazetteer is for
Harare as a town, the population and industries of Harare will be noted. Hill
and Frew (1999) define a gazetteer as a list of geographic names, together
with their geographic locations and other descriptive information.

 A gazetteer attempts to answer some of the following questions:

 It answers the "Where is" question; for example, "Where is Victoria Falls?"
 It translates between geographic names and locations so that a user of
the library can find a collection objects through matching the footprint
of a geographic name to the footprints of the collection objects.
 It allows a user to locate a particular type of geographic features in a
designated area. For example, the user can draw a box around an area
on a map and find the schools, hospitals, lakes, or volcanoes (as in Figure
2) in the area. This is possible because of the third required component
of a gazetteer entry -- the type (or category) of place.
 As a reference source, a gazetteer provides historical, social, cultural,
political, industrial, demographic and administrative details of a
country, state or a district. Based on their coverage, gazetteer can be
categorised into International Gazetteer, National Gazetteer; and Local
Gazetteer.

52
 iv. GUIDEBOOKS
Behrens (1994) defines a guidebook as a source which provides basic
information about a place or places, for the use of a traveller or visitor. The
information about the place concerns how to get there, where to stay, and
what to see. Guidebooks are used to guide visitors with information such as
hotel prices, sites of interest, banks, airports, railway stations, hospitals
etc. An example of a travel guide is The Illustrated Guide to Southern
Africa.
Guide Books are travel guides or tourist guides meant for people who want
to visit various places in their country or any other part of the world. The
main purpose of the guide book is to guide the travellers when to visit a
particular place, how to reach, where to stay, what to see, and what to
buy. The travel guides include information on historical sites, museums,
parks, and other places worth visiting in that city or a country. Other
aspects covered are information on the routes and travel facilities, the best
time to visit the place, the types of hotels, restaurants and shopping
complexes, etc.
Maps, illustrations and distances are also provided to enhance the usefulness
of the guide book. In addition, information regarding visa, money exchange,
weather, etc. is also given for the benefit of foreign visitors. Usually a
guidebook covers a region, a country or a city. Tourism Departments of the
Governments in most of the countries bring out tourists guides to promote
tourism in the country.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SOURCES

A biography by definition is an account of a person's life, usually written by
someone else and published or intended to be published. Biographical
sources are publications listing biographical details of famous people. Such
sources cover biographies of world leaders, people holding key positions in
international organisations, people with outstanding performance in sports,
music, dance, acting and other professional fields like science & technology,
medicine etc. A biographical source may contain a biography of an
individual or biographies of a group of people (called collective
biographies).

A book containing collective biographies is also called a 'Biographical

Dictionary', for example, The Dictionary of International Biography. The
type of information covered in such sources also varies from a brief factual
type of data to detailed essay type of biography for each entry.

Some biographical sources cover famous people from all walks of life. Such
sources are called 'general biographical sources'. In some, the coverage of

53
 people is restricted to a single discipline or some other special criteria. Such
biographical sources are called subject/special biographical sources.

Again, a biographical source may be international or national in scope

depending upon the coverage of persons. Some biographical sources cover
living persons only, e.g. 'Who's Who', Some cover persons who are no longer
living, e.g. 'Who was Who', and some sources cover life sketches of both,
living and dead persons, e.g. Webster's Biographical Dictionary.

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS
According to Katz (1997), a government publication is any publication that is
printed at government expense or published by the authority of a
governmental body. The government publishes hundreds of documents every
year to inform the public and other organisations. Most government
publications are published by various ministries in the government and at
times the government may also publish documents with other organisations
such as NGOs.
Government publications contain official information and they include such
documents like Acts of Parliament, parliamentary proceedings such as the
Hansard, Government gazette, Statistics, reports and the like. The physical
form of government publications may be a book, pamphlets, magazine,
report, monograph or electronic.

QUICK GUIDE TO SELECTING THE RIGHT REFERENCE SOURCE

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT... CHOOSE...

Words Dictionaries
General information/Overview of the topic Encyclopaedias
Names & addresses of people, organisations, institutions,
Directories
companies
Biographical
Profiles of people
Dictionaries
Places/Maps Gazetteers or Atlases
Facts and Statistics Almanacs
Formula, Tables, How-To-Do-It Handbooks and Manuals
Dates, outlines, historical timelines Yearbooks
Periodical Articles Indexes or Abstracts
Bibliographies or Guides
Books and other sources
to Literature...

54
ADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC REFERENCE SOURCES
1. There are many advantages of electronic reference sources than their
print counterparts.
2. Electronic reference sources are more frequently updated than their print
counterparts.
3. They provide more search options.
4. They provide access to a wider range of information.
5. They provide faster and easy access to information. This is particularly so
in the case of indexing and abstracting periodicals, where back volumes
are consolidated into single searchable database, search is easy and
extremely fast.
6. Online bibliographic databases provide linkages from citations to full-text
e-journals. Full-text data can be delivered instantly on the remote
computer.
7. Content can be delivered in a multimedia format where text, video, and
sound can be added.
8. A print source can be used by one user at a time, whereas an online
source can be accessed simultaneously by many users.
9. An online electronic source can be accessed at any time and from any
place where the network exists.

LIMITATIONS OF ELECTRONIC REFERENCE SOURCES

i. Use of electronic reference sources requires expensive infrastructure, which

must be acquired, maintained and upgraded. This covers computer hardware
and software, Internet connection and subscription to databases.
ii. Electronic reference sources, despite being user friendly, require a certain
degree of computer literacy to get the maximum benefit from them. This
means libraries have to incur expenses to train their staff as well as their
users to use these resources. Most of the publishers of e-reference books sell
their products through the license agreement, which imposes certain
restrictions on their usage.
iii. Reading from a computer screen is strenuous. Most of the users prefer to take
a print out for reading.
Presently, most of the library users prefer to use electronic reference sources,
because of the speed of searching, remote access and availability of these
resources on the internet on a 24/7 basis. Many libraries have a web page showing
frequently used online reference works. (http://www.mhhe.com/katz/)

PERIODICALS

By the end of this section students will be able to:

 Define periodicals.

55
 Identify types of periodical literature.
 Understand the role of periodical literature in research.
 Evaluate articles in periodicals.
 Find periodicals in the MSU Library.

Introduction to Periodicals

According to the 1964 UNESCO Conference on periodicals “periodicals are

publications with a distinctive title published continuously on a regular basis on an
indefinite period of time.” Magazines, annual reports, journals, and newspapers
are all examples of periodicals. Each issue has a volume number, issue number
and date”. e.g. Journal of African law, Volume 57, Number 1, (January-March
2013). ISSN 0021-8553. Each publication of a periodical is called an issue, and
issues generally make up a volume. These can be available as hard copies or
electronic editions (soft/digital copies) of the various issues.

Types of Periodicals Literature

a) Scholarly Journals
Scholarly journals are also called academic; peer reviewed, or refereed
journals. Peer reviewed journals refer only to those scholarly journals that
submit articles to several other scholars, experts, or academics (i.e. peers)
in the field for review and comment. These reviewers must agree that the
article represents properly conducted original research or writing before it
can be published. A peer-reviewed (or refereed) journal only publishes
articles that meet the approval of one or more experts in the field. They
typically offer high quality, scholarly research.

Characteristics of Scholarly/Academic Journals

 Scholarly journal articles often have an abstract, a descriptive summary

of the articles’ contents, before the main text of the article.
 Academic journals contain extensive, lengthy and detailed articles.
 Scholarly journals generally have a sober, serious look. They often
contain many graphs and charts but few glossy pages or exciting
pictures.
 Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or
bibliographies. These bibliographies are generally lengthy and cite other
scholarly writings.
 Articles are written by a scholar in the field or by someone who has
researched in the field. The affiliations of the authors are listed, usually
at the bottom of the first page or the end of the article – universities,
research institutions, think tanks and the like.
56
  The language of scholarly journals is that of the discipline covered. It
assumes some technical background on the part of the reader.
 The main purpose of a scholarly journal is to report on original research
or experimentation to make such information available to the rest of the
scholarly world.
 Many scholarly journals, though by no means all, are published by a
specific professional organisation.
 Most academic journals are subject-specific.
 Researchers should use scholarly journal articles when they need
focused, up-to-date information on a topic. In general, they should use
scholarly sources for research because they provide a greater depth of
information. However, in some cases it is also acceptable to use popular
sources such as newspapers.

b) Professional Journals
These are usually issued by professional institutions or Associations to
provide professional news and events, for example, forthcoming
conferences, research reports, workshops and researches in progress. An
example of such a publication is the journal of Educational Psychology
published by the American Psychology Association. When professionals want
to know about recent updates in their practice and new information about
helpful researches in their field, one of the sources of information that they
can definitely depend on is a professional journal.

Each profession can have a professional or an academic journal that tackles

different topics about that particular industry. Professional journals are
always trusted by people because all of the articles and the information
published in the pages are all factual and based on actual studies with
evidence. In addition to that, these journals are also reviewed by a special
board to ensure the credibility and relevance of the content to the
profession and the industry as a whole. Although the primary purpose of
these academic journals is not to generate income, there will be a need to
pay for a fee for the subscription of future copies especially if the
publication is done by a commercial publisher.

Professional journals differ from other types of publications such as

newspapers, magazines and personal journals in their content. Unlike
popular journals which cover different topics for the general public. The of
a professional journal will only be beneficial to those professionals in a
particular industry.

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 c) Popular Magazines
A magazine is a popular interest periodical usually containing articles on a
variety of topics, written by various authors in a non-scholarly style. Most
magazines are heavily illustrated, contain lots of advertisements and are
printed on glossy paper. Articles are usually short frequently unsigned and
do not include a bibliography or list of reference for further reading.
Magazines are written by general readers for general use. They come out
more frequently than scholarly journals, for example, the Drum Magazine.
Articles are not researched to the same degree as scholarly journal articles.
Their purpose is mainly for entertainment and information.

d) Newspapers
The most known frequency of a newspaper is daily, but some newspapers
come weekly or monthly. Newspapers are concerned with current and vital
information on a wide range of topics, for example, The Herald. The
newspaper aims to keep the public informed about local, national and
international news. However, their frequency of publication often means
that articles lack the research and documentation found in scholarly
journals. One good characteristic of a newspaper is that it is cheaper to
acquire than a journal.

e) Trade Journals
This is a periodical that publishes current news and trends for a specific
industry or trade. Articles are written by someone with knowledge in the
field for other practitioners. Advertisements are targeted at professionals in
the field.

TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PERIODICALS

Newspapers Popular Trade journals Scholarly &
Magazines Research Journals
Example Herald Drum - Physics Today Journal of African
s Chronicle Moto -American History
Financial Gazette You Archaeology Journal of Modern
Sunday Mail Trends -American African Studies
The Standard Libraries Conflict
The Independent Management and
Peace Science
Purpose Current Hot topics; Current trends Original research;
information; Current events; and news in a Refereed or peer
Upcoming and Interviews; particular field reviewed; Depth of
past events; popular culture of study; knowledge about
Editorials; Employment; the subject;

58
 Obituaries; Book reviews; Bibliography;
Classified Ads; Business Professional authors
Columns connections
Languag Non- technical; Non-technical; Jargon; Written Academic;
e Written for a Written for a for practitioners Technical; Specific
general audience general for the discipline
audience
Authors Journalists; Journalists Practitioners in Researchers;
Freelance writers the field Scholars; Academics
Sources Rarely cites Rarely citesBrief Extensive
sources sources bibliographies bibliographies
Publishe Commercial Commercial Professional Universities;
rs Publisher Publisher Association Research
organisations
Graphics Photos; Ads Glossy photos; Photos; Ads; Graphs; Charts;
(matte); Political Ads Charts Formulas; Usually
Cartoons no Ads

The Role of Periodical Literature in Research

 The importance of periodical literature lies in their ability to capture the
most recent discoveries, theories and trends in a subject.
 Periodicals provide the current information as compared to books since
they are published at shorter intervals than textbooks which take more
than six months to go through.
 Periodicals also offer a variety of opinions and views readily available
from different authors in one volume.
 Published journal articles typically have gone through a rigorous
screening process known as blind peer review, whereby independent
experts provide the author with critical commentary and suggestions to
improve their final paper, before publication. Review boards ensure all
peer reviewed journals follow a scholarly format and adhere to the
highest levels of academic scholarship.
 Articles are also increasingly Internet accessible through Web sites
maintained by the publishers of journals.
 Easy and fast way to correct errors in previous issues since the next issue
may only be three months away for quarterly publications or six months
for a biennial publication.
 Each article published in a journal will explore a very narrow, specific
topic in depth. You can learn about a particular aspect of your topic in
far greater detail than that which would be afforded in a textbook or if
it was reported in a popular magazine or newspaper.

59
Evaluating Articles in a Periodical
When evaluating an article in a periodical you should look at the:
a) Relevance - Does the publication relate to your topic so that it is
useful for your research? General versus Specific – Look at sources
which cover your topic on a general level and which are more specific
or technical. You can check this by skimming the title and abstract.
An assortment of general and specific sources is good if you are
working with this topic for the first time.

b) Reliability (Authority) – What is the quality of the publication?

Finding the authority of a source means determining who wrote it and
what his/her background is with the subject. Is this author an expert
on the subject? If not, is that important? If the source does not give
bibliographical information, consult a bibliographical reference
source. Example: If no information is available, examine the
resources you have been using for other works by the author.
c) Accuracy – It is important to know where the author got his/her facts
and if the facts are correct. A bibliography of the source can show
you which references the author used to get his/her information. If
the author supports his/her statements with references, the source is
more reliable.
d) Currency – For some subjects, the currency of information is
extremely important, particularly in fields that are constantly
changing, like Medicine or Technology. For other subjects, like
History or English, older materials may be just as valuable as newer
ones. Look at the date of publication on your source.
e) Purpose and bias– Determine whether the source is published by an
organisation with a particular purpose. Determine whether the work
attempts to sell a particular point of view, if it does then it has a bias
therefore is subjective information. Verify if the source is scholarly
or popular.

f) Bibliography - Scholarly works always contain a bibliography of the

resources that were consulted. The references in this list should be in
sufficient quantity and be appropriate for the content.
g) Audience- For what type of reader is the author writing? These ties in
with the type of journal, as popular magazine are geared to the
general reader, while trade magazines are for the specialist and
scholarly journals are directed at researchers, scholars or experts in
the field.
h) Illustrations - Are charts, graphs, maps, photographs, etc. used to
illustrate concepts? Are the illustrations relevant? Are they clear and
professional-looking?

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UNIT 8: ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PLAGIARISM

Generally, integrity entails the quality of being honest and having strong moral
principles. This trait is required by people in all spheres of life and this is the
reason why we are going to be focusing on the academic side. Cambridge
University Press (2020), states that integrity is “the quality of being honest and
having strong moral principles that you refuse to change” while the Dictionary.com
LLC (2020) adds that integrity is “adherence to moral and ethical principles;
soundness of moral character; honesty”. As researchers and users of information, it
is always important to consider why we need information, where and when to get
it from and how and how to evaluate such information before application. In
academic circles, a disregard of the above results in a widespread culture of
cheating, thus, in the process violating academic integrity (Cavico and Mujtaba,
2009).
According to Manly, Leonard and Riemenschneider (2015:581), “college faculty
members face a continual battle to maintain integrity in their classrooms [because
of] shifting generational attitudes and prevalence of information technology
(ICTs)”. However, it appears colleges and universities seem to be battling with
previous circumstances students interacted with in the past as McCabe et
al. (2012) contend that “cheating habits among college students probably develop
long before they get to college. Most college-bound students are exposed to
significant cheating cultures during their high school years”
What Is Academic Integrity?
Academic integrity means honesty and responsibility in scholarship. The concept of
academic integrity comes from Keohane (1999) which points to how people commit
themselves to positive values to be able to act and behave accordingly in creating
a good academic situation. The International Center for Academic Integrity
(1999:4) defines academic integrity as “a commitment, even in the face of
adversity, to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect,
responsibility, and courage”. Academic communities in colleges and universities
aim to foster integrity advances the quest for truth and knowledge by requiring
intellectual and personal honesty in learning, teaching, research, and service. It
must be common knowledge for both students and staff that uprightness will
forever stand as the foundation of teaching, learning, research, and service and
the prerequisite for full realisation of trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility.
This is the sole reason why most university policies uniformly deplore cheating,
lying, fraud, theft, and other dishonest behaviours that jeopardise the rights and
welfare of the community and diminish the worth of academic degrees. The reason
why this Unit is important is it will leave you the student with well-instilled levels
of cultivated honesty which lays the foundation for lifelong integrity, whilst at the
same time developing in each of you the courage and insight to make difficult
choices and accept responsibility for actions and their consequences, even at
personal cost.
One of the primary considerations for the ranking of universities the world over is
the production quality research output which of course has a strong bearing on
how researchers, lecturers and students alike interact and behave with
information. Usually Midlands State University uploads all first class dissertations
and theses in the institutional repository/digital archive for wider distribution
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globally via the internet. The same happens for published and unpublished
research papers and book chapters written by staff. For this very reason, students
and faculty are compelled to obey rules of academic honesty as this has a bearing
on future and image. All academic work should result from an individual's efforts.
Intellectual or academic works used from other sources must be fully
acknowledged to remove the impression that you are the originator of the used
work.
Why Should We Care about Academic Integrity?

Academic integrity, as a harbinger of things to come, is a reflection of the general

mores that society is passing on to the next generation. There are six reasons why
we should care about academic integrity:
1. Integrity is the cornerstone of academia
It is blatant that a failure to address academic dishonesty devalues the educational
process and leaves colleges and universities vulnerable to questions about the
quality of the product they produce— the future leaders of society. We should
therefore forthwith care about academic integrity because we believe it is one of
the issues that students face in college for which colleges and universities can
make a difference, providing society’s future leaders with an experience of living
within a community of integrity— a touchstone for their future. That’s why we
continue to work on academic integrity
2. Cheating is widespread and on the rise,
Academic dishonesty is widespread in colleges and universities even though efforts
to prosecute offenders exist. The general attitude seems to be that everyone
cheats. However, this should be discouraged and stopped. Therefore, this unit
focuses on doing exactly that because it is not right to do so.
3. The college years are a critical period for ethical development,
Academic integrity and dishonesty also matter because most college students are
at a developmental level where their approach to ethical decision making is being
formed. It is therefore critical to look at how colleges and universities uphold
academic integrity for the sole reason that the college years represent a period of
significant moral development in students.

4. College students face significant pressures to cheat

So much pressure and stress are put on getting ahead that students will take
anything that gives them added advantage regardless of what people may say.
Another reason we should care about academic integrity is that today’s students
say they feel growing pressures to demonstrate high academic achievement.
According to McCabe, Treviño, and Butterfield (1999), this type of pressure comes
from many sources which include but not limited to societal expectations, family
expectations, and peer pressure. It is therefore critically important to bring this
issue to book so that students are aware this and be able to manage the source of
their potential problem.
5. Students are being taught that cheating is acceptable
It is important to note that some Faculty and administrators often contribute to a
violation of academic integrity because they do not monitor cheating behaviour
and at times they neglect to communicate expectations regarding appropriate and
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inappropriate behaviour on assignments and tests. Therefore in this Unit there are
no mixed signals that cheating is an academic offence punishable by instituting
appropriate academic integrity guidelines and policies, which finger and
demonstrate that academic integrity is a priority to both staff and students.
6. Today’s college students represent tomorrow’s leaders
The university should be a place where students and staff uphold strong values and
convictions even in stressful situations, especially if these are future leaders of the
country/world. Values and beliefs—circumstances may change from time to time,
but having values might make a person less prone to changing his or her mind in
tough situations. Having a strong grip on good values and beliefs prepares students
for a better future.

The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity

It is very important for academic institutions the world over not to underestimate
the value of academic honesty or integrity because it promotes scientific progress,
and prepares students to become responsible citizens in whatever roles they may
undertake. As such the following five fundamental values of academic integrity are
important to observe.
1. Honesty – Academic integrity demands truthfulness, fairness, accuracy and
overall justice in academic institutions, performance as well as the behaviour
patterns of the students and the staff members.
2. Trust – To promote academic integrity there should be an environment of
mutual trust, communicating freely with each other and enabling everybody to
be well trained to achieve their potential goals.
3. Fairness – There should be prevalence of fair attitude, dealings in all
interactions as well as transactions that are carried out in an academic
institution.
4. Respect – Teaching and learning processes require a clear exhibition of respect
for everybody else’s opinion, ideas, thoughts, feelings and performance.
Respect is a conduit for gaining knowledge, testing new skills, achieving
success and learning from failure.
5. Responsibility – You must be responsible for upholding the academic honesty
of scholarship and research by making sure you get tasks and complete them.
This also means that try, by all means, to avoid errors even if you are under
pressure from peers.

Breaches of Academic Integrity

A breach of academic integrity can be defined as any behaviour that undermines
the values, norms, and practices of academic integrity. In more concrete terms, it
includes but is not limited to:

 Plagiarism
 Cheating in exams or assignments
 Impersonation in exams
 Collusion
 Theft of another student’s work
 Sabotage of another student’s learning/assessment
 Paying a third party for assignments

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  Downloading whole assignments (or parts of assignments) from the Internet
(including file-sharing sites)
 Falsification of data
 Misrepresentation of records, and
 Fraudulent research and publishing practices.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright is a law that gives individuals ownership to their creative works.
Creative works might include text, artistic works, music, computer
programs, sound recordings and films. The copyright immediately becomes the
property of the author who created the work and it comes with certain exclusive
rights. These rights might include the right to:

 reproduce the work

 prepare derivative works
 distribute copies
 perform the work
 display the work publicly

If one owns copyright to something, they can do what they want with it. It is the
same as owning a house or a car. They can sell it or they can lend it. Anyone who
exploits any of the exclusive rights of copyright without the copyright owner's
permission commits copyright infringement. You need to get permission from the
copyright holder to reproduce their creative works.
Works Protected By Copyright

 Literary works (books, poems, plays, etc.)

 Music
 Choreography
 Graphic art (pictures, sculptures, comic strips, etc.)
 Audiovisual works (movies, TV shows, etc.)
 Sound recordings
 Architecture
 Computer programs

Special Exceptions to Copyright

Under Zimbabwean law, copyright is not infringed under certain circumstances. In
this module exceptions for libraries will be covered.

Libraries
Libraries have a special set of exemptions from liability for copyright infringement
when they exercise some of the exclusive rights of copyright holders such as
making copies, displaying and performing works publicly, and distributing works to
the public. The following will not infringe copyright law as far as libraries are
concerned:
1. Making or supplying a copy of an article from a periodical
2. Making or supplying a copy or part of published literary works, dramatic or

64
 musical works.
Given the above, the library will need to meet certain conditions that include:
1. Not operating for profit
2. Not supplying not more than one copy of the same article or part of the
work
3. Supplying copies only for research or private study

PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the biggest enemy of academic integrity defined in this work as
“wrongful appropriation”, “close imitation”, or copying of another author’s
language, thoughts, ideas or expressions and the representation of them as one’s
original work. In other words, plagiarism refers to the act of copying other
people’s intellectual works without acknowledging the source of information,
thereby giving the impression that you are the rightful originator of those ideas or
expressions. The habit of plagiarism begins in the early stages when a student
copies something (e.g. assignments) written by a classmate.
Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered
as academic dishonesty or academic fraud. It is a serious criminal act and
offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion.

Plagiarism is one of several practices deemed by universities to constitute cheating

or in academic circles as “a lack of academic integrity”. Plagiarism is manifested
by one of the following practices:
 Collusion without official approval between two or more students, with
the result that identical, or near identical work, is presented by all
involved
 Falsification: where the content of assignments, e.g. statistics, has been
invented or falsely presented by a student as their work
 Replication: where a student submits the same or very similar piece of
work, on more than one occasion to gain academic credit
 Taking unauthorised notes into an examination
 Obtaining an unauthorised copy of an examination paper
 Communication with other students in an examination to help, or be
helped, with answers.
 Impersonation of another person in an examination (Jones et al. 2005).

However, as stated earlier, plagiarism, specifically, is a term used to describe a

practice that involves knowingly taking and using another person’s work and
claiming it, directly or indirectly, as your own. This ‘work’ is usually something
that has been produced by another person, ‘published’ in some tangible way, and
presented formally into the public domain. It is not the ideas per se that are being
plagiarised, as ideas can occur to people all the time; it is the manifestation of

65
those ideas: in print, Internet, audio-visual, theatrical, cinematic, choreographic
or other tangible forms. It can also include assignments either ready written, or
written to order, and sold from Internet sites, which are then presented to an
institution by the buyer as his or her own original work.
Why do people Plagiarise?
Dennis (2005) did research to find why students cheated and the results showed
that :
 They started too late and ran out of time.
 They simply could not do the coursework otherwise.
 They did not think it was wrong.
 They have to succeed.
 They got higher marks this way.
 They did not need to learn that material, just to pass the module.
 They could not keep up with the work.
 They wanted to see if they could get away with it.
 They felt the tutor did not care, so why should they.
 They thought paraphrasing would be disrespectful (Dennis 2005).

Types of Plagiarism
1. Verbatim/Direct Plagiarism
This entails the use of another author’s exact words without citing the author.
Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone
else’s work, without attribution and quotation marks. To avoid this, you need
to add quotation marks and citation.
2. Self Plagiarism

Self-plagiarism occurs when a student submits his or her previous work, or

mixes parts of previous works. For example, it would be unacceptable to
incorporate part of an assignment you wrote previously into another
assignment. Self-plagiarism also applies to submitting the same piece of work
for assignments in different classes without previous permission from both
lecturers.

3. Mosaic Plagiarism

It is a kind of patch writing in which parts from one or several sources are
cobbled together with some of the writer’s own words without adequate
attribution.

4. Accidental Plagiarism
Accidental plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources, or
misquotes their sources, or unintentionally paraphrases a source by using similar
words, groups of words, and/or sentence structure without attribution.

66
What are the consequences of plagiarism?
There are serious consequences that emanate from plagiarism. These may be
professional, financial, legal or personal.
a) Plagiarism for student
Students may face suspension or expulsion when they are caught
plagiarising. Those who are caught doing so hurt themselves by facing
unnecessary penalties from university authorities.
b) Plagiarism for Professionals
When professionals engage in plagiarism, the consequences could be much
more serious. Plagiarism may lead to dismissal from their work and when
this happens, it might be difficult to get employment in the same field.
Public figures may be forced to withdraw from public life and their
reputation may be lost.
Legal Consequences of Plagiarism
Infringement of copyright means you are breaking the law. Breaking the law
carries with it penalties that might include heavy fines or going to prison.
Plagiarism for Academics
All academics are expected to publish original research papers to raise the
ranking of their University or research centre. If they plagiarise, they tarnish
the image of their employer and all their previous work will be viewed with
suspicion.
How do you avoid plagiarism?
Referencing
One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including a reference page
or page of works cited at the end of your research paper or assignment. This page
must meet the document formatting guidelines or citation styles used by your
faculty or department. This information is very specific and includes the author(s),
date of publication, title, and source.
You can use referencing software that will make your work easier such as Mendeley
and Zotero.
Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help
you organise your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest
research. With Mendeley, you are able to:

 Automatically generate bibliographies

 Collaborate easily with other researchers online
 Easily import papers from other research software
 Find relevant papers based on what you're reading
 Access your papers from anywhere online

Zotero is a free, open-source referencing and research tool that helps you collect,
organise, and analyse research and share it in a variety of ways. Zotero can store
author, title, and publication fields and export that information as formatted
references. It supports all the referencing styles such as Harvard, MLA and APA.
Zotero interacts seamlessly with online resources: when it senses you are viewing a
book, article, or other objects on the web, it can automatically extract and save

67
complete bibliographic references. Zotero effortlessly transmits information to and
from other web services and applications, and it runs both as a web service and
offline on your devices.
With Zotero you can:

 Save citations from databases, web sites, and library catalogues

 Manage, categorise into collections, and organise
 Cite sources "in-text" as you write and create reference lists in most styles
(e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.)
 Attach PDF's, images, web page snapshots, reading notes, and more to
citations in your collection

Use of Quotation marks

Always use quotation marks or indent for lengthy passages. Always remember to
cite your sources at the end.
Procrastination
Do not procrastinate with your research and assignments. Good
research takes time. Procrastinating makes it likely you will run out of
time or be unduly pressured to finish. This sort of pressure can often
lead to sloppy research habits and bad decisions. Plan your research
well in advance, and seek help when needed from your lecturers.

Citation Errors

Common errors that lead to accidental plagiarism include using words or passages
from the source without using quotation marks and/or without citing the source;
using different citation formats within the same assignment; or using a citation
format incorrectly.

Poor Note-taking

Inexperienced students often forget to put quotation marks around notes taken
directly from text, or find that their notes are disorganised. As a result, they
cannot tell which notes came from which source when they are in the stages of
writing up their assignment.

TURNITIN ANTI-PLAGIARISM SOFTWARE

Turnitin is a web based anti-plagiarism software that checks for plagiarised
content from the internet. Turnitin checks for potential unoriginal content by
comparing submitted papers to several academic and research databases as well as
websites. Students submit their assignments or dissertations into the Turnitin
system and it compares strings of text against its massive database. When a
student submits a paper, the paper is also stored in the Turnitin databases to
prevent other students from submitting that same paper.
A lecturer will receive a report showing the percentage of plagiarised content in
submitted work. For students to use Turnitin, they need to receive an e-mail from

68
their lecturer containing details on how to create an account and how to submit a
paper.
Conclusion
If students have integrity, this means they are honest and trustworthy for their
morals and values are a true reflection of their credibility and character. Complete
academic is required at universities while students earn their degrees as these
would be true representations of their academic achievements. Therefore degrees
must be earned in fair and honest ways. Lack of academic integrity whilst peoples
are in college can be stubborn following one into his or her workplace, something
that may compromise professional goals.

Tracey Bretaga, T. et al (2013:378) cite several authorities (Bertram Gallant 2008,

2011; Davis, Drinan, and Bertram Gallant 2009; Macdonald and Carroll 2006;
Sutherland-Smith 2008) who advocate for what they term the holistic approach to
promoting academic integrity. Their view is to observe academic integrity in
“every aspect of the academic enterprise: from university mission
statements and marketing, to admissions processes, to nuanced
and carefully articulated academic integrity policy, to assessment
practices and curriculum design, to information during orientation,
embedded and targeted support in courses and at every level for
students, to frequent and visual reminders on campus, to
professional development for staff, research training, and the use
of new technologies which both assist students to avoid academic
integrity breaches, and as a tool to detect breaches when they
occur”.

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UNIT 9: SEARCH STRATEGIES AND EVALUATION OF INTERNET
SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this lecture students should be able to:

 Understand what the internet is.

 Appreciate the uses of the internet.
 Evaluate internet Sources of Information
 Perform effective online searching
 Navigate the MSU Institutional Repository

Online Search Strategies

Most online search services such as search engines, e-Journal databases or e-Book
databases will support the search techniques spelt out below. However you will
need to be familiar with the particular search service you are using be it a search
engine, e-Journal or e-Book database. You can also find additional tips in the
“Help” section of the online service.

1. Keyword Search

A keyword search retrieves words or phrases from the important fields of the
database records. A keyword search looks for words anywhere in the record.
Keywords represent the main concept of your research topic and these are the
words used in everyday life to describe your topic.

Selecting keywords is a multi-step process that involves:

 identifying the main concepts of your topic

 brainstorming synonyms and antonyms that could also be used to describe
your topic
 spell out abbreviations

2. Subject Search

A subject search involves searching the subject headings used in a database. Most
databases include subject headings that are assigned to each record.

Use subject searching when you know the Library of Congress Subject Headings
and you want to do a more precise search than you can with Keyword searching. A
subject heading is an assigned word (or phrase) used in a database to describe a
concept. Search using this standardised word instead of keywords, so you do not
need to worry about synonyms and spelling variations.

70
Subject headings are a way to group items on the same topic even though the
authors of the materials may have used different terms. An example is the death
penalty and capital punishment. LCSH assigns all books the subject heading
Capital Punishment, regardless of which term is used in the title.

For example, you may want to research the topic automobiles

Possible ways (synonyms) to state this topic include:

 Cars
 Motor Vehicles
 Buses
 Trucks

Keyword Versus Subject Heading Search

KEYWORD SEARCH SUBJECT HEADING SEARCH
 May search for multiple fields  Searches for subject or descriptor
including subject, title, and field only
abstract  Controlled vocabulary from
 May retrieve irrelevant items thesaurus
 Low precision, more results  High degree of relevance
 Allows grouping terms to expand  High precision, fewer results
or narrow search  Requires knowing, finding subject
headings

Truncation and Wildcard

Truncation
Truncation, also called stemming, is a technique that broadens your search to
include various word endings and spellings.

 To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at
the end.
 The database will return results that include any ending of that root word.
 Examples:
child* = child, children, childrens, childhood
genetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

interact* = interact, interacting, interaction, interactivty

 Truncation symbols may vary by database; common symbols include: *, !, ?,

or #

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Notes:

 Be careful not to end the stem or root of a word too early to retrieve too
many results. Example: typing cat* will find cat, cats, catalogue,
catastrophe, catsup, etc.
 Different databases use different symbols to truncate words. However, most
of our popular online databases, such as our Library Catalogue, Google and
Yahoo! use asterisk (*) as their truncation symbol. If in doubt, check the
"Help" section for the truncation symbol.
 Some search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google, automatically use
truncation without you having to type a truncation symbol.

1) Wildcard Symbols
Similar to truncation, wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word.

 This is useful if a word is spelt in different ways, but still has the same
meaning.

1. Examples:
wom?n = woman, women

Organi?ation = Organization and Organisation

colo?r = color, colour

Note: Again, check the Help or Tips links available on most library databases and
Internet search engines to verify the wildcard symbol that should be used (usually
an asterisk (*) or question mark (?).

2) Phrase Searching

Many search engines and other online searching services allow you to perform an
exact phrase search, so that pages with only the words you type in, in that exact
order and with no words in between them, will be found. The exact phrase search
is a remedy for too many irrelevant hits. To perform an exact phrase search at a
search engine that permits it, put the phrase in quotation marks e.g. "consumer
product chemistry.”

3) Boolean Searching

Boolean searching is based on a system developed by George Boole, a 19th century

mathematician. Most online databases and Internet search engines support Boolean
searching to limit, widen or define your search. The power of Boolean searching is
based on connecting keywords with Boolean operators. The three basic operators
are AND, OR and NOT. Mathematically, they are represented by these symbols:

AND +

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 OR /

NOT -

AND - narrows a search; Use to combine key concepts, for example: Water AND
Pollution.

OR - broadens a search; Use to add concepts, for example: Pollution OR Water.

NOT - excludes search term(s). Use to eliminate a concept, for example: Water

NOT Pollution

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THE INTERNET
Turban (2001) defines the internet as a network of networks. It is a global
collection of computer networks, cooperating with each other to exchange
information. This network uses different networking technologies such as fibre
optic cables, coaxial cables, telephone lines, power lines (Broadband over power
lines (BPL), also known as power-line Internet)and wireless connections. The
internet uses different protocols or standards to communicate with one another
and the most commonly used are the HTTP – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, VOIP –
Voice over Internet Protocol and FTP - File Transfer Protocol.

End users do not need to know all the technical intricacies taking place in the
background, but a basic idea of its structure is what you need to know to get the
most out of it.

Uses of the Internet

E-mail Services
E-mail is shorthand for electronic mail and is used for the exchange of messages
over the internet or intranets (Local area networks). An e-mail works by sending a
message to a specific address that looks like this

[email protected]

File Transfer Servers using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

This is a system of transferring or exchanging (uploading and downloading) files

over the internet between two computers. Users need an FTP client installed
on their computer to enable this to work.

Examples of software clients that offer these services are Fileszilla and Secure
Shell (SSh)

Chat Systems
This is technology that permits people to exchange textual information in real time
(i.e. synchronously) or with a short time lapse between messages.

Other examples of chat systems such as Google Talk or Gtalk, Google Meet, Skype,
Zoom, empathy, yahoo chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger.

World Wide Web

This is a system of extensively hyperlinked documents that enable people to
navigate from one web document to the other on the same website or to an
external website.

Voice over internet protocol (VOIP)

This is a way of communicating using voice and other sounds over the internet in
real time examples include Google Talk or Gtalk, Google Meet, Skype, Zoom,
Empathy.

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Formats of Information Available On the Internet
The internet is a multimedia system, i.e. it contains information in various
formats these include:

 Text documents such as portable document format (pdf) files, word

documents etc.
 Sounds
 Graphics or images
 Moving pictures or videos
 Software

Browsers
A browser is software used to display the World Wide Web and also the Internet in
general. Examples include:

1. Microsoft Edge
2. Mozilla Firefox
3. Opera
4. Safari
5. Google Chrome.

A browser sends requests to the internet and displays the results to the user in the
form of websites. A browser has an address bar where a user types in the URL
(Universal Resource Locator) or website address.

Online Searching Tools

These are computer software that are used to search for information on the World
Wide Web. There are 3 main online tools that can be used to look up information
on the internet namely Search Engines, Meta Search Engines and Specialised full
text and citation databases.

Search Engines
Burke, (1999) defines search engines as software that is used to construct a
database of websites. Basically, a search engine is a software program that
searches for sites based on the words that you designate as search terms. Search
engines look through their own databases of information in order to find what it is
that you are looking for.

The internet contains billions of documents all linked by hyperlinks. It is impossible

to find information on the internet without a tool that makes everything easy. This
tool is called a search engine. A search engine is a software program that is able to
retrieve information from the internet by using the words that you input as search
terms or search expressions and returns the results in the form of a ranked list.
Each result is called a hit and the number of results is called hits. A search engine
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works by using spiders (a type of software) that crawl on the internet, index the
pages and add the pages to its database or catalogue. Search engines are
continually crawling on the internet to look for new websites that are being added
every day. You might imagine the search engine’s index as a massive electronic
filing cabinet.

Some search engines index every word on a website whilst others only index
certain words contained within Meta tags on a webpage. Meta tags are invisible to
a general internet user. They are used to give special keywords or description
about a webpage.

Examples of general search engines are:

SEARCH ENGINE UNIVERSAL RESOURCE LOCATOR

(URL)

Google http://www.google.com

Yahoo Search http://www.yahoo.com

Excite http://www.excite.com/

Bing http://www.bing.com

Meta Search Engines

These are search engines that will send users’ search terms or requests to a group
of different search engines and then display the search results from each.
Examples include Dogpile, MetaCrawler, and Inference Find. Meta search engines
do not have an index or database of their own but they create a virtual database.
They pass a user’s request to other search engines such as Google and Yahoo and
then compile the results.

All Meta search engines function differently and the technology they use is
different from any other Meta search engine. Some sort results according to
relevance, others search lesser known search engines, others search particular
search engines and others do not show where they got their results.

Examples of Meta Search Engines are:

META SEARCH ENGINE URL

Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com

MetaCrawler https://www.metacrawler.com/

Yippy http://yippy.com/

MetaEureka http://www.metaureka.com

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EVALUATING INTERNET SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Print Sources

 Quality standards of printed materials are controlled through a system of

checks and balances imposed by peer review, editors, publishers, and
librarians, all of whom manage and control access to printed information.
This assures that published materials have been through some form of
critical review and evaluation, preventing informal, poorly designed,
difficult-to-use and otherwise problematic materials from getting into the
hands of users.
 In academic and other research libraries, most books and periodicals are a
product of the scholarly communication system. This system ensures that
authors present information in an orderly and logical manner appropriate to
the topic.
 Printed information in books and periodicals follows established linear
formats for logical and effective organisation.
 Materials in printed form are stable. Once in print, information remains
fixed for all time. New editions and revisions often are published, but these
are separate and distinct physical entities that can be placed side by side
with the originals.

World Wide Web

 On the web, anyone can, with no supervision or review at all, put up a web
page.
 On the Web, there is no systematic monitoring of much of what appears,
except, of course, for articles published in the online forms of otherwise
reputable scholarly journals and books. Biases, hidden agendas, distorted
perspectives, commercial promotions, inaccuracies, and so on are not
monitored.
 There is no standard format for web sites and documents. Web pages exhibit
fewer clues regarding their origins and authoritativeness than print sources.
Important information, such as dates, author(s), and references are not
always easy to locate. While a reader can easily note this information in a
book or periodical article, the web user must often search through several
pages, if the information is provided at all.
 Internet sources are also not stable. Web documents can be changed easily.
And once changed, the original is gone forever unless a specific effort is
made to preserve it. In fact, many Web documents are intentionally
designed to change as necessary, and with automatic changes as with
manual changes, the original disappears.
 Web resources use hypertext links and need not be organised in any linear
fashion. One can easily be led astray and distracted from the topic at hand.
But, of course, one can also be led to additional information of value.
 The changing nature of the web and web documents creates major problems
with the stability of information and with links between different units of
information. Dead or broken and links on the Web are common and others
just disappear or are not updated.

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 The section below shows the criteria scholars use to evaluate print
information and how the same criteria can be used to evaluate online
resources.

Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information

Author (May be an Individual, Organisation or Publisher)

 Is there an author of the work? If so, is the author clearly identified?

 Are the author's credentials for writing on this topic stated, or is the author
qualified to write on the given topic?
 Have they written other articles or books?
 Is the author affiliated with an organisation?
 Is there a link back to the organisation's page or a way to contact the
organisation or the author to verify the credibility of the site (address,
phone number, email address)?
 Do they specialise in publishing certain topics/subjects?
 Is the publisher scholarly (university press, scholarly associations)?
Commercial? Government agency?
 Is the author an expert or researcher in the field?
 What does the domain name/URL reveal about the source of the
information, if anything?

Accuracy
 Is this page part of an edited or peer-reviewed publication?
 Can factual information be verified through footnotes or bibliographies to
other credible sources?
 Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so that the information
can be verified?

 If statistical data is presented in graphs or charts is it labelled clearly?

 Has the information been reviewed or refereed?

 Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?

Currency
Currency refers to the timeliness of the information. In printed documents, the
date of publication is the first indicator of currency. Apply the following criteria to
ascertain currency:

 If timeliness of the information is important, is it kept up-to-date?

 Is there a date stating when the document was originally created?

 Is it clear when the site or page was last updated, revised or edited?

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  Are there any indications that the material is updated frequently or
consistently to ensure the currency of the content?
 If there are links to other Web pages are they current? If links to other Web
pages are not current this is a fairly good sign that the site is not well-
maintained.

Links
 Are links related to the topic and useful to the purpose of the site?
 Are links still current, or have they become dead ends?
 What kinds of sources are linked?

Coverage/Scope
 What is the focus of the site?
 Are there clear headings to illustrate an outline of the content?
 Is the navigation within the website clear? Check the header for a clear title
and web site description
 Check the content for headings and keywords
 Check the navigation to reflect content outline within the web site

Biases and Affiliations

 Does it promote the ideas of a particular group--religious, political, etc.?
 Could the organisation sponsoring the site have a stake in how the
information is presented?
 Is the author trying to influence your mind?
 Are various points of view, theories, techniques, or schools of thought
offered?

Clarity
 Is the text neat, legible and formatted for easy reading?
 Is the information clearly presented?
 If there are graphics, do they add to the content or distract?
 If there are advertisements, do they interfere with your ability to use the
page?
 Are the pages well organised?
 Are there mistakes in spelling or word usage?

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UNIT 10: DATABASE ACCESS AND UTILISATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this unit students will be able to:

 Understand the importance of electronic journals in academic research.

 Search for full text research articles and book chapters from e-journal and
e-Book databases.
 Navigate and search the MSU Institutional Repository

INTRODUCTION
What is an Online Database?
An online database is a searchable index that provides access to thousands of
scholarly e-Books or e-Journals. Some databases are subject to specific while
others cover many disciplines.
With the information explosion, the internet has revolutionised the research
processes and made information retrieval very convenient. The electronic
resources which come in the form of e-books and e-journals accessed through
various online databases have made research activities conveniently available
(Noreh, 2009).
When to Use Online Databases
Online databases are best used when you know what you are looking for and the
keywords that describe your query. You also need to have enough background
knowledge about the topic you are researching on so that you will be able to
quickly recognise the articles you are looking for from the search results.
Before consulting a certain database, consider the following points:
1. What subject(s) area does the database cover
Some online databases concentrate on a single discipline while others cover
many disciplines. You must know the subject coverage of the database
2. Types of materials included in search results
Some databases provide a number of results in different formats such as
book chapters, articles, conference papers, dissertations/theses, videos etc.

3. Date Range
Some databases aim to provide the latest published materials. Others
actually provide journal articles and books before printed versions are
available. Other databases aim to provide archival material as their most
important sources of information.

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 4. Full text Access
Some databases provide full text access to all materials while other
databases will just provide a citation and abstract.
Advantages of Online Databases

 Greater and quicker access for students to materials to support their

learning
 Convenience of access - people can access electronic resources anytime as
long as they are connected to the internet
 Timeliness - the currency of information, timely availability, the speed of
access and the ability to search text is the most important factor in
choosing electronic resources over print.
 One resource can be accessed by many people simultaneously
 Online Databases can be accessed from any computer on campus, off-
campus.
 Online Databases are easily searchable - each database can be searched
quickly and easily.
 Articles/issues appear online before the printed version is available.
 Articles can be commented on by the readers and amended quickly
 They are especially useful for finding information not yet available in books,
or obtaining up-to-date information on current events or issues.

Disadvantages of Electronic Resources

 All e-resource devices require power.

 Require high cost for technology infrastructure.
 Need special equipment to access e.g. laptops, desktops, e-book readers etc
 Lack of compatibility among different publishers – some articles may not be
accessible or readable on different platforms
 Copyright violation problem
 Current e-book format may not be readable by future e-book devices.
 Book reading devices are more expensive than most paper books.
 Lack of awareness of IT skills for the usage of e-resource.
 Technological barriers – lack of adequate infrastructure e.g. network
connectivity, electricity etc.
 Lack of uniform standards in the retrieval of software products from
different publishers creates problems in their usage.
 Since reading of ICT based resources and services requires skills, the users
have to acquire certain skill beforehand or take the help of intermediates
like library professionals to help them in accessing the electronic
documents. Even the library professionals have to learn the skill, if they
desire to serve the users effectively and efficiently.
 The libraries face a number of problems relating to the new media that are
yet to be popular among their users.

Parthasarathy. R (2009). Impact of Electronic Resources on Academic Program

in arts and science colleges Tiruchirappalli A study. Retrieved from:
http://hdl.handle.net/10603/186505

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 Accessing Academic Materials Online
Academic materials such as journal articles, books, theses and dissertations and
videos can be accessed using specialised online databases or Google Scholar. Most
databases are subscription based and they contain peer reviewed journal articles
and books.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar (GS) is an academic search engine that searches for scholarly
information on any topic. Apart from providing scholarly articles, you can also
create your own profile in Google Scholar highlighting your research interests.
Advantages of Google Scholar
 Free of charge
 Easy to use
 Clean interface
 Gives access to the academic literature that has been peer reviewed and
generally trustworthy
 Provides results from many Open Access repositories and online databases
 It shows you articles related to the one that interests you and also provides
citation information for each result

Using Google Scholar

1. Go to www.sholar.goole.com
You will be taken to the page below:

Profile area

Sear
Profile
area

ch box

2. Enter your search terms in the search box, e.g. “social media in
education” hit the “Search” button

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Filter results by
date rangeSearch
results

Search results

Search results from Google Scholar

Working with Google Scholar Search Results
On the results page, there a number of things you can do that include:
1. Viewing the number of citations of a particular article. Clicking
on the “Cited by” link will take you to all the articles that
have cited that particular result.
2. Viewing related articles. This is particularly helpful in that you
can discover articles that are related to your topic and this
helps in resource discovery.
3. Viewing different versions of the article. Some articles will
have versions published under different publishers or posted in
different repositories.
4. You can save articles to your library by clicking on the star
under each result.
Online Databases Subscribed By the Library
The library subscribes to several online databases of e-Journals and e-Books. Some
of the databases are multidisciplinary while others concentrate on a specific
discipline. Each database may contain thousands of journal titles or book titles.
Steps in Accessing E-Journal Databases

1. Open the browser and go to www.msu.ac.zw

2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Journals”
3. E-Journals are arranged alphabetically and under each e-Journal name there is
a short description of the subject coverage
4. You may use the A – Z index at the top to browse through e-Journal collections

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5. If you know the name of the database, type it in the search form e.g. “JSTOR”
and click on the “Search Databases” button
6. Click on the “JSTOR” link, you will be prompted for your registration number
and e-Learning password or your MSU e-Mail username and password
7. Click on the login button – this will re-direct you to the JSTOR database
8. Carryout your research in JSTOR

Steps in Accessing E-Book Databases

1. Open the browser and go to www.msu.ac.zw

2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Books”
3. E-Books are arranged alphabetically and under each e-Book name there is a
short description of the subject coverage
4. You may use the A – Z index at the top to browse through e-Book collections
5. If you know the name of the database, type it in the search form e.g.
“Proquest Central” and click on the “Search Databases” button
6. Click on the “Proquest Central” link, you will be prompted for your
registration number and e-learning password or your MSU e-Mail username
and password
7. Click on the login button – this will re-direct you to the Proquest Central
database
8. Carryout your research in Proquest Central

PRACTICAL EXERCISES – ACCESSING E-JOURNAL DATABASES

ACCESSING JSTOR

1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw

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 2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Journals

Point to “Libraries” and select “E-Journals”

3. The Electronic Journals page has the journal databases arranged
alphabetically. You can use the A- Z index to browse through the collections.
Each journal collection has a short description of the subjects covered. You can
use the search box to search for journal collections if you know the name of the
collection you want to use e.g. “JSTOR”

4. Click on the JSTOR link. You will be taken to an authentication screen where
you need to enter your Registration number and your e-Learning password.

85
5. Enter your Registration Number and E-Learning password in the fields provided
and click the Login button.

6. You are now re-directed to the JSTOR journal database. You simply enter
your search terms and carry out your research in JSTOR

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Accessing E-Book Databases
Accessing Safari O’reilly

1. Go to www.msu.ac.zw

2. Point to “Libraries” and select “E-BOOKS

87
Point to “Libraries” and select “E-BOOKS”

3. The Electronic Book page has the e-Book databases arranged alphabetically.
You can use the A- Z index to browse through the collections. Each e-Book
collection has a short description of the subjects covered. You can use the
search box to search for e-Book collections if you know the name. collection you
want to use e.g. “Safari O’Reilly”

4. Click on the SAFARI O’REILLY link. You will be taken to an authentication

screen where you need to enter your Registration number and your e-Learning
password.
88
5. Enter your Registration Number and E-Learning password in the fields provided
and click the Login button.

6. You are now re-directed to the Safari O’Reilly database. You simply enter
your search terms and carry out your research in Safari

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Use the above steps to access all subscribed e-Journal or e-Book content from the
Midlands State University.

THE MSU INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY

What Is An Institutional Repository?
An Institutional Repository is a digital collection of an institution’s intellectual
output. They may contain a wide range of materials that reflect the intellectual
wealth of an institution such as dissertations and theses, research papers,
conference papers, working papers, books and book chapters, journal articles and
past examination papers to mention a few. They may also contain audiovisual
materials such as videos, pictures/images or sound recordings.

Some Definitions
1. An Institutional Repository is an electronic archive of the scientific and
scholarly output of an institution, stored in digital format, where search and
recovery are allowed for its subsequent national or international use
(Gonzalez, 2007).
2. It is an information system that collects, preserves, disseminates and
provides access to the intellectual and academic output of the university
community (Gonzalez, 2007).

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 3. (Lynch, 2003) in (Prabhakar and Rani, 2018) says it is “a set of services that
a university/ institution offers to the member of its community for the
management and dissemination of digital materials created by the
institution and its community members”.
4. An institutional repository (IR) is an electronic system that captures,
preserves, and provides access to the digital work products of a community
(Foster and Gibbons, 2005).

An institutional repository can also be defined as a permanent, institution-wide

repository of diverse, locally produced digital works (e.g. Article preprints and
postprints, data sets, electronic theses and dissertations, learning objects, and
technical reports) that is available for public use. (Johnson, 2009).

Purpose of Institutional Repositories in Universities

According to Bailey (2008), there are many reasons why institutions of higher
education such as MSU should implement IRs. Here are some of the most common
ones.

1. To increase the profile, visibility and citation impact of the University’s

scholarship.
2. To provide unified access to the University’s scholarship i.e. to collect
content in a single location
3. To provide open access to the University’s scholarship.
4. To preserve the University’s scholarship.
5. Provision of self- archiving of institutional scholarly research output
6. Institutional Repository is created to manage, preserve, and maintain the
digital assets, intellectual output, and histories of academic institutions.

The Midlands State University Institutional Repository (MSUIR)

The MSU IR contains the intellectual output of the Midlands State University. It
contains research output from various faculties and departments. These faculties
and departments translate into communities. Research output is collected and
stored in the respective faculty so that it will be easy to view all the work from
each faculty.

91
Collections in the MSUIR
 Research Papers

 Dissertations/Theses

 Conference Papers

 Books and Book chapters

 MSU Journals The Dyke and Midlands State University Journal of Science and
Technology (MSUJSAT)

Materials in the IR are added continuously and new communities may be added in
the future.
Benefits and Value of Institutional Repositories
Institutional Repositories are important to Universities for several reasons:
1. Stewardship
All Universities and research Institutes have digital documents that are of
enduring value and these documents need to be preserved for posterity.
Doing nothing to try to preserve digital works of enduring value guarantees
their loss. Institutional Repositories are there to preserve these digital
works to guard against loss.

2. Showcasing Research Output

An IR also can showcase the research, teaching, and scholarship at an
institution. In a university setting, an IR provides a centralised digital
showcase through which community members can highlight their work.
Through an IR, prospective students and faculty can obtain a robust picture
of the types and areas of scholarship in progress in a given department
(Gibbons, 2009).

3. Scholarly Communication
Institutional Repositories have a role to play in exposing a University’s
intellectual output to the widest possible audience of researchers around
the world who would not otherwise have access to it through traditional
channels such as printed copies of books or journals.

4. Improved Ranking and Prestige of the University

Institutional Repositories provides Open Access to the University’s research
output. Thus means any user who has internet connection is able to freely
download and cite articles from the IR. Increased citation of a University’s
output improves its ranking among other universities. A high profile IR may
be used to support marketing activities to attract high quality staff,
students and funding (Prabhakar and Rani, 2018)

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How to Access The MSUIR
To access the MSU IR follow the following steps:
1. Login to www.msu.ac.zw ;

2. On the MSU home page click on the “Libraries” link

3. On the Library home page click on the “MSUIR” tab

4. You will be taken to the screen shown below

5. Enter your search terms inside the search box and click on the “Search
MSUIR” button.

6. You will be taken to the screen shown below

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Search Results

Search results page

7. Click on an article title to get to the following page

Click on the pdf link

Click on the pdf link to open the full text.

8. Click on the PDF link to open the full text of the article.

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The MSU IR is organised according to communities; these communities directly
translate into faculties at MSU. Each Faculty is further divided into Departments
and under each department we get staff publications and student dissertations.
Under staff publications we get Conference Papers and Research Papers.

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UNIT 11: USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:

 Understand the concept of Social Media

 Appreciate the benefits of using social media in academic work
 Easily use social media in accessing library resources and services
 Understanding the capabilities of different channels and how they can be
tailored to suit library’s individual needs

Social Media Definitions

Below are several definitions of what social media is.

1. Web-based applications which provide functionality for sharing,

relationships, group, conversation and profiles (Kietzmann et al., 2011)
2. Social media has been referred to as a set of information technologies
which facilitate interactions and networking (Sims, Wolf and Yang, 2017)
3. A system of mobile and web based technologies that enable the creation of
highly interactive platforms which enable individuals and communities to
share, co-create, discuss and modify user-generated content (Kietzmann et
al., 2011)
4. Social media sites can be described as online services that allow users to
create profiles which are “public, semi-public” or both. Users may create
individual profiles and/or become a part of a group of people with whom
they may be acquainted offline. They also provide avenues to create virtual
friendships (Sims, Wolf and Yang, 2017)

Common Social Media Attributes

The above definitions of social media all share three common attributes:

1. They are web-based

2. They facilitate individuals to connect with other individuals and interact
with content from others.

96
 3. They are collaborative
4. They enable users to generate, distribute and consume content on their
platforms.

Why People Use Social Media

People use social media for several reasons. Most people use social media
platforms for some of the following reasons:
1. Knowledge building
2. Making Connections
3. Building conversations and discussions
4. Constructing and Reinforcing a Professional Identity
Social Media Functionalities

Building blocks of Social Media (Kietzmann, 2011)

Identity: refers to the representation of the user in the virtual world. It could
include a profile that has descriptive and personal information such as birthday,
educational qualifications, hobbies, family relationships etc., or could be as vague
as an imaginary pseudonym.
Conversations: allow users to interact with each other in a broadcast or dialogue
manner synchronously in real time or asynchronously with time lapse between
statements.

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Sharing: refers to activities through which existing content is spread or distributed
to others through the social platform.

Presence: allows users to know where other community members are (on/off-line
and actual/virtual location). Presence is the “illusion of being there or an
experience of being in an environment while physically situated in another
location” (Sims, Wolf and Yang, 2017)

Relationships: allow community members to visualise their networks in many ways

ranging from “likes” and “followers-followed” to virtual representation of real-
life relationships.

Groups: refers communities with common interests in certain subjects or topics.

Reputation: allows users to qualify the content provided by another user and
establish trust-levels between community members. These trust-levels can be
made explicit, for example through a scoring or ranking system.
Common Characteristics of Social Media

According to Musser and O'Reilly (2007), social media platforms and tools exhibit
the following key characteristics:

 Enables web users to do more than just retrieve information. It enables

users to actively interact with the content as well as its creators. This is the
foundation of user‐generated content.
 Enables users to execute applications straight from their browsers and they
can own and subsequently control data on the social media platform.
 Users can add value to the content they are accessing. This facility leads to
a seamless exchange of information building a robust body of knowledge
that is sometimes called collective intelligence.
 Utilises simple, user friendly and “lightweight” interfaces that do not
require specialist knowledge to apply.
 Social media tools are greatly decentralised with no centre of control or
gates under conventional media systems.
 Is transparent and uses open technology standards that rapidly grow into
open ecosystems of loosely coupled applications built on open data and
reusable components.
 It is emergent and does not rely on fully predefined application structures.
Social media structures and behaviours are allowed to emerge over time.
This flexible, adaptive strategy permits appropriate solutions to evolve in
response to real world usage and needs. It recognises the fact that real
success comes from cooperation and not control.

Ethical Issues in Social Media Use

As discussed above, social media interactions happen online among people who
either know each other in real life or among total strangers. Because of this nature

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of interaction, some ethical considerations come into play. Some of the ethical
considerations include identity theft, violation of privacy, surveillance, friending,
cyber bullying and user exploitation.
1. Violation of Privacy
This may occur when personal information such as health status, financial
status, online activities, and location ethics are made visible to groups other
than those intended and this can sometimes result in future negative
outcomes. Some large companies use robotic software to collect information
about their clients without consent and pass it on to third parties for
targeted marketing and advertising according to the person’s profile and
online activities.
2. Cyber bullying
Swenson-Lepper, 2019 defines cyber bullying as “wilful and repeated harm
inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic
devices”. Types of harm that might occur include embarrassment,
humiliation, a feeling of being threatened, discomfort and being tormented
just to mention a few.
3. Cyber stalking
Cyber stalking is similar to offline stalking and is defined as “using the
Internet as part of a targeted campaign that causes fear, distress, or alarm”
(Cavezza and McEwan, 2014). It includes a variety of behaviours such as
repeated unwanted emails or instant messages, posting false or hostile
information about victims online, using social networking sites to harass the
victim, subscribing to services or products in the victim’s name, hacking into
victim’s personal accounts, online identity theft, impersonating the victim
online, spamming or sending the victim computer viruses; and recruiting
others to harass or threaten the victim via the Internet.
4. Intellectual Property Rights
One attribute of social media is its ability to enable people to share
information with one group or multiple groups. This gives rise to copyright
protected materials such as books, articles, music and videos. Via social
media, both private and public, links to the latest uploads of the
copyrighted material (books, songs, episodes of television shows, or
complete movies) are easily shared.

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Social Media Use for Academic Purposes
The reasons for using social media services are those expected of any social
networking site (Nández and Borrego, 2013). The nature of social media enables
information to be shared among many people who are connected to different
platforms. Social media can be used for academic purposes to share information
and complete research. Some activities that can be carried out for academic
purposes include:
 Collaboration with research projects and teams
 Dissemination of academic activities
 Research relevant discussions
 Follow other researcher’s activities
 Meet other researchers online
 Self-promotion and increase citations
 Edit materials quickly
 Industry Interactions
 Help, support and feedback

Examples of Social Media Platforms used for Academic Purposes

Research Gate and Academic.edu
 Targets academics i.e. researchers, lecturers, students
 Academic specific features (publication, uploading, citation, indexing)
 Scholarly communication – researchers can privately or publicly
communicate and to discuss topics of interests
 Users can create profiles that include their educational levels and their
research interests
 Search for Articles of interest
LinkedIn
A social networking site used mostly by professionals and businesses. Key
characteristics include:
 Ability to create CV like profiles
 Ability to connect with past and current colleagues and increase connections
to people with the same professional interests
 Ability to get help and discuss specific topics in industry or at work
 Ability to find jobs
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Google Scholar
This is a search engine that searches scholarly literature and other academic
materials. Main characteristics include:
 Ability to create a personal profile
 Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
 Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
 Create a virtual library where you can store your downloaded documents
online
 Ability to find citations, export and import citations
 Ability to check an author’s metrics e.g. number of citations, number of
publications etc

Mendeley
Mendeley is a free reference manager that can help you collect references,
organise your citations, and create bibliographies. It is also an academic social
network that enables you to share your research with others. Mendeley can help
you connect with other scholars and the latest research in your subject area. With
Mendeley you can:

 Collaborate with other researchers online

 Find relevant papers based on what you’re reading
 Collect references from the Web
 Automatically generate citations and bibliographies
 Import papers from other research software
 Access your papers from anywhere online
 Read papers on the go with your iPhone or iPad
 Build a professional presence with your Mendeley profile
 From within your citation library, read, annotate and highlight PDFs

Twitter
Twitter is a micro blogging social networking site that allows users to send short
messages called tweets. Twitter users follow others and you can follow people
with similar academic interests. By using Twitter, you can:

 Promote your research, for example by providing links to journal articles

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  Reach a large number of people quickly through tweets and retweets
 Follow the work of other experts in your field
 Build relationships with experts and other followers
 Keep up-to-date with the latest news and developments, and share it with
others instantly
 Reach new audiences
 Get feedback about your work and give feedback to others
 Follow and contribute to discussions on events, for example conferences
that you can't attend in person

Slide share
This is a presentation and documentation-sharing platform. Most of the
information found on Slide share is in the form of PowerPoint presentations, videos
and pdf documents. Slide share is a combination of social networking and an online
learning platform.
By using Slide share, you can:
 Create online webinars and training programs
 Create visualisations for presentations
 Upload PowerPoint presentations

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
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