Library Research Skills
How and Why Libraries Organise Information.
In order to make information available to people it must be organized in a useful way. Many people are not aware of just how difficult it is to catalogue and organize large collections of information so that the information can be easily located. The difficulty in organizing information is due to the fact that cataloguing and indexing are subjective acts. A librarian must determine what a specific piece of information is about and then; try to anticipate all the different ways people might search for the information. People who look for information have different reasons for wanting the information and will approach searching for it in different ways.
Another problem for libraries and library staff is the fact that many people who seek out information are not sure exactly what they need. Many people who look for information do so with a vague idea of what they want. It often proves difficult to focus a person's information request in such a way as to match their request to the information in a book, periodical, web page, or other form of published resource.
While studying you will need to be able to research information for your essays and other assignments. Once you graduate you will most likely continue to research to make informed decisions in your job and your community. The skills you have and continue to develop will make the process of finding information for your assignments, your work and your life much easier.
The combined resources of your public library and the Internet create an almost endless amount of information available to you. With all of these choices, where do you find the answers?
Adapted and Modified (5th December 2005) from a tutorial, originally created and written by Thomas W. Eland, Librarian/Instructor at Minneapolis Community & Technical College.
