We have to identify information for the purposes of differentiating between types
of information & formats of information.
2.1 Types of Information
The type of information you need depends on the assignment you’ve been given. When
determining your information requirement, look at the assignment carefully and consider the
following questions: (Information competency tutorials: Determine your information needs, n. d.)
2.1.1 What type of assignment is it?
The assignment can vary from a short 5 minute oral presentation to a senior
report, with many other possibilities in between such as critiques, summaries, short
essays or term papers.
2.1.2 How much information do you need?
Some assignments require only brief summaries or overviews, while other
assignments require more detailed and comprehensive information.
2.1.3 Is currency an issue?
Some assignments require the most current information, while others require
historical information.
2.1.4 Do you need to use primary sources, secondary sources, or tertiary sources?
Information can come from many sources. There are primary, secondary and
tertiary sources of information.
Primary sources are original information. This is information before it has been
analyzed, interpreted, filtered, condensed, or evaluated by anyone else. Examples are a
professor’s lecture, research reports, newspaper articles written by people at the scene
of an event, the first publication of a scientific study, speeches, e-mails, original
artworks, handwritten manuscripts, photos, diaries, personal letters, historical
documents, autobiography, interviews, diplomatic records, etc. However, what
constitutes a primary source varies by discipline. A scholar in the humanities may use a
newspaper photograph or a poem as a primary source while a scientist might use data
from an experiment or an artifact from an archaeological dig.
Secondary sources comment upon, interpret, analyze, or summarize primary
sources. Examples are your classmate’s notes on a professor’s lecture, scholarly books,
journal and magazine articles, a newspaper article reporting on a scientific study
published elsewhere, an article critiquing a new CD, an encyclopedia article on a topic, a biography of a famous person, reviews, textbooks, criticism, interpretations, and so
forth. Also, secondary sources lead you to primary sources. Examples are an index to
newspaper articles or an index to articles from scientific research journals, a
bibliography of an author’s works.
Tertiary sources are a collection of primary and secondary sources. They
compile indexes or organize sources. Sources which analyzed, compiled and digest
secondary sources included mostly in abstracts, a bibliography of critical works on an
author, an index to general periodical articles, a library catalog. (Information literacy:
Module 1 identifying information, 2011)