ETL505 Module 1 tools for organising and retrieving information

Alice Ferguson, CSU librarian, discusses the importance of effective tools for organising and retrieving infomation. 

She uses four main information resources to find information. They are:

• library on the desktop - avail by CSU catalogue
• hard copy collection - as above
• libraries online database - commercially produced and has strict indexing procedures
• Internet - search engines

Library catalogue records are added to by professional librarians in particular formats, following strict codes and comply with authority files. Search catalogue by keyword, subject, title, author, or combination. Retrieves materials related to that search and has been selected for the collection by professionals who ensure its academically sound.
Without a formal catalogue the library collection would be unusable. Without the formality of catalogues, libraries could not be the sources of information, knowledge and recreation they are.
When finding call numbers the items on the catalogue is reliable and accurate. Without




In contrast, the Internet is made up of '000s of sites of varying quality. It's hard to search as there is no consistent method of arranging the material available.
A search by different search engines can produce duplication and huge differences. Material can be added to at random. There's no authority file.
Despite the functionality of catalogues and the accuracy of their search results, the Internet dominates information retrieval although it is less reliable and not well organised.

In summary, well organised information and the value adding nature of library cataloguing services are essential tools to enable libraries to work well.