Introduction - Non-documentary sources

 Unique and invaluable source, carrying expert knowledge/skills that can very often be the only source of
information for responding to certain types of enquiries and questions.
 Non-documentary sources are live sources which are extremely important in the process of
communication.
 It is easier to have a dialogue with an expert than to use a bibliography or index or card catalogue.
 Example:
If a scientist working on an experiment needs some information, he would turn to his/her colleague
working in the same laboratory rather than to a printed page.
 Non-documentary sources mainly include human resources, referral system, institutional sources and mass
media.

Human sources of Information

 Human expertise is a unique source.

 Human resources are those sources in which any human serve as a source of information.
 An experience and knowledgeable person acts as a source of information.
 An interaction with experts, knowledge persons, fellows, subject specialists, etc.
 A human “source” is roughly defined as a person who contributes information to a piece of reportage,
whether or not it is ultimately published or aired in any venue — print, the Internet, radio (audio podcasts
included), video on a news report on television, the Web or in a documentary film.

Human Resources - What and Why?

 Generation of all types of data, information and knowledge credited by human beings is due to their
observations, experience, activities, creative abilities, ingenuity, etc.
 These data are documented systematically through different channels and media of communication and are
made accessible and available for study, research, application and further developments.
 Here channels mean primary, secondary and tertiary types of documents and media refers to the physical
mode of transmitting them such as audio, visual audio-visual and electronic forms.
 They may be willing to share their knowledge and skills with others, offer help or guidance to those in need
of assistance, mostly with a fee charged for the same.
 Such persons constitute a very valuable resource Example: Consultants.

Categories of Human sources of Information

1. Information generators
 Who generate knowledge or create information.
 They are involved in different kinds of activities.
 The knowledge or information, arising out of these activities, may be made available in the form of
books, journal articles etc.
 They are experts in their area of specialization and hence constitute a very valuable source of
information, particularly when they don't make their information available in any published form.
 Example: Researchers, inventors, astronomer, authors, writers, planners, industrialist and policy
makers, etc.

2. Information gatherers
 Gathering information and reporting them through appropriate channel.
 Compilers of reference books.
 They don’t generate information but gather information for various purposes.
 Example: Bibliographers, encyclopedists, lexicographer, cartographer, etc.
 Reporter, Police, detective, etc.
3. Information processors
 Newspaper editors, journal editors, software documentation specialists and persons who are involved
in giving a shape to collected information for ease of use to another category of specialists.
 Transforming a draft into a fine reading materials.
 Example: Technical editors, style editors, language editors, and the general editors.

4. Information recorders
 Persons involved in translation work, printing, publishing, data entry operators, etc.
 These types of skills/expertise get nowhere recorded and would never be available in any published
sources.
 Example: Engravers, scribes, calligraphers, printers, data entry operators, typists, videographers,
photographers, painters, sculptors, etc.

5. Information disseminators
 are involved in dissemination of information or knowledge already collected and available in some
form.
 Extension workers disseminate information to farmers and village people about low-cost housing,
family planning, health care, social welfare, etc.
 They play an intermediary role.
 Example: Publishers, library professionals, documentalists, information specialists, teachers, sales
persons, consultants, advertisers, extension workers, Librarians, documentalists, Information officers,
etc.

6. Translators
 Articles, news items, books, periodicals, patents, theses, etc. are appearing in numerous languages in the
world such as English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Bengali, Tamil,
Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, etc.
 It is not possible for a person to learn all the languages. Therefore, the need for translation or
interpretation arises quite often.
 Their nature of work is closely associated with the subject areas they are handling.
 For getting a piece of writing translated we generally go to a translator.
 She/he informs us about the cost involved in translation and approximate time s/he will take for
translating the piece.
 Example: French to English

7. Information Condensers
 Often information needs to be condensed as per the requirement of the user.
 Example, a minister has spoken about the information policy of a country for about an hour. A
broadcasting agency is to report the speech of the minister in the news. Obviously, in 15-minute news,
it is not possible to accommodate the one-hour-long speech of the minister.
 For these jobs we need persons who can condense the information.
 Example: Abstractors

8. Information Retrievers
 Those who are working as classifiers, cataloguers, reference workers, indexers, abstractors, etc.
 They are involved in creating tools for information storage and retrieval.
 Their nature of work is making them more expertise in that particular field.
 Example: Librarians, database searchers, Internet searchers, etc.

9. Information technologists
 Computer hardware and software specialists who involved in system design, maintenance, and similar
services.
  Telecommunication specialists maintain and design network architecture, establish networks and
extend facilities to share resources.
 Many groups of consultants, information brokers, intermediaries and other specialists are offering paid
services.
 Example: Information Scientist

10. Information Preservers

 Man since time immemorial has been trying to preserve information by various means.
 Even today man is discovering and inventing newer methods and media of preservation.
 These professionals are good sources of information about document preservation.
 Preservation is done to improve life span of artifacts.
 Example: Archivist

Institutional Information Sources

 An institution in an organization or establishment devoted to the promotion of a particular courses or

objectives.
 Generate information or knowledge of various kinds.
 Disseminated knowledge through formal channels such as journals, report and special publications. Others
get stored in their database – these are not notices by the people.
 Institutions are sources of information in terms of their published or unpublished sources.
 Experts performing in these institutions become invaluable sources.
 Libraries and information centers should be well acquainted with various institutions, their nature of work
and activities.

Categories of Institutions

1. Knowledge Creating Institutions

 Examples:
 Government ministries and departments - Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Railways, etc.
 International agencies - WHO, FAO, etc.
 R & D organizations - Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology
(DBT), etc.
 Academic institutions - Pondicherry Central University
 Learned societies - Royal Society of London, American Chemical Society (ACS), IATLIS, etc.
 Broadcasting stations - IGNOU’s Gyan Vani and Gyan Darshan are educational broadcasting stations
on radio and television respectively.
 Museums - Museum of Alexandria, The National Museum, New Delhi
 Archives - The National Archives of India
 Non-governmental organisations - Red Cross Society
 Each one of these research institutions, (belonging to public or private sectors), may be related to research
in scientific and technological subjects, socio-economic, political and other subjects of social sciences,
humanities and other types of creative literature and cultural activities like performing arts, etc.
 These institutions disseminate information generated by them through learned journals, research and
technical reports, and other specialised publications.
 All of these may not always be available in any published form.
 They may have to be sought from the respective institutions that generate them through specific requests.

2. Knowledge/Information Processing Institution

 Examples:
 Commercial publishers - Elsevier, Springer etc.
 Statistical organizations –WHO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, etc.
  Data centers - Facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other
organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. Example: Ricoh
Data Center
 These institutions do not generate data, information or knowledge but have the means and mechanisms to
collect and organize the assembled information and disseminate it in a form to suit different categories of
customers.
 These institutions produce primary and technical periodicals, statistical data and other types of factual
information.

3. Institution serves knowledge and information

 Examples:
 Libraries - Ananda Rangapillai Library
 Documentation centers - SAARC Documentation Centre - NISCAIR
 Information centers - Developing Library Network (DELNET)
 Referral centers - NISCAIR
 Information brokers - Acxiom, Experian, Epsilon, etc.
 The primary responsibilities of these types of institutions are to collect, store, and process, disseminate and
most importantly service knowledge/ information, already available in various pack-ages of primary or
secondary forms.
 They create different access tools like indexing and abstracting services and distribute or deliver them to
customers according to their needs.
 These institutions, it must be noted, have evolved over a period of time. We could also perceive a typical
pattern of growth of these types of institutions, reflecting the nature of demands for
information/knowledge at different periods of time by users and their needs.

Institution Institutions

Institutions can be seen in three group of information systems:

1. Discipline - oriented information systems – IIFT, FRI.

2. Mission-oriented information systems - Govt. sponsored projects, Nuclear Energy Mission, Space
Research.
3. Problem-oriented information systems - To deal with various socio-economic problems like
environmental problem.

Invisible College

 Invisible college is not a college.

 Around 1645 A.D. a group of persons interested in natural philosophy and other parts of human learning
started meeting secretly at Gresham College and elsewhere in London under the name of the ‘invisible
college’.
 In the middle of the 17th century small groups of scholars and philosophers began to meet in various places
in London to discuss the experimental method of scientific inquiry propounded by Francis Bacon.
 Discuss about their research activities, results obtained, new areas that can be researched.
 These groups later called as “invisible colleges”.
 The term invisible college was coined by Robert Boyle.

 Invisible College - loosely formed association of likeminded people who come together to share their
experiences and knowledge.
 Community of scientists.
 Discussion forum.
 Act as a communication network within a discipline they also serve to connect one research area to
another, with research area leaders drawing on other disciplines.
 Have leaders who are usually highly productive and have an important role in recruiting and influencing
other members.
 Core of social structure of science, they act to constrain scientific work within a manageable framework
while providing a forum for innovation and critique.

 The "Invisible College" is where faculty, researchers, and other experts in a particular field exchange ideas
that are not published nor made widely available.
 Communicated via
 E-mail
 Blogs
 E-news
 Listservs
 Chat
 Unpublished diaries
 Phone calls
 Newsletters and
 Other such sources make up the invisible college.
 The information may be brief, but usually current.

Characteristics of Invisible College

1. Membership in these invisible colleges is not formalized but is dependent on the acceptance of one’s
research effort by peers.
2. The scientists see themselves belonging to amorphous groups of fellows who share his research interest
and attitude regardless of their organizational or geographical locations.
3. The personal communication among eminent workers in a given field keeps the others informed of the
developments in their field.
4. Intensive interaction between the members of the group both at professional and at extra-professional
level. They meet each other at symposia. They exchange preprints and keep in touch by mail.
5. There is an organizational leader who takes care of the funding and the management of joint events.
6. There is an intellectual leader who has discovered the theoretical innovation of new methods which
constitutes the centre of attraction.
7. It is not permanent.

Strengths:

 Some historically inaccessible information now made available by the Internet.

 Often available sooner than conventional literature.
 May allow the reader/user to "listen in" on active debate of current issues.

Example

The Invisible College run by Marian Green in the field of ceremonial and folk magic since the early 1960s.

Conclusion

The non-documentary sources too have a very important role to play since the last two decades. This is due to
the fact that many times where the properly prepared expensive printed reference sources fail to provide
information, the non-documentary sources may come in handy.

Often many individuals are able to provide first hand valuable information which is not avail-able in printed
sources so is the case with many institutions which have with them available information in its records which
has nowhere been published. The present day is witnessing the current information available via the various
channels of mass media.

The reference librarian thus must possess a thorough knowledge of reference and information access tools so
that the queries of the users can be matched to their sources.