Information Services
Working through unit three, the student will gain a thorough grasp of the procedures, technology and skills needed to provide a professional information service. This is a comprehensive course designed to take students through the broad range of issues and procedures he or she is likely to encounter at work.

On completing this unit, students will be able to:

• apply a fundamental knowledge of the information cycle and bibliographic control to the identification and retrieval of documents
• identify the major types of electronic information sources
• conduct literature searches
• devise and operate a current awareness system
• access the various levels of inter-library co-operation
• obtain documents through the inter-library loans network

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1 Introduction

1.1 Objectives of this unit
1.2 Tutorial support
1.3 Organisation
1.4 Assessment procedures

2 Information and communication

2.1 The importance of information
2.2 The information cycle
2.3 Published sources of information
2.4 Primary sources
2.5 Secondary sources

3 Literature searching

3.1 What is literature searching?
3.2 Planning a literature search
3.3 Bibliographic sources: books
3.4 Bibliographic sources: journals
3.5 Carrying out a search
3.6 Using computers
3.7 Development of the on-line industry
3.8 On-line searching techniques
3.9 Using CD-ROM

4 Co-operation with other libraries

4.1 The need for co-operation
4.2 Co-operative activities
4.3 Local co-operative schemes
4.4 Library and Information Plans
4.5 The regional library system

5 The British Library

5.1 Introduction
5.2 Functions of a national library
5.3 The British Library
5.4 London Services
5.5 Northern Services

6 Inter-library lending

6.1 The British Library Document Supply Centre (BLDSC)
6.2 Standard service: postal requests
6.3 Automated Request Transmission (ART)
6.4 Special types of materials
6.5 Special services
6.6 Handling inter-library loans
6.7 Exchanging inter-library loans with other libraries

7 Current awareness

7.1 Introduction
7.2 Information needs analysis
7.3 Display of new stock
7.4 Circulation of journals
7.5 Current contents lists
7.6 News bulletins
7.7 Selective dissemination of information

8 Conclusion

8.1 Summary of unit
8.2 Moving on

Assignments

Appendix 1: Standard bibliographic references

Appendix 2: BLDSC forms