Skills in Accessing, Finding & Reviewing Information - Safari

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1 . Understanding information 1. Introduction 2. What is information? 3. The information age 4. Everyday uses 5. Types of information 6. Information universe 7. Mapping sources 8. Identifying needs 9. Summary

2 . Unpacking information 1. Introduction 2. Information journeys 3. Supply chain 4. Research supply chain 5. Categorising information 6. Shape of the literature 7. Finding information 8. Summary

3 . Planning a search 1. Introduction 2. Describing information 3. Databases 4. Library catalogues 5. World Wide Web 6. Which to use? 7. Planning a search 8. Choosing resources 9. Summary

4 . Searching for information 1. Introduction 2. Basic principles 3. Databases 4. Library catalogues 5. World Wide Web 6. Tracking progress 7. Your subject 8. Summary

5 . Evaluating information 1. Introduction 2. Information quality 3. Presentation 4. Relevance 5. Objectivity 6. Method 7. Provenance 8. Timeliness 9. Summary

6 . Organising information 1. Introduction 2. Why organise? 3. Ways to organise 4. Social bookmarks 5. Citing references 6. Bibliographies 7. Summary

7 . Where do I go from here 1. Introduction 2. Sharing information 3. Electronic communication 4. Keeping up-to-date 5. Summary

Topic 1 Introduction

This section should help you to:

consider what ‘information’ means to you;
explore some of the consequences of living in an ‘information age’;
consider the different types of information you might use both in everyday life and for your OU studies;
understand how to recognise a need for information.

In this section we are going to be exploring what information is, how we use it to make decisions in different areas of our lives including in formal learning situations, such as studying an OU module.

If you follow all the activities suggested in this section, you might need to allow between twenty minutes and one hour to complete it. Most of the activities only require you to think about the issues raised, and whereas in later sections you will need a pen and paper to complete a section, making notes in Section One is optional; reading and reflecting is more important here.

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