Library Tutorial - Information Resources - Specialized Resources

You may want to pay special attention to the following specialized resources that can be found in more than one of the above types of resources.

Government information- includes any publication issued by local, state, national, or international governments. These resources include laws, regulations, statistics, consumer information, and much more. Government publications are valuable because they cover a very wide range of topics ranging from AIDS to the environment and are sometimes the only source of information in their field. Also, the U.S. government is considered to be a reliable source for information and is a prolific publisher.
Government publications may be in the form of reference works, books, periodicals, bibliographies, pamphlets, maps, or Internet resources. Many government documents are placed on the web by their sponsoring agencies, either as html or pdf files. It is easy to overlook government publications as it may take a little bit of extra work to locate a good source. For government documents you may need to look outside the McConnell Library to obtain resources we don't have. The Newman Library at Virginia Tech is a designated federal depository and receives approximately seventy percent of all items published by the U.S. government.

Statistical Information - statistics are a valuable kind of resource because they can provide data for making comparisons and determining historical trends. When you write a term paper, your argument will be in many cases more convincing if you can use statistics to back up what you say.
The United States government is one of the most important publishers of statistical information. Many of its agencies and departments have statistical divisions that regularly publish statistical abstracts and digests of basic socio-economic data about the United States and other countries.

Critical Reviews - a review is a critical evaluation. The most common reviews are those of books, movies, musical recordings, or products. A review can help you determine the quality of a resource.

Next - Primary and Secondary Sources