Information Sources

Source	Type of information provided	Suggested locations to search
scholarly books	scholarly/authoritative information comprehensive accounts of research or scholarship historical data overviews authors' views on themes/topics	Library Catalogue
journals	reports and/or reviews of current research topic-specific information authoritative information (provided that the journal is a scholarly journal)	Library Catalogue to check if a journal is available (see Library Catalogue - Journal Title Search) Databases to search for journal articles (see Searching for journal articles on a topic, or Searching for journal articles by citation) Some journals are freely available on the Web (see Open Access Resources)
conference/workshop/ symposium papers	current research and trends authoritative information	Library Catalogue some databases some papers are freely available on the Web
newspapers	news and current affairs	Library Catalogue to check if a newspaper is available (see Library Catalogue - Journal Title Search) databases to search for newspaper articles (see Finding Newspaper Articles)
government publications	Local, state, national and international: reports statistics legislation service information	Library Catalogue government websites some databases
research reports	technical and research information	Library Catalogue government websites research organisation websites some databases
standards	regulatory requirements or acknowledged best practice associated with industrial, technical or professional fields	Library Catalogue specialised databases
legislation	proposed or enacted laws or regulations	Library Catalogue specialised databases government websites
maps	geographical representations of the earth and other physical phenomena such as stars and planets demographic, ecological and historical information may also be presented	Library Catalogue websites
informal sources	personal correspondence (e.g. unpublished diaries and letters) interviews conversations	Library Catalogue websites