 Availability

Personal contacts are likely to be more available
than expensive abstract journals, or indeed any
scholarly journal.
 Cost


The cost to acquire information from a specific
source.
For example, it may be cheaper to source
information from the Internet than travelling to
and perusing books at the Library.
 Format
 Medium
 Currency


Textbooks are often published at least two years
after they have been written. As a result,
textbooks in rapidly changing fields often are not
the most up-to-date source of information.
Clearly, the World Wide Web is probably the
information source which is most easily updated.
However, it is important to realize that
information sources which are easily updated are
often not refereed, and one therefore has to be
aware of the trade-off between being refereed
(a process which takes a certain amount of time)
and being easily updated.
 Depth



Different information sources also differ in the
amount of detail that they cover.
For example, newspaper articles are usually
written for a general audience and may not
contain the depth required for a research
project.
Articles in scholarly journals, on the other hand,
often analyze material to a greater level of
depth. The trade-off is that articles in such
journals are often more difficult to understand,
or at least require a much greater level of
previous knowledge of the subject.

Breadth of coverage


Similar considerations as depth.
Reliability
The fact that certain publications are refereed was
already mentioned, however, publications that have
gone through a rigorous process of peer review are
more likely to be reliable than those that do not.
 It is also important to realize that there are
differences between different disciplines. For
example, conference proceedings in the field of
Computer Science tend to go through a peer review
process, whereas other disciplines, such as Biology, do
not.


Selection of appropriate Information Source
for a given task.
It is important that you are aware that different
information sources often are appropriate for what
might seem to be the same task.
 For example, finding out the score in a particular
cricket match.




If the match is a local one, such as a match involving the
school team, then personal contact is probably the best
source to use.
If the match is a test match involving the West Indies,
then perhaps the newspaper is the best source.
If the match is a test match not involving the West Indies,
then perhaps the World Wide Web is the source to use.


Another important consideration is that for many
problems one may want to use more than one
information source.
For example, when deciding which University to
attend.




One may want to use information obtained from
brochures and student handbooks produced by the
universities in question.
However, one may want to also find information about
the University from the Internet, for example, to get the
most up-to-date list of courses offered by the University,
or to find out which social activities are offered by the
University's student clubs.
However, if the University is a local one, a visit or a
telephone call may be the better way to go.
In addition, one may want to consult people attending
the University.

Again, the way in which one contacts the person
can differ.



If one knows the person personally, then a face-to-face
meeting or telephone call may be appropriate.
If one does not know the person personally, then an
e-mail message may be more appropriate.
Consequently, selection of appropriate
Information Source for a given task can be
summarized based on the requirements of the
task including:




Time
Criticality
Accuracy
Currency