Other sources and types of information

Other sources and types of information 

Databases that contain records of other formats, such as audio visual materials, can be searched in similar ways to 

bibliographic databases. For example, the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC)23 provides access to Hermes 

database of audio visual programmes and the British Universities Newsreel Database (BUND), and the Education Image 

Gallery (EIG)24 holds around 50,000 images for use in education. The COPAC union catalogue has a map search option 

which limits the search to items such as maps, nautical charts, atlases, and topographical drawings. 

Grey literature (see Appendix 2) can be difficult to track down. One source 

for searching US grey literature is the GrayLIT Network, 'a portal for technical 

report information generated through federally funded research and devel-

opment projects' (Office of Scientific and Technical Information 2007). Con-

tent  comprises  scientific  technical  reports.  The  British  Library  collection 

includes UK reports, conferences, and theses. As more digital repositories are 

created and filled, grey literature is likely to become more readily available, but 

comprehensive coverage will be some time in coming. 

ZETOC,25 the database created jointly by the British Library and the JISC, contains bibliographic details of many thousands 

of conference proceedings and journals' tables of contents from all disciplines. It is available free to UK further and higher 

education institutions. 

New York Public Library catalogue26 can be of great use for checking biblio-

graphic details of US titles (in addition to the Library of Congress catalogue). It 

also includes audio visual materials, maps, and artefacts as well as access to the 

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts dance collection catalogue 

and the Schomburg Center for Research In Black Culture catalogue. 

The BOPCRIS (British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Informa-

tion Service)27 catalogue can be used to discover British Official publications 

published between 1688 and 1995. Abstracts are provided for many records. 

The UK National Archives28 provides access to a central catalogue of govern-

ment records and information about UK archives and other collections. UKOP 

(UK Official Publications), from TSO, is 'the official catalogue of UK official 

publications since 1980, containing 450,000 records from over 2000 public 

bodies' (TSO 2007). 

Online book sellers such as Amazon are providing increasingly sophisticated 

services for users. For example, Amazon now includes a facility for publishers 

to allow the full text of their books to be searched and for sections to be 

made freely accessible as a 'taster' for users. If available, this can be useful for 

researchers who are trying to ascertain whether or not a title is relevant to 

them. 

References and citation searching 

Scrutinizing the references included in works and performing a citation search (see Chapter 7) are valuable methods of 

discovering information. 

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