Once you have a preliminary list of questions to answer in your research, you need to know about the types of information resources available to you. There are three types of print information sources in a library. These are reference materials , books , and serials . Their characteristics are described below.
Libraries also provide access to electronic resources.
The information about research strategies in this OWL applies to information sources in all formats. Documents published by federal, state, or other governments are often an important source of information for research. Government documents are of the types listed above. Many government agencies have websites, and more and more government information is in electronic form. For information on how to identify and locate government documents in our Library, go to OWL 6 .