Their regional emphasis can make them ideal sources of information for events or topics of local interest, such as salmon fisheries in the Pacific Northwest. The New York Times , a well respected newspaper, serves as the de facto national newspaper and is a good source of information on topics of national and international importance. More current than books, periodicals play a different role in the research process. The variety of viewpoints available through periodicals makes them a valuable source of information. By nature they tend to focus on narrower topics than books.
Scholarly articles contribute to the body of knowledge on specific topics.
The author of a book spends a good deal of time gathering and analyzing information, testing theories, and drawing conclusions. An editor then reviews the manuscript at least once and sometimes suggests major revisions. The process of physically producing a book might take a year or more. By the time a book is prepared, printed, purchased by a library and put on the shelf for circulation, the information might be two or more years old. On the other hand, the information in a newspaper might be only a few hours old, and magazines often report on news only several days old.