Introduction

Specific resources, rather than management of the collection, are the focus of this chapter. In earlier parts of the book we have already reviewed some of the drivers that are shaping the ways that researchers are finding and using information and data. In this, the first of two practical chapters on the researcher's toolkit, we aim to:

• ■ revisit the inf luences on researchers’ use of resources

• ■ identify some of the most commonly used types of resource

• ■ provide a listing of some of the most valuable secondary sources.

Influences on resource use

As we have already commented, increasingly interdisciplinary research agendas and changing patterns of scholarly communication are reshaping the ways that researchers find and use information. In addition to these external forces, it is helpful to recognize that individual differences will also shape the way that people search for information. They may be influenced by their learning attitudes and habits or by the stage in their research career, but at a practical level probably the most crucial difference is the discipline in which the research is taking place. Although generalizations are dangerous, we might summarize by saying that arts, humanities and to some extent social sciences researchers need access to a wide range of resources spanning a long time period, whereas science, engineering and medical researchers tend to need newly published research data.

First of all, a point of definition: even the term ‘resources’ can be interpreted in more than one way. The Roberts Report includes physical resources such as a PC and study space in its consideration of what resources a research student needs, but for the purposes of this work we will discuss information resources.

Learning styles, habits and attitudes

A person's learning style is part of his or her personality. Although we are not suggesting that understanding learning styles is the key to all knowledge, it can be helpful to recognize that people learn in different ways, and that these fundamental traits influence the ways that they process and deal with information.