Teacher License – Research Skills Complete Review Guide 2026–2027

4. (3.18.1 Concept, types and importance of information) Information literacy is the ability to identify an information need, find, evaluate and ethically use information. It is the practical goal of the Research Skills course.
5. (3.18.2 Traditional and electronic sources) By originality, sources are primary (theses, original studies, patents, documents, interviews) and secondary (textbooks, encyclopedias, indexes, bibliographies, abstracts).
6. (3.18.2 Traditional and electronic sources) By format they are printed (books, periodicals, reports), non-printed (educational films, audio recordings, pictures, maps), electronic (databases, e-books, e-journals, websites) and human (experts, specialists, institutions).
7. (3.18.2 Traditional and electronic sources) Reference sources: dictionaries for word meanings, encyclopedias for brief general information, directories for institutions and people with their addresses and activities, atlases for maps, yearbooks for recent developments.
8. (3.18.2 Traditional and electronic sources) Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals) beat books on currency; books beat periodicals on depth and coverage. Electronic sources offer speed and full-text searching but need their reliability evaluated.
9. (3.18.3 Organizing and managing information) Cataloguing records an item's bibliographic data: descriptive (title, author, publisher, edition, pages) and subject (subject and class number). Users search through author, title and subject access points.
10. (3.18.3 Organizing and managing information) Classification arranges items by subject; the best-known schemes are Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress. The ISBN is the international standard number for books, the ISSN for serials.
11. (3.18.3 Organizing and managing information) Indexing analyses a document's content into terms; abstracting condenses it into a short abstract. Collection management covers selection, acquisition, inventory and weeding.
12. (3.18.4 Storage and retrieval technologies) Storage technologies: hard and optical disks, flash memory and cloud storage, with regular backup to protect data. Retrieval tools: databases, automated catalogues, keywords and Boolean operators.
13. (3.18.4 Storage and retrieval technologies) Metadata and keywords represent content and connect a user's query to documents, so accurate ones improve retrieval. In Saudi schools, the Madrasati platform lets teachers store and retrieve learning materials.
14. (3.18.5 Information services) Traditional services: in-house and external lending, guidance (directing users to sources and how to use them), reference service, copying and inter-library loan.
15. (3.18.5 Information services) Modern services: automated catalogues, databases, digital references, remote access, current awareness and SDI, which sends the user what matches an interest profile.

Common mistakes in this chapter

• ✕ Reversing data and information: information is the output after processing; data is the raw input (3.18.1).
• ✕ Treating every electronic source as secondary: primary versus secondary depends on originality, not format; an original study published online is still primary (3.18.2).
• ✕ Confusing descriptive and subject cataloguing: descriptive is about physical form, subject is about content and classification (3.18.3).
• ✕ Mixing up cataloguing, classification and indexing: cataloguing describes the item, classification gives it a shelf place, indexing analyses content into retrieval terms (3.18.3).
• ✕ Confusing library and archive: an archive keeps the original records produced by an organization's activity; a library collects published materials (3.18.5).
• ✕ Thinking inventory is cataloguing: inventory checks actual holdings against records to find what is missing (3.18.3).
• ✕ Confusing current awareness (announcing new items generally) with SDI (sending only what matches a user's interest profile) (3.18.5).