Organizing Information by Various Kinds of Mental Maps

• By Dewey or LC

• By type of reference source: bibliographies, quote books, atlases, etc.

• By format and delivery method: books, gov docs, periodicals, Internet, dissertations, etc.

• By source: who would produce that sort of information?

• By some combination of all of the above.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  	My mental map of where information comes from.
  My mental map of the amount of information available, by form. For another intriguing view of what form information comes in see http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/ projects/how-much-info/charts/charts.html
  	Those divisions may be subdivided farther. Which part of the net are you searching? Visible? Invisible? Web sites? Bulletin boards, usenet groups? Books, magazines, databases delivered by way of the net?
  Which part of the totality of books are you searching? Your own catalog? Books in print? All books held by libraries? All books available from out of print dealers?
  	Which part of the totality of periodicals? Magazines? Journals? Newspapers? Within each of these categories, which databases?

  
  
  

  The decisions we make about where to go, which sources to use, are based on our own mental maps of the information landscape, and none of us have exactly the same mental maps.