Sources of Information in the Lab or Prep. Room : Every lab ought to contain two or three reference books of information for everyday use, such as:

Essentials of plant techniques, scientific publishing

There are other sources of information which are valuable and might not be found in the library such as trade catalogues, e.g., the Catalogue from various manufacturer and exporters, technical specifications, articles from periodicals of interest to technicians such as Laboratory News or Laboratory Digest, and so on. Again some method of cataloguing and accessing these must be devised.

The following is a typical list of sources of information:

(1) Reference books

(2) Catalogues

(3) Card indexes

(4) Computer databases

(5) Personal experience

As you can see, information sources are widespread and various, and to locate precisely the material you require can be a formidable task without expert advice. To simplify matters, most sources of information have a reference index system, which enable large quantities of information to be examined quite quickly. The aim of constructing such an indexing system is to enable relevant information to be stored and accessed quickly. Essentially, the manager of each lab must decide on the sources of information that are required and then stock and store if these are appropriate. (Some reference books are expensive and it may economic sense to use local library for these).