Appropriate information sources Information Skills Tutorial Unit 2: Basic Searching Home | Previous Unit | Next Unit | Self-Test | Help  Introduction   Start Here   Unit 2 Contents  Topic: Books Lesson Books are a great source for historical information on a topic and are good for background reading. Given the nature of a book, topics can be explored in more depth. One of the difficulties with books, however, is they aren’t very current. Due to the nature of the publishing industry, there is generally a time lag of 6 months or more from the time a manuscript is submitted for publication until the time it actually appears on the book shelf. If the topic you are researching is recent, or has occurred within the past few weeks, you may wish to use an information source other than a book. That being said, however, books do have their uses. Books are a good source of information for the folllowing historical topics background reading biographies; and as a primary source of information Unit 2: 11 of 17 Top Last Updated: 08/16/99 Email: KYVL Help Desk Restricted Access KYVL Help Desk: 1-877-740-4357