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A pathfinder is a bibliography created to help begin research in a particular topic or subject area. (Pathfinders are also referred to as subject guides, topic guides, research guides, information portals, resource lists or study guides). Pathfinders produced by the Library of Congress are known as "tracer bullets". What is special about a pathfinder is that it only refers to the information in a specific location, i.e. the shelves of a local library.〔Taylor, A.G., Joudrey, D.N. "The Organization of Information." 3rd Edition. Connecticut, Libraries Unlimited.〕 According to the Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science, a pathfinder is "designed to lead the user through the process of researching a specific topic, or any topic in a given field or discipline, usually in a systematic, step-by-step way, making use of the best finding tools the library has to offer. Pathfinders may be printed or available online." The goal of a pathfinder is to gather all of the most useful, relevant, reliable and authoritative resources on a variety of academic, work-related or general-interest topics. Originally provided in print format in the 20th century in large academic libraries,〔 pathfinders have evolved with the emergence of the World Wide Web and may now act as portals to information about resources in a variety of formats, including books, encyclopedias, bibliographic databases, almanacs, documentaries, websites, search engines and journals. Often used as curriculum tools for bibliographic instruction, the guides help library users find materials or help those unfamiliar with a discipline understand the key sources."〔 ==Purpose== Pathfinders are intended to be a launch point for research on a particular topic, via the collection of select materials available in a particular institution on that topic. However they are not generally an exhaustive collection of all of the materials on a given topic- they are designed for beginners in research to find the fundamental information they need to get started.〔Stevens, S.H., Canfield, M.P., Jeffery, J.G. (1973) Library Pathfinders: A New Possibility for Cooperative Reference Service. ''College & Research Libraries'' http://crl.acrl.org/content/34/1/40.full.pdf〕 Pathfinders also help to teach essential information and technology skills, and promote books and reading.〔Kuntz, K. (2003) Pathfinders: Helping Students Find Paths to Information. ''Multimedia & Internet Schools.'' Vol 10(3) http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may03/kuntz.shtml〕 They are broader in scope than subject headings, and have been chosen from university course descriptions, thesis titles, and from term paper titles. It has been argued to expand the purpose of a research guide from being a list of resources to also incorporating instruction on information literacy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pathfinder (library science)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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