It appeared that providing a pathfinder about financial aid would be a very useful topic for students; in looking at the reference collection at the O’Keefe Library at St. Ambrose University, approximately ten percent of the collection in the L classification of the reference section was dedicated to financial aid. It was a significant part of the collection, so it made sense that financial aid was an important part of education literature. in addition, about twenty percent of the reference material in the L classification at the Black Hawk College Library is dedicated to financial aid.
The mission of this pathfinder is to provide students, graduate and undergraduate, with a place to find information about financial aid for college. The goal is to provide a variety of sources including print titles and web sites for undergraduate and graduate students, and financial aid for special groups.
In order to provide the best information possible, print sources that are considered reference materials from the last five years were considered for inclusion in the pathfinder. There are many books printed on this subject because financial aid is so important for students to continue their education. In order to find proper materials for this project, the reference collections of two local colleges were consulted for appropriate materials. One of the institutions is a small private university and the other is a community college. Between the two collections, the materials are helpful for undergraduate students, graduate students, and special groups. Furthermore, in looking for information to include in the pathfinder, it appeared that many of the good sources for financial aid are in print form. When considering web sites for inclusion in this pathfinder, government information and organizations were considered, as well as some educational web sites, in order to provide the highest quality of information.
The pathfinder is organized into four parts including general sources (sources for any type of student), sources for undergraduate students, sources for graduate students, and sources for women and minorities. Each part will include print sources first and Internet sources second. Each entry will include the title of the source, web address (when appropriate), the primary use for the source, the types of information provided, the indexes provided, the authority of the source, the publisher or creator, the strengths of the source, the weaknesses of the source, and anything unique about the source.
The pathfinder will be provided on the WWW via www.angelfire.com (One of the free web page providers). Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) will be used to create the web page. In collecting sources, two libraries were consulted for print materials. There are a few web sites included in the pathfinder, with more sites expected to be added in the future. As with all web pages, hyperlinks need to be updated when necessary; new sources, print and Internet, will be added when appropriate. Old sources will be removed as necessary.
The Pathfinder will provide the following information:
1. Name of Source
2. Year Published or Web Address
3. Publisher
4. Primary Use
5. Types of Information Provided
6. Search Indexes Provided
7. Authority
8. Strengths
9. Weaknesses
10.Unique Aspects
Proceed to General Sources of Financial Aid
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Prepared as part of the requirements for the Master of Library Science Degree
Department of Information and Library Science
School of Communication Information and Library Science
Southern Connecticut State University
