RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
centre meeting room, a few shelves in a room at a training institution, or a
room in a community centre – all these are resource centres.
The larger the resource centre, the more important it is to have systems for
knowing what materials it contains and where to find them. With a small
resource centre consisting of a couple of bookcases, it is easy for someone to
look at all the materials and find what they need. Perhaps all that is needed is
for the materials to be grouped together by subject, and the shelves to have
labels showing which subjects are where. In a larger resource centre, however,
it would take too long to look through all the shelves, so it becomes necessary
to classify materials in more detail and list them in a catalogue (for a medium-
sized resource centre) or on a computer database (for a large resource centre).
Whatever the size, all resource centres have the same aim – to meet the
information needs of a particular group, or groups, of people.
A resource centre should be a pleasant environment for learning