Materials

Material

In Library and Information Science (LIS) is the word "material" used about the physical forms or media of documents. Selection of books have always been an important process in libraries. Especially the development of audio-visual media influenced the terminology from selection of books (and journals) to "selection of materials" (cf., McClung, 1985).

In descriptive cataloging is often made a categorization of materials (especially by audio-visual media). Examples of kinds of materials are: CD-ROM, film, and paper.

The term media is also, however, used about the physical materials of documents, why the two terms may be considered synonyms.

Literature:

McClung, P. A. (Ed.). (1985). Selection of library materials in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Chicago: American Library Association.