Scavenger Hunt for Online Learners
Hints
Question One.
Go to the Conferences
folder in FirstClass, look for Student Services and double click on it.
Double click on the RIT Library folder. There is a gold mine of information here about library services and resources. Take a few minutes to see what it includes.
Question Two.
To answer this question start from the Library homepage (wally.rit.edu).
You are to find the link that will take you to the databases to which the library
subscribes. It is interesting to note that not everyone can get into these databases,
only faculty, students, and staff of RIT. Although they are Internet & Web
based resources they are much more CONTENT-RICH than much of the stuff you find
out on the Web which does not require a subscription. That means this is a GREAT
place for you to use when you are starting a RESEARCH PAPER.
Once you find the right page, copy the URL into the box in question #2. Don't
include the http:// part.
Question Three.
This is an important one. You can find the name of the library's catalog from
the homepage. You can also find it on the Databases,
Catalogs & More page by looking for the icon of ...oops don't want to
give it away! This catalog contains records of all the material owned by the
library - it is definitely something you'll want to know.
Question Four.
This database is unique because it provides full-text articles from
humanities and social science scholarly journals dating back to their first volumes. However, issues from the last 3-5 years are not included in this database. This is a good resource for researching the historical aspects of a subject.
Question Five.
Here is a bit of a tricky question which is designed to have you look around
the Library's Web pages. Do not spend too much time just browsing around though;
do a search of the Library's Web site instead. Just like you can use search
engines to search the entire Web, many sites have search engines just for their
own site. RIT Library is no exception. From the homepage
click on the drop-down box at the top. You can then use the keywords to describe
what you are looking for, perform the search and find the location of the document
you believe is housed on our server. Good Luck!
Question Six.
There are a couple of ways to tackle this question. The Library susbcribes
to many electronic resources. Because we have so many, it can be hard to choose
which one would be good for the topic you are studying. So, we have subdivided
them for you. For each college at RIT, we have made a sub-set page of electronic
resources appropriate for scholars in that field. Not only have we listed databases,
but also things like who the subject specialist-librarian is for that college,
and how to request books to be purchased by that person. You will find these
subject specific pages linked right off of the Databases,
Catalogs & More page. OR, you can use the local search tool to search
the RIT Library server like you did in question #5.
Question Seven.
There is a wealth of services offered under the RIT Library homepage. To answer
question #7, scan the links and their webpages, and provide the URL for connecting
to the interlibrary loan request service. Do not include the https://
part.
Question Eight.
Many students discover the necessity for a DCE account when they are trying
to access RIT Library's electronic resources to do research. Better to find
out now about the DCE account. You can locate DCE information on the Library
or RIT websites.
Question Nine.
There are multiple ways to access Electronic Course Reserves. The correct answer
is the URL that is found by going into the RIT Library's catalog.
Question Ten.
This is a big one. Big in the sense that all the electronic searching you do
uses this logic system to perform searches. If you understand this you are off
to a good start. Check out the RealPlayer presentation on the use of Boolean
Operators in a search strategy for a good explanation.
Question Eleven.
This is based on understanding the Boolean Operators addressed in question nine. If you need more help, check out the Search Strategy Worksheet.
Questions Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen.
These questions test your knowledge of the various products and databases which
are provided to students, faculty and staff by the RIT Library. You can check
the database description lists toward the top of the Databases,
Catalogs & More page. To help you out, I will tell you that the
various databases are usually either a full-text source, an index or abstract
to a source, or a library catalog. A full-text source will give you the actual
article or publication. An index or abstract will give you information (called
a citation) about where you can find a full-text article and perhaps a brief
description of the contents. A library catalog will give you the holding of
a particular library or group of libraries.
Question Fifteen.
Book records have a title, author, publisher and year of publication. Journal article records have volume numbers, month and date information, an author, title and journal title. Use this information to examine the record and make a choice.
Question Sixteen.
You will have to examine the record for the name of the database; it is on the record display...look closely.
Question Seventeen.
Examine the small graphics on the record display.
Question Eighteen.
An abstract is a brief (25-250 word) description of the content of the article.
Question Nineteen.
Again, this requires you to study the record display for the subject(s) or
keywords used to retrieve this record.
Question Twenty.
Subject headings in a database record are listed for a very specific reason.
They give you further avenues of locating information related to your original
keyword search.
Question Twenty-One.
Again, examine the record. The field tags tell you what is reported in each section of the record, such as AUTHOR. Warning: The article title and journal title are not the same thing. Journal titles are often designated by the field tags, publication, source, journal....look for these when looking for the journal title.
Question Twenty-Two.
If you were actually in the ABI/Inform database, you could mouse-over the icons
to see what they represent. To answer this question, you need to either go into
the database OR you can think about what the icons represent.
Question Twenty-Three,
Twenty-Four.
Use the skills you learned in the previous questions and apply it to this example.
Good Luck!
Maintained by: Marianne Buehler | 
