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Scavenger Hunt Help Guide
Question One.
The RIT Library website contains much useful information. Under the "Library
Information" button (http://wally.rit.edu/information/information.html)
are links to staff contacts, library hours, and other valuable information.
To answer question #1 look at the Floor
Maps link. Next to the first floor map you'll see a list of service points
and locations. If you click on a link, it will give you a description of each
area. I'll let you look through these to find the correct answer for question
#1.
Question Two.
To answer this question start from the Library homepage (wally.rit.edu).
Notice the five different colored boxes on the left side of the page. In question
#1 we looked at the Library Information section. In question two you are to
find the link that will take you to the database to which the library subscribes.
It is interesting to note that not everyone can get into these databases. Access is limited to
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 doesn't 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, just start with the www.
Question Three.
This is an important one. You can find the name of the library's catalog from
the homepage by looking for the little icon of ...oops,
don't want to give it away! It is also listed as an option from the Electronic
Resources page. This catalog contains records of all the material owned
by the library so 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's a bit of a tricky question which is designed to have you look around
the library's web pages. Don't spend too much time just browsing around though.
Do a search of the library's web site instead. In the same way, you can use search
engines to search the entire web, many sites also have search engines just for their
own site. RIT Library is no exception. From the homepage
click on the "search" icon at the botton of the screen. Under the
Local Search Tools choose "Wallace Web Server Search". You can then
use they 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've subdivided
them for you. For each college at RIT we've 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 purchases by that person. You'll find these subject
specific pages linked right off of the main Electronic
Resources page. OR, you can use the local search tool to search the Wallace
Web Server like you did in question #5.
Question Seven.
This will be easy for you. Remember question #1, with the floor maps. You can
go back there and click on the Current Periodicals link to find the answer.
Let's talk for a minute about library vocabulary and how confusing libraries
can sometimes be. Magazines, journals, periodicals, serials; they are all different
words, but they basically mean the same thing. They represent publictions that
come out periodically or in a serial fashion. Magazines are for just about anyone
and journals are targeted toward scholars and researchers.We call the area on
the first floor where the most recent magazines and journals are kept the Current
Magazine Section (CMS) usually. Sometimes we refer to it as the Current Periodical
Section also. Confused? Don't be, go to the reference desk and ask a reference
librarian to explain it to you...they'll be glad to.
Question Eight.
This is a big one. Big in the sense that all the electronic search you do uses
this logic system to perform searches. If you understand this you are off to
a good start. Check out this powerpoint slide show on the use of Boolean
Operators in a search strategy for a good explanation. If you can't get the
slide show, come back and install the powerpoint reader on your machine.
Question Nine.
This is based on understanding the Boolean Operators addressed in question
nine. If you need more help check out the Search
Strategy Worksheet.
Question Ten, Eleven & Twelve.
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 at the top of the Electronic
Resources Page or alphabetically at http://wally.rit.edu/electronic/guide/a-d.html.
To help you out, I will tell you that the various databases are usually either
a full-text source, an index or an 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 Thirteen.
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 Fourteen.
You will have to examine the record for the name of the database, it is on
the record display...look closely.
Question Fifteen.
Examine the information on the record display.
Question Sixteen.
An abstract is a brief (25-250 word) description of the content of the article.
Question Seventeen.
Again, all this requires you to do is study the record display for the subject(s)
or keywords used to retrieve this record. In the firstsearch database the "su:"
proceeds the search terms used.
Question Eighteen
Now this gets a little tricky because you have to distinguish between the
keyword used in question 17 from the Subject Headings that were assigned to
this specific article.
Question Nineteen.
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, Twenty-One, and Twenty-Two.
Use the skills you learned in the previous questions and apply it to this example.
All the information is there if you look for it.
Good Luck!
Maintained by Susan Mee
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