LIB 160 Quiz 1

Chapter 1 points out that a good research question should be focused. Which of these topics are focused and which are too broad?

1. A comparison of ancient sports contests and the modern Olympic games. (TOO BROAD) 2. The trends that can be seen in recent sponsorships for Olympic athletes (FOCUSED) 3. The development of the seelpan drum and the music of Trinidad and Tobago (FOCUSED) 4. How musical genres have developed over time (TOO BROAD)

Journals are published on an ongoing basis at regular intervals and consist of volumes, issues, and articles. Match the elements of a journal to its description.

1. A set of articles published together at the same time. (ISSUE) 2. A paper describing a research or scholarly topic. (ARTICLE) 3. Typically includes all issues from one year. (VOLUME)

What type of publication, scholarly or popular, do the descriptions on the left column represent?

1. Articles often include footnotes or a long list of references (scholarly) 2. Articles are often not signed by the author (popular) 3. Goes through a peer-review process before being published. (Scholarly) 4. Written for specialists in a particular field. (scholarly)

You are researching an election that took place in another country last week. Based on what you have learned about the flow of information, which of these types of information sources can you expect to find about this?

1. Book describing the impact of the event. (NO) 2. News report made about the event. (YES) 3. Scholarly articles analyzing the event. (NO) 4. Photos or videos from the event (YES)

Which of the following factors are important to keep in mind when choosing resources for a research project?

1. How many books are published on your topic in the last year. (NOT IMPORTANT) 2. You prefer using articles over books. (NOT IMPORTANT) 3. How in-depth your paper or presentation needs to be. (IMPORTANT) 4. Your instructor's requirement that you use 5 peer-reviewed sources. (IMPORTANT)

You want to find out about new developments in road materials for extremely cold conditions. Since this is a complex topic, you want to break it down into its main concepts to help identify keywords that could help you search. Are the keywords below examples of the essential concepts from this topic?

1. Materials (ESSENTIAL) 2. Cold (ESSENTIAL) 3. Developments (NON ESSENTIAL) 4. Road (ESSENTIAL)

Why is it important to keep track of your sources when you work on a research project?

1. Organizing your sources helps you remember where any quotes came from (YES) 2. You will need to show you have copies of all your sources to prove you have not plagiarized (NO) 3. You have to follow the official ISU guidelines for organizing your sources (NO) 4. Organizing your sources will save you time as you finish your project (YES)

Match each source to the type of information it contains.

1. The US Census website (stats) 2. Encyclopedia of Microbiology (background) 3. The Wikipedia page on the greek alphabet. (background) 4. The New York Times website (news)

When searching for sources for a paper, your first search finds a large number of results; however, they don't seem to be very closely related to your topic. According to Chapter 1, which of these next steps should help you get better results?

1. Try multiple combinations of keywords and see which gives the best result. (YES) 2. Search again with broader keywords that include your topic (NO) 3. Change your topic so you can use the top items in your results (NO) 4. Decide which essential concepts make up your topic and search for them (YES)

Chapter 1 discusses how to get started with research and the information-seeking process. According to the Chapter, which of the following is important to consider when getting started?

1. Which Library of Congress call numbers apply to your topic. (YES) 2. Whether your research question is well developed. (YES) 3. How much information is available online. (NO) 4. What the essential concepts are for your topic. (YES)

Using what you know about Wikipedia contributors from this chapter, give TWO reasons why you might want to use an additional source.

1. Wikipedia articles are not traditionally peer reviewed. 2. Majority of Wikipedia contributors do not have advanced degrees.

Which of the following are ways Wikipedia can be useful to you when you are developing your research question?

1. Wikipedia is a great source for background information on many topics. (YES) 2. If there is no Wikipedia article on your topic, you wont be able to find enough information to write a paper about it. (NO) 3. You can find dates and timelines for past events in Wikipedia and use this information to help you search in other sources (YES) 4. Wikipedia is useful for historical research because it is considered to be a primary source. (NO)

Your instructor tells you to "find one source from a peer-reviewed journal" for a short class assignment. Which of the following sources should you use?

An article from a scholarly journal that was critiqued by subject experts before publication.

What does it mean for an article to be peer-reviewed?

Experts in the same subject as the author critiqued the article.

As described in Chapter 1, which ONE of the following best characterizes what is meant by "scholarly information"?

Information produced in and for academic settings.

Why is peer review an important part of the publication process for scholarly information?

Peer review draws on the expertise of others to strengthen research.

Which of the following best describes scholarly book chapters?

Research papers with a common theme, published together in a book.

You are searching for information about differences in squirrel populations in rural vs. urban areas. You find some alternate keywords and group them by related concepts like this: Squirrel, Sciurus (name of a squirrel genus) Rural, urban, location, geographic Population, prevalence, density Compare the following two sets of keywords: Sciurus Squirrel population prevalence or Sciurus geographic density Which option below should find more useful search results and why?

Sciurus Squirrel population prevalence since it includes more words to give more matches.

Chapter 1 discusses primary and secondary sources. Why might you want to use secondary sources for a project or paper?

They may provide useful analyses of your topic.

When searching for sources, why is it important to include keywords for each of the essential concepts that make up your research question?

Using every essential concept keeps your search more focused.