Examining and Evaluating

1. Use the Information Please Almanac or World Almanac & Book of Facts for this exercise. Print the Book Examination Checklist to carry with you. Examine the Almanac and identify each of these parts:

• Author, Title, Volume, Edition, Series, Place of Publication, Publisher's Name, Date of Publication
• Foreword or Preface, Introduction or Instructions for Use, or Table of Contents
• Text
• Appendix, Glossary, or Index
• Special features such as charts, graphs, photos

2. What would you say are the purpose, authority, scope, audience, and format of the almanac?

3. Choose another reference book, one you haven't used before, and answer questions 1 and 2 for that book.

Catalog

1. Locate an encyclopedia of science and/or technology in the catalog.

2. Locate a handbook of chemistry and/or physics in the catalog.

3. Look in your catalog for books about Ohio. Look closely at the catalog records for 2 or 3 of these items. What can you learn about dates for the authors? What can you learn about other subject headings to help you find more resources?

Types

1. Identify one of each of the following in your library: atlas, bibliography, dictionary, directory, gazetteer, handbook, periodical (or index to periodicals), and yearbook.

2. How many of these (atlas, bibliography, dictionary, directory, gazetteer, handbook, periodical or index to periodicals, or yearbook) can you find that pertain specifically to Ohio, e.g. a periodical about Ohio or a directory  of Ohio business?

Lists

1. Locate any of the resources on the Essential List in your library that are unfamiliar to you and use the Book Examination Checklist to examine them. Try to do at least one a day.

Dewey

1. Locate the non-fiction areas in your library. Each area (reference, ready reference, children's, videos, adult non-fiction, etc.) may be organized by Dewey. How many places in your library can you locate resources in the 900s?

2. What is the Dewey number for each of the resources on the List of Essential Resources?

Internet sites

1. If you have Internet access, try using the following two search engines to do exactly the same search and see what the differences is in the results.

• Google - a relatively non-commercial, uncluttered and highly recommended search engine.
• Metacrawler - a search engine that searches many other search engines.

2. Look at SearchEngineWatch.com to learn how search engines work, how they compare, how they search, and what to do to get a site listed.

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