ILS504 - Reference & Information Resources and Services

Ready Reference

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You are required to:

1. State the question
2. Analyze the question- say what type of reference tool you will need (Almanac or Dictionary etc.)
3. Your search strategy
4. The answer and
   
5. The full citation of your source for each of your answers.
   

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Question 1

1. Who were the first and second Presidents of France's 5th Republic?
2. This is a who question which can be answered using a general ready reference source such as a biographical or subject encyclopedia. I looked in the Facts on File, Modern European History Encyclopedia for this information.
   
3. I looked under France and the subheading Fifth Republic.
   
4. I discovered that Charles de Gaulle was the first president from 1959-1969. Georges Pompidou was the second president form 1969-1974.
5. Citation:
   

Question 2

1. I need some information on postal rates for printed matter. However, I've heard that the rate depends on what zone the material is going to. What is a zone? What is the difference between Zone 1 and Zone 2?
2. This is the specific type of information you will find in an almanac. I referred to the World Almanac which redirected me to the US zipcode website.
   
3. I entered the search term zone and postal rate in the sight search engine.
   
4. The USPS defines zone as: Postage rates for zoned mail are based on mail piece weight and the distance the mail piece travels using these zone assignments.
   

Question 3

1. Where can I find a county by county presidential election returns for all the states for the 2008 election?
2. I would turn to the elections results listed in the Washington Post newspaper index.
3. Citation:
   

Question 4

1. Where can I find some information about the peerages in England? I'd like to know how many types of hereditary peerages there are. Is there a place where I could see a list of names of these peers?
2. This question required some searching. Since a print resource was required, I turned to WorldCat and looked for Peerage in England + chronological lists. This information would be found in Peerage creations: Chronological lists of creations in the peerages of England and Great Britain
3. Citation:
   

Question 5

1. My son is doing a project for school and needs to find illustrations of the flags and coats-of-arms for each of the Canadian provinces. Can you direct me to a source?
2. This is a question that requires a subject specific encyclopedia. For this question I turned to the World Book Encyclopedia of Flags.
3. I referred to the spine for the proper volume as they are listed alphabetically.
4. Citation:
   

Question 6

1. I need some information for a report I'm doing for a college course. I need to know about the status of women in Germany from a historical perspective - say 1848 to post-WWII.
2. This requires a specific historical database; I turned to WorldCat to find if there was a source available on the topic.
3. I used an advance search option using the terms women + Germany.
4. From WorldCat I found two dissertation theses on this topic.
5. Citation:
   

Question 7

1. What are the call letters and the ad rates for the radio station in Four Bears, North Dakota?
2. This question would best be answered using a directory. For this information I would turn to the Gale directory of Publication and Broadcast Media.
3.   Citation:

Question 8

1. What event in Czechoslovakia occurred on the night of August 20-21, 1968? (Extra point - this event brought an end to the era that Alexandr Dubcek and the people of Czechoslovakia referred to as ,"xxxxxx xxxxxx”.)
2. This question requires either a general or subject encyclopedia.
   I found the information for both parts of this question from Facts on File Encyclopedias.
3. I searched under Czedhoslavakia in the index.
   
4. The democratic reforms of Alexander Dubcek in the Prague Spring were crushed by troops from the Warsaw Pact.
   The term Prague Spring  is the era of the reforms of Dubcek.
5. Citations:

Question 9

1. Where can I find a list of the Presidential Medal of Freedom winners from 1996-2000? Who was the AIDS researcher who won the Medal in 2000?
2. This is a who qhestion tht can be found in a ready reference source. I found this information in the World Almanac.
3. I looked in the index under Presidential Medal of Freedom.
4. The AIDS researcher who won in 2000 was Mathilde Krim.
5. Citation:

Question 10

1. How many quarts would be contained in a rehoboam, a methusaleh, a salmanezar, a balthazar and a nebuchadnezzar? Quarts of what?
2. This question was in two parts. The first question required a definition. And the second would be answered within the definition. I used a dictionary for these answers.
3. For these answers I looked in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.
4. rehoboam -     5 quarts of wine
   methuselah – 6 ½ quarts of wine
   salmanazar – 10 – 12 quarts of wine
   balthazar  - 13 quarts of wine
   Nebuchadnezzar – 20 quarts of wine
5. Citation:

Question 11

1. What will be the dates of Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday (Western Churches) in 2087.

2. For this information, I turned to the perpetual calendar in the World Almanac.

Question 12

1. I need to find some recent (within the last 10 years) statistics on the Cohabitation Experience of Women in the United States approximately 25-40 years of age. Where should I look?
2. I started with the almanac for statistics but found I needed a specific subject encyclopedia.  I chose the Encyclopedia of American History: Contemporary United States.
3. For this answer, I first looked in the Almanac for statistics on marriage / cohabitation but the statistics listed were not specific enouth. I then turned to the Encyclopedia of American History article, Marriage, 1968 – Present.