Reference Works: Library Catalog

1. Which of your questions did you try to answer?

The question I tried to answer was, "What is the Hydrolic cycle?"

2. What exact terms did you enter into the keyword search screen?

I entered these terms all under 'reference collection' to see what my results might be:
a. Hydrolic cycle-no results
b. Percipatation-no results
c. Geological cycle-no results

As you can see I went broader with my search terms and smaller, as an experiment as to what might give me back results.

Lastly, I tried the broadest of my whole subject, "Naturl Ecosystems," which returned me one result.

3. What subject heading did you choose to be sure your item was on target and the best option for your search?

Since my search only recovered one subject heading, I choose that one. I noticed when I clicked on the "more details" tab or the "find similar items" tab, there were other subject headings to choose from.

Those subject headings consisted of:
"Human Beings"-influence on nature--maps
"Natural resources"-maps
"Economic geography"-map
"Economic geography-statistics

I unded up just picking the only result that came up when I entered the key terms, "natural ecosystems."

4. What item did you eventually choose? Why?

I eventually choose the only subject heading that was first shown to me as a result of my key terms, "Natural Ecosystems." I figured it was a sufficent subject heading to choose from because after all, the hydrolic cycle is a part of the Natural Ecosystems on Earth.

5. Give the bibliographic information for the item you chose.
Author- Seager, Joni
Title- "The New State of the Earth Atlas: a concise survey of the environment through full-color international maps
Publication Information- New York; Simon & Schuster; 1995
Edition-2nd
Addition Authors- Reed, Clark and Stott, Rett

Location: Reference/Map Room
Call Number: G1046 G3 S4 1995
Status: ON THE SHELF

6. When you looked at the reference work, what quote did you choose? Why?

When I looked at the reference work, I was looking for a quote that explained how the "hydrolic cycle" is important to all life on Earth. The quote I found, I feel, summarizes just that. "Water serves many roles: it is a service commodity for agriculture, industry, and urban growth, but it is also a key life suport for all species and ecosystems." (105). I also chose this quote because, not only did it sum up all information on water being inportant, but it was also the only information in text form that I would be able to share with you. This particular book was mostly maps of international land showing the importance and/or effects of certain resources, all by color coding.

7. What makes this refernce book as opposed to a regular book you might find in the book stacks?

This reference book, as opposed to a regular book one might find on the book stacks, is the content of the information. This book illustrated in depth how the world and the amount of each resource affects the land and where the particular resource is located or not located, and it shows where the resource is effecting or not effecting certain places.

8. In looking at the material in the book and the publication date in the bibliographic information, what year do you think the information really comes from?

After looking at the wiki page, and other modules I looked at throughout the process of this assignment, I noticed that reference works were usually published after some five years of being written. Therefore, I believe this information is by far at least, five years older from the publication date of 1995, resulting in the information being from 1990.