a. This was not the first source I chose, although maybe it should have been obvious. I went through a process of elimination with other kinds of sources.
b. I tried picking a compilation of biographies. Marquis Who’s Who in the World was the first one I tried, and it didn’t have a listing for Ekwensi. I went back to the list and didn’t see anything that looked like a biography for authors, so I tried looking at bibliographies instead. That only had two options: a bibliography of science and a bibliography of social science. Since I didn’t know Ekwensi’s field, I tried those sources as well – no luck. My next try was an encyclopedia. Credo had many listings for encyclopedias of literature. I chose The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English and found an entry for Ekwensi.
c. Five of Ekwensi’s books include Beautiful Feathers (1963), Iska (1966), Survive the Peace (1976), Divided We Stand (1980), and King For Ever! (1992).
d. Ekwensi, Cyprian O. D. (1921-). (2005). In Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Retrieved on March 27, 2010 from http://0-www.credoreference.com. www.consuls.org/entry/routpcl/ ekwensi_cyprian_o_d_1921.
2. The source I used to find the 2006 World Series winner was the ESPN website.
a. Again, this was not the first source I chose. I knew that sports trivia had to be in some kind of fact book, so I looked at books under the headings “Facts” and “Statistics.”
b. First, I chose The Great American History Fact-Finder because its summary mentioned sports. It had an entry about the World Series, but this entry just explained what the World Series was rather than listing winners of every World Series. There was a sidebar with links to related articles, so I clicked on that. Similarly, all the entries were about the World Series in general but did not provide a list of winners. I eventually gave up and went to Google, where I typed “2006 World Series winner” in the search field. The first search result was a link to ESPN’s website – certainly a reputable source for sports information – where I found a list of World Series winners and losers from 1903-2009.
c. In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 4-1.
d. “MLB World Series Winners.” ESPN. 2010. March 27, 2010.
3. The source I used to find a definition of euphemism was the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
a. I chose this because I needed a definition of an English word.
b. This sure is harder than it looks! First, I clicked on Credo’s “Find a Book” tab to return from wherever I was in my World Series search. After seeing the page that came up, I realized that I might have been searching for sports trivia in the “Literature” section of the website. Oops. I chose “Languages” from the list of source categories, which produced a list of dictionaries on every conceivable subject – except definitions of English words. Before giving up and finding the answer on Dictionary.com, I went back to the sidebar and clicked “All Subjects”; thankfully, this produced a longer list that included a “normal” dictionary.
c. “The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: ‘Euphemisms such as ‘slumber room’ … abound in the funeral business.’”
d. "Euphemism." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 27 March 2010.
4. The source I used to find contact information for the CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb was the company website.
a. I chose this source, after unsuccessfully trying to find the information on Credo, because it was a direct route to information.
b. Again, my search strategy was not the most strategic. I first chose Who’s Who in Economics, but that was not applicable. Then I tried to search by title for some kind of “Who’s Who in America,” but couldn’t find it – even though I had seen it on the website before, when I was looking for Cyprian Ekwensi! Aagh! Next, I searched for books by type and found Marquis Who’s Who in America. However, searching for “Bristol Meyers Squibb” didn’t yield any results.
i. I realized that I was conducting my search backwards: I had the name of the company and needed the name of a person, but I was searching through listings of names. What I needed was a directory of companies. However, I couldn’t find anything called a “directory” on Credo; I tried looking at a couple business encyclopedias, but did not find the information I needed. Then I went back to the Credo homepage and entered “Bristol Meyers Squibb CEO” in the search field. No luck -- aagh, again!
ii. After searching Google, I found out that the company name is “Bristol-Myers Squibb,” not “Bristol Meyers Squibb.” I returned to Credo to search with the correct spelling, but entering “Bristol-Myers Squibb” in the general search field still didn’t produce the information I found on the company website.
c. The mailing address is Bristol-Myers Squibb Corporate Headquarters, 345 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10154. James M. Cornelius is the CEO.
d. “Contact Us.” Bristol-Myers Squibb. BMS.com. 2010. March 27 2010.
5. I used a variety of internet sources to find out which United States city has the most bridges, including About.com and Wikipedia.
a. I chose these sources because I was unsuccessful in searching Credo.
b. This sounded like a question that an almanac would answer because almanacs contain recent statistics on infrastructure. However, Credo did not list any almanacs. I looked under the listing “statistics” and chose U.S. Census 2000 State & County Statistical QuickFacts, but that source focused on demographic information. After completing the search, it occurred to me that this question is probably answered in the Guinness Book of World Records, whose online information is not subscribed to by SCSU or my local library
i. Then I tried other databases from the Buley Library homepage, Infoplease.com, and About.com. About.com led me to an article about Pittsburgh bridges, half of which was obscured by an advertisement that I couldn’t close. After seeing part of this article, I searched for “Pittsburgh City of Bridges” using Google.
ii. The first result was a Wikipedia article stating that Pittsburgh has the most bridges in the world. This article had a link to a reputable Pittsburgh news website that confirmed the information.
c. As of 2006, Pittsburgh has the most bridges in the United States and the world.
d. “Pittsburgh Bridges.” Wikipedia.com. 2010. 27 March 2010.
i. “Just How Many Bridges are there in Pittsburgh?” Pittsburgh News. ThePittsburghChannel.com. 13 September 2006. March 27 2010.
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