InfoSurf Logo Chemical Literature (Chem 184/284)
 You are here: Home > Library Services > Library Instruction > Chemical Literature (Chem 184/284) > Lecture 9 Quiz Questions

Lecture 9: Indexes and Abstracts
Quiz Questions

Note: Check ALL correct answers to each question. There may be more than one correct answer.

Question 1: Indexes can vary tremendously in the number of documents they have indexed. Which of the following might be a good reason to choose a smaller database rather than a larger one that covers the same subjects?

  1. _____ The smaller database is designed especially to cover the topic you are intersted in, and has special features for that purpose.
  2. _____ Generally speaking, the bigger a database is the more complex its organization is, so the smaller one might be easier to use.
  3. _____ Very large databases tend to have very unsophisticated interfaces.
  4. _____ Smaller databases are always less expensive for the user than bigger databases.

Question 2: You have been told by a knowledgable source that Index A and Index B both cover the subject area you are interested in. After carefully and diligently searching both indexes, you find that many documents appear in both, but there are some unique records in each. Why might that be?

  1. _____ One of the indexes goes back further chronologically than the other, so it indexed some older documents that the other lacked.
  2. _____ One of the indexes has a shorter time lag than the other, so it indexed some newer documents that the other hadn't gotten to yet.
  3. _____ One of the indexes covers one or more document types that the other does not.
  4. _____ The two indexes differ in their coverage of languages or countries.
  5. _____ One index covers a bigger list of journals than the other.
  6. _____ The two indexes have a different selection of access points, so you searched the two indexes in different ways, and so got different results.

Question 3: You are looking for articles on "site-directed mutagenesis", a technique used in biochemical research, and in genetic engineering and biotechnology. You have already searched in SciFinder Scholar. Which of the following might also be useful to search (assuming you have equal access to all of them)?

  1. _____ Biological Sciences Database.
  2. _____ BIOSIS.
  3. _____ Compendex.
  4. _____ PubMed.
  5. _____ Web of Science.
Question 4: You are looking for articles on "nanotubes", a form of carbon (and other substances) which may have interesting applications in electronic and structural materials. You have already searched in Compendex. Which of the following might also be useful to search (assuming you have equal access to all of them)?
  1. _____ GeoRef.
  2. _____ INSPEC.
  3. _____ Metadex.
  4. _____ NTIS.
  5. _____ Web of Science.
Question 5: Each of the following databases is available free on the web: Energy Citations Database, Esp@cenet, NTIS, PubMed, USPTO Patents Database. Why is that true for these databases as opposed to the others on the list?
  1. _____ Like the Google™ search engine, they are advertiser-supported.
  2. _____ The topics and documents they index are of little or no commercial interest.
  3. _____ They are published by government agencies, and so are subsidized by public revenue.
  4. _____ These are small files, and so are inexpensive to maintain on the Web.
  5. _____ Authors pay to have their papers indexed by these services, so the resulting databases can be made available without subscription fees.

This page created by Chuck Huber (huber@library.ucsb.edu).
Updated: 02/05/08 11:15:26