Database Quiz Contest 3: Literature (Feb. 4-March 2)

Databases: Literature Resource Center, Bloom's Literary Reference Online

Quiz 3: Literature

List of questions:
1. Robert B. Parker, author of the “Spenser” detective series, served as professor of English from 1976-1979 at which university?
2. On what date was John Grisham interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered program about his novel, A Painted House?
3. What poem did Roy Cohn question Langston Hughes about on March 24, 1953, before the Senate Committee on Government Operations' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations? (First couple of words in the poem are the title.)
4. Which short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about Perseus (from Greek mythology) and his mother Danae?
5. English teachers in which U.S. state considered George Orwell’s Animal Farm to be a “problem book” because “Orwell was a communist?”
6. Which novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley retells the legend of the rise and fall of King Arthur?
7. Although T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, MO, he is largely considered to be a British writer because he settled in which British city after his marriage to Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1915?
8. According to People Magazine, which novel was Terry McMillan working on when her mother died?
9. The term beat of Beat Poetry was coined during a discussion between Jack Kerouac and what other writer?
10. Although examples of literary impressionism can be detected even earlier than the movement in art, its great period is from what year until World War I?


One of our goals for 2009 is to encourage the use and increase the awareness of the information found in the databases. To get staff more familiar with what is in some of our databases, we thought an incentive of a prize would be good. :-) So, each month we are going to post questions on survey monkey about a particular subject. You must use the databases to answer these questions. As long as you are a staff person at BPL, you may enter.

The rules:

Answer all questions in the quiz.
You may enter only one time per quiz.
If your answers are correct, you name will go into a drawing.
One name will be pulled for each quiz from the group of correctly answered surveys.
The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate, probably to Wal-Mart.
The winner will be posted on the staff blog and will need to claim his/her prize. (to get you to look at the staff blog as well!)

You have until 5:00 p.m. on March 2nd to complete the quiz. Trying to find the answers will hopefully help you become more proficient in using the databases.

At the end of the year, we will put all winners in the hat for a chance to win a larger prize (yet to be determined, but good).

For the public, we will highlight these same databases with bookmarks and information on the website the following month. After doing the quizzes, you will be expert in helping them or answering their questions.