Introductory Session - Quiz

[Administrator]

People seemed to enjoy the hybrid quiz at the start of the Conference. This was a chance for people to get to know each other, and to get familiar with the digital venue and the virtual rooms.
Here in this thread is a CORRECTION on who were the WINNERS, all the scores, some comments on the answers, and reflections on the process.

 

[Administrator]

Firstly, a CORRECTION:
We are sorry to have announced that Table 20 (Wayne Sime, Peter Berkery, Michael Evans, Mark Allin) were the winners. They were in fact 4th equal with 3 right answers (along with about 10 other tables). We gave them an incorrect total because they answered two questions correctly... TWICE, which messed up our spreadsheet. Nice try boys.

 

[Administrator]

The actual WINNNG teams, with 4 right answers each, were:

• Table 12 (Chris Pym, Andrew Walker, Paul Killoran, Laura Harvey, Ed Gerstner)
• Table 14 (Birgit, Rick, Kate, Hazel, Charlotte, Nicky)
• Table 18 (Will Schweitzer, Manisha Bolina, Kamran Naim, Helen Duce, Diane Benham)

 

[Administrator]

The scores in full (as far as we can make out) are:

 

[Administrator]

Here are the questions and answers, with a little commentary as we were asked for sources.

Question 1
What percentage of the world's population live inside this circle?

a: 40%
b: 50%
c: 60%
d: 70%

Answer:
50%
12% got this right
This is the Valeriepieris Circle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriepieris_circle


Question 2
Which of these is a library that crosses an international border?
a) La Bibliothèque de Maquillage (Pincée-de-Sel, France & Schengen, Luxembourg)
b) Mohamed Bazoum Institute (Timbuktu, Mali & N'Djamena, Chad)
c) Haskell Free Library and Opera House (Quebec, Canada & Vermont, USA)
d) Pinochet Research Station Library (British Antarctic Territory & Queen Maud Land)

Answer:
c) Haskell Free Library and Opera House
63% got this right
The others are all made up:
a) the library of 'make-up' in ‘pinch of salt’ and schengenland
b) named after the President of Niger, which separates Mali and Chad by about 1,000 miles
d) named after the Chilean dictator, on territory claimed by the UK and Norway


Question 3
Which country submitted the most journals to the DOAJ for approval in 2022?
a) China
b) Brazil
c) India
d) Indonesia

Answer:
d) Indonesia
35% got this right
DOAJ tell us that Indonesia submitted 2,584 applications in 2022.


Question 4
The oldest university library still in existence today is…
a) La Sorbonne Reading Room (France)
b) Bodleian Library (UK)
c) Library of the University of Bologna (Italy)
d) Al-Qarawiyin University Library (Morocco)

Answer:
d) Al-Qarawiyin University Library (Morocco)
48% got this right
Should have been Al-Qarawiyyin (with two ‘y’s).
This one is somewhat arguable, as it is hard to categorically define either a library or a university, but we are going with Al-Qarawiyyin being a seat of learning with a library from its founding in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri.



Question 5
In what year was the preprint repository arXiv started?
a) 1987
b) 1991
c) 1994
d) 1997

Answer:
b) 1991
63% got this right
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArXiv#History


Question 6
Which of these is NOT a real preprint server?
a) ChemRxiv
b) MediArXiv
c) IndiaRxiv
d) HistRxiv

Answer:
d) HistRxiv
48% got this right
A few people complained that MedRXiv was spelled incorrectly, but we really did mean ‘MediArXiv‘ https://mediarxiv.com/

 

[Administrator]

We hope everyone enjoyed the quiz and found the exercise useful. There was some confusion about the platforms and the process, but that was partly the point, of course, to play around with the hybrid technology.

We were surprised by how many people at physical tables gave their answers in the virtual rooms, not the digital platform (and vice versa). One hybrid team entered from both a physical and virtual workshop breakout room, which was fine, but a bit confusing. One team gave some answers as Table 1n and Table 2n, which was a bit strange. Some people seemed to be entering alone, or for two different teams at the same time. And as we already know, one team answered two questions twice, it seems.
Most teams made up their own ways of giving their answers - it was amazing how many variants of Q:1 T:3 A:a people can make up.


Tables 1, 9, and 21 are to be commended for their compliance and consistency of formatting.

We hope you enjoyed the experience.