  We compare several different ways of measuring the energy resolution for
meV-resolved inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS): using scattering from
poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, using scattering from borosilicate glass
(Tempax), and using powder diffraction from aluminum. All of these methods
provide a reasonable first approximation to the energy resolution, but, also,
in all cases, inelastic contributions appear over some range of energy
transfers. Over a range of +-15 meV energy transfer there is good agreement
between the measurements of PMMA and Tempax at low temperature, and room
temperature powder diffraction from aluminum so we consider this to be a good
indication of the true resolution of our ~1.3 meV spectrometer. We
self-consistently determine the resolution over a wider energy range using the
temperature, momentum and sample dependence of the measured response. We then
quantitatively investigate the inelastic contributions from the PMMA and
Tempax, and their dependence on momentum transfer and temperature. The
resulting data allows us to determine the resolution of our multi-analyzer
array efficiently using a single scan. We demonstrate the importance of this
procedure by showing that the results of the analysis of a spectrum from a
glass are changed by using the properly deconvolved resolution function. We
also discuss the impact of radiation damage on the scattering from PMMA and
Tempax.

Materials Science;Instrumentation and Detectors