Information Services and Networks Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The two that are not reference services are (i) and (iii), so the answer is (i) and (iii) are correct.

Preparing a user profile is a step in selective dissemination of information, and compiling a documentation list is a documentation service, both anticipating needs from the literature, as distinct from reference service in Ranganathan's sense of personal help in getting at a document.

Initiation of freshmen, the orientation that Ranganathan treated as the first part of reference service, and reader advisory service, personal guidance on what to read, are reference services. So codes including (ii) or (iv) are wrong.

Answer: A

The key calls it an active documentation service.

A contents-page service copies or scans the contents pages of newly received journals and sends them out, here by e-mail, so that readers learn of new articles without asking. A service that the library takes the initiative to deliver in anticipation of need is an active (or anticipatory) service; a passive (responsive) service waits for the user's request.

It is not SDI, because SDI matches new items against each user's individual profile, whereas contents pages go to everyone alike. It is not reference service either, which answers a specific question put by a reader.

Answer: A

The review-type services are trend reports and state-of-the-art reports, so the answer is (ii) and (iv).

A trend report reviews the progress of a subject over a period, and a state-of-the-art report evaluates the present position of a subject. Both digest and assess a body of literature, which is what makes a service a review service.

A current awareness service (CAS) and newspaper clipping service only alert readers to new items as they appear; they list or copy material without reviewing it, so codes including (i) or (iii) are wrong.

Answer: B

The library networks are DELNET and OCLC, so the answer is (ii) and (iv) are correct.

DELNET (Developing Library Network, begun in Delhi in 1988) links libraries across India for union catalogues and resource sharing. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio) is the world's largest library network, maintaining WorldCat.

The Internet is a general global network of networks, not a library network, and NICNET is the National Informatics Centre's government computer network. Codes including (i) or (iii) are therefore wrong.

Answer: A

The sectoral centres are those for food science, management, and drugs and pharmaceuticals, so the answer is (i), (ii), (iv) are correct.

Under NISSAT (the National Information System for Science and Technology), sectoral information centres were set up at specialist institutions: NICFOS for food science and technology at CFTRI, Mysore; NICMAN for management at IIM, Ahmedabad; and NICDAP for drugs and pharmaceuticals at CDRI, Lucknow. Others covered leather, machine tools, chemicals, textiles and crystallography.

Microbiology was not one of the NISSAT sectors, so (iii) is the odd item out and every option that includes it is wrong.

Answer: C

The minimum, middling and maximum theories of reference service were put forward by S. Rothstein.

Samuel Rothstein described three levels of reference service: minimum, where the librarian only helps users find material for themselves; middling, a moderate level of personal help; and maximum, where the librarian supplies the information itself. They parallel James Wyer's earlier conservative, moderate and liberal theories.

Samuel Green's 1876 paper argued for personal relations between librarians and readers, the start of reference service, but did not name these theories. Ranganathan defined reference service as a personal service, and F.W. Lancaster is known for work on information retrieval and its evaluation.

Answer: D

The key is ALA, the American Library Association.

The keyed reading credits the American Library Association with the original "Ask Library Anything" idea, the reference service in which a librarian answers any question a user puts. LA (the Library Association, UK), ASLIB (the Association for Information Management) and SLA (the Special Libraries Association) are the other bodies named, and the key accepts none of them.

What could not be confirmed: no source was found naming the body that first ran a service under this name. Searches turned up several unrelated "Ask a Librarian" services at individual libraries, none from these associations. The answer follows the University's key.

Answer: D

The intermediary's functions are searching and analysing information, so the answer is (i) and (iii) are correct.

An information intermediary stands between the user and the information sources. The intermediary takes the user's need, searches databases and other sources for data and information, then analyses, filters and repackages what is found so that it answers the user's question.

Acquisition of library material and managing library activities are general library administration duties, not the intermediary's role in information transfer. So every option that includes (ii) or (iv) is wrong.

Answer: B

The key treats both statements as correct, so the answer is Both (A) and (B) are true.

Statement (A) is a standard description of the role: an information intermediary must be able to analyse a user's need, retrieve information from many sources, and communicate the result in a usable form.

Statement (B) reflects the paper's view that professionals in research and university libraries, who do reference work, literature searches and information services every day, have built up those same skills. Since the key accepts both, the options marking either statement false are wrong.

Answer: A

The key accepts both statements, so the answer is Both (A) and (B) are true.

Statement (A) is correct: machine translation cannot yet be fully relied on, since it mishandles idiom, ambiguity, context and technical terms, and its output needs checking by someone who knows both languages.

Statement (B) gives the paper's contrast: a translation made by experts who know both the language and the subject is the dependable form of translation service that libraries and documentation centres arrange for users. With both accepted, the options that make one of the statements false are wrong.