Information Services and Networks Questions and Answers

Answer: A

BLAISE was introduced in Britain.

BLAISE, the British Library Automated Information Service, was launched by the British Library in 1977. It gave online access to UK MARC records and other bibliographic databases, and supported cataloguing in British libraries.

It was not an Indian, American or Bahraini network; as its name shows, it was a British Library service. The United States' comparable service was built around the Library of Congress MARC records and networks such as OCLC.

Answer: D

FORSA is dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics.

FORSA, the Forum for Resource Sharing in Astronomy and Astrophysics, is a consortium of Indian astronomy institutions, among them the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and other research centres, which share subscriptions to journals and resources in the field.

It is not a consortium for medical sciences, forestry or literature; its name states its subject. Medical libraries, for example, have consortia of their own, such as ERMED.

Answer: C

The ascending order is (iii), (ii), (iv), (i): CALIBNET, INFLIBNET, ASTINFO, OCLC.

CALIBNET is the Calcutta Library Network, a city network. INFLIBNET links university libraries across India, a national network. ASTINFO is UNESCO's regional network for science and technology information in Asia and the Pacific, covering a region of many countries. OCLC is a worldwide library cooperative.

Moving from city to nation to region to world gives this order. The other options begin with OCLC or INFLIBNET, which cover more ground than CALIBNET, so they are wrong.

Answer: D

The correct matching is (a)-(ii), (b)-(iv), (c)-(i), (d)-(iii).

NUCOS, the National Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials, was developed by INSDOC, and SANJAY, the library automation package based on CDS/ISIS, was developed by DESIDOC under the NISSAT programme.

Only code (D) contains both of these pairs: code (C) also gives NUCOS to INSDOC but gives DFS to DESIDOC, and codes (A) and (B) put NUCOS or SANJAY with the wrong institute. Code (D) completes the list with DFS for DRTC and AFSARI for BARC.

Answer: C

The answer is Email.

Of the four options, email is the only one actually used in virtual (digital) reference services, where users send questions to librarians over the internet. Morse code, carrier pigeons and smoke signals are not library technologies.

Strictly, email is asynchronous; the real-time channel of virtual reference is chat or instant messaging, which is not offered here. Among the options given, email is the intended answer.

Answer: C

The primary purpose is Providing latest information.

A current awareness service (CAS) keeps users informed of new publications and developments in their fields, for example through contents pages, new-arrival lists, alerts and RSS feeds.

Entertainment, social networking and fitness tracking are not library information services.

Answer: B

The organisation is WIPO.

The World Intellectual Property Organization, a UN agency in Geneva, administers the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the International Patent Classification, sets WIPO standards for patent documents, and runs the PATENTSCOPE database. It is therefore central to standardising patent information worldwide.

UNESCO deals with education, science and culture, the WTO with trade rules (including the TRIPS agreement, but not patent information standards), and the WHO with health.

Answer: D

The correct matching is (a)-(iii), (b)-(i), (c)-(iv), (d)-(ii).

• INIS, the International Nuclear Information System, is run by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
• AGRIS, the International System for Agricultural Science and Technology, is run by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
• INFOTERRA, the global environmental information exchange network, was set up by the United Nations Environment Programme.
• APINESS, the Asia-Pacific Information Network in Social Sciences, was sponsored by UNESCO.

The other codes give INIS to UNESCO or UNEP, or AGRIS to an agency other than the FAO.

Answer: B

The order is (ii) (i) (iii) (iv): NICNET, INFLIBNET, DELNET, BALNET.

NICNET, the National Informatics Centre's network, dates from the late 1970s and 1980s and is by far the oldest of the four. INFLIBNET (the UGC's programme, begun in 1988 and an autonomous centre from 1991) and DELNET (the Delhi library network, begun in 1988) followed, and BALNET, the Bangalore library network, came in the 1990s.

Only code (B) begins with NICNET; every other code puts a later network first.

Answer: C

The answer is Both (A) and (R) are true.

Library consortia, such as e-ShodhSindhu in India, let member libraries share resources and work together. They also negotiate as a group with publishers, so members get access to many more journals and databases at lower cost than each could buy alone.

Both statements are therefore true, and the second describes how consortia deliver the benefit claimed in the first. The codes calling either statement false are wrong.