Information Sources Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The scale and projection of a map are part of the information a map gives, so they are found in geographical sources: atlases, maps, gazetteers and globes. An atlas states the scale of each map, and the projection used, such as Mercator or conical, in its legend or notes. An encyclopaedia gives articles on topics, a handbook or manual gives working facts and procedures on a subject, and a directory lists persons and organisations with addresses, so none of these three is where scale and projection are looked up. The answer is Geographical sources, option (C).

Answer: D

C.M. Winchell compiled the Guide to Reference Books, William A. Katz wrote Introduction to Reference Work and Louis Shores wrote Basic Reference Sources, so they are authors of reference books. Maurice B. Line is known as the head of the British national lending library services, a librarian and writer on library and information services, and the key counts him as not the author of any reference book. The answer is Maurice B. Line, option (D).

Answer: A

The word treatment of a language dictionary covers the spelling, pronunciation, etymology (the origin of the word), grammatical information and the meaning with usage. A vernacular is a language that people speak naturally in a place, and etymology and grammatical information are plainly parts of the treatment of a word. The key picks Gloss as not being part of the word treatment, which is the printed answer here, option (A).

Answer: A

The Science Citation Index was begun by Eugene Garfield's Institute for Scientific Information and is published by Thomson Reuters, as the key states for the 2012 booklet. H.W. Wilson publishes indexes such as the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, Whitaker publishes the British book trade directories and R.R. Bowker publishes Books in Print and Ulrich's directory, so none of these three publishes the index. The answer is Thomson Reuters, option (A).

Answer: A

As the key pairs them, Whitaker's Almanack carries astronomical information (iv), Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory gives the year in which a periodical such as Publishers Weekly started (i), the National Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials in India shows whether a library holds a volume such as volume 50 of Library Journal (ii), and Data India carries news such as the discontinuation of the print New Encyclopaedia Britannica (iii). So the code is (iv), (i), (ii), (iii), option (A). Options (B), (C) and (D) put the astronomical information with the periodicals directory or the union catalogue, so they are wrong.

Answer: B

The dictionary of anonymous and pseudonymous literature is the work of Halkett and Laing (iii), Introduction to Reference Work is by William A. Katz (iv), and Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings is by K.D. Metcalf (ii). That leaves Basic Statistics for Libraries (i) for J. Thompson, as the key pairs it. So the code is (i), (iii), (iv), (ii), option (B). Option (A) gives Halkett and Laing the buildings book and Katz the dictionary, option (C) gives Thompson the buildings book, and option (D) gives Thompson the reference work, so they are wrong.

Answer: B

The criteria for web evaluation given in the key are response time (ii) and archiving facility (iv), so the answer is (ii) and (iv). A web site is judged on how fast it responds and on whether the earlier content is kept available.

The official key does not accept revision (i) or format (iii) as criteria in this list, so every option that includes one of them is wrong. This item follows the official key.

Answer: C

The correct matching is Facts on File with newspaper digest, World of Learning with directory, Concordance with index, and Willing's Press Guide with periodical directory, which gives the codes iii, iv, ii, i, so the answer is option C.

Facts on File digests the news of the week, World of Learning is a directory of universities and learned bodies, a concordance is an alphabetical index of the words of a work, and Willing's Press Guide lists newspapers and periodicals. The other codes mix these types.

Answer: A

The correct matching is the Encyclopaedia of Associations with directories, Whitaker's Almanac with yearbooks, LISA with secondary sources, and the Economic Times with primary sources. The codes are iii, iv, i, ii, so the answer is option A.

The Encyclopaedia of Associations lists organisations, Whitaker's Almanac is an annual book of facts, LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) is an abstracting service and so a secondary source, and a newspaper such as the Economic Times is a primary source. The other codes swap these types.

Answer: A

The correct matching is Books in Print with trade bibliography, Social Science: A Bibliography of Doctoral Dissertations with national bibliography, Asian Social Science Bibliography with subject bibliography, and Cumulative Book Index with national and trade bibliography. The codes are ii, i, iv, iii, so the answer is option A.

Books in Print lists books available from publishers, which is a trade list, the Asian Social Science Bibliography is limited to a subject, and the Cumulative Book Index lists books in English both nationally and for the trade. The other codes pair these with the wrong types.