Information Sources Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The order of origin is the Cumulative Book Index (1898), Books in Print (1948), the British National Bibliography (1950) and the Indian National Bibliography (1957). The code is iii, iv, ii, i.

The other codes place the Indian National Bibliography or the British National Bibliography before the earlier works. A simple way to remember is that the Cumulative Book Index and Books in Print are American trade bibliographies, the British National Bibliography is a national record and the Indian one was begun last, with the Delivery of Books Act of 1954 behind it.

Answer: C

The order of emergence is Dissertation Abstracts International, LISA, Indian Science Abstracts and Indian Library and Information Science Abstracts, which is the code ii, i, iii, iv.

Dissertation Abstracts started in 1938, LISA in 1950, Indian Science Abstracts in 1965 and ILISA later. The other codes begin with a later service. The question asks only for the order in which the abstracting and indexing services began. The first of them was a service for theses and dissertations, and the Indian service for library science came after the international and the science ones.

Answer: B

The correct matching is the Index Translationum with UNESCO (iii), the Translation Register Index with NTC, Chicago (ii), the World Trans Index with ITC, Delft, Netherlands (iv) and the Commonwealth Index of Unpublished Translations with ASLIB (v). The code is iii, ii, iv, v.

The other codes assign at least one index to the wrong body. These are indexes that help a user to trace translations of a work. The Index Translationum is the international bibliography of translations, and the others list translations reported to or held by the centres named in the second list.

Answer: C

The correct matching is authority with the publisher's reputation (iii), scope with the stated purpose (ii), format with typography (i) and arrangement with cross references (iv). The code is iii, ii, i, iv.

The other codes mismatch at least one of the criteria, for instance giving format to the stated purpose. Authority means the standing of the writer or the publisher, scope the extent of the subject covered, format the physical look of the work including type, and arrangement the order in which the contents are placed and linked by cross references.

Answer: C

The Assertion is false and the Reason is partly true, which is the third code. Not all reference sources provide up to date information, since printed works such as a yearbook are current only to the date of compiling, so (A) is false.

Reference sources are compiled from primary sources in many cases, so the Reason is partially true. The codes that call both true, both false or the Assertion true are therefore rejected.

Answer: A

'Who's Who in India' is published by Business Press, Bombay, so the answer is the first option. It is a biographical directory of Indian personalities and, as the stem says, appears irregularly rather than on a fixed annual schedule.

Sterling (New Delhi), Tradesman & Men Asia (Delhi) and Sahitya Samsad (Calcutta) are other publishers, but none of them is the publisher of this title as given in the key. Students should remember the pairing of the title with its publisher and place as a standard reference-sources fact.

Answer: D

Information on the Prime Minister of Bangladesh would be found in the Statesman's Yearbook, which is the answer. It is an annual reference work giving, country by country, the constitution, the head of government, the economy and other current facts, so a sitting head of government is listed in it.

International Who's Who and Current Biography carry biographical sketches of people but are not country-by-country surveys, and 'Who's Who in Bangladesh' is a biographical directory of the country's personalities rather than a source for the current office-holder; the key places the Yearbook as the best source.

Answer: A

A report titled 'Eradication of Malaria in India 1990-1999' is a Trend Report, the answer. A trend report covers developments in a field over a stated period, here a decade of malaria eradication work, and shows the direction in which the subject moved.

A review report evaluates the literature, a state-of-the-art report describes the position of a subject as it stands at present, and a research report presents the findings of a particular investigation. The decade-long span in the title points to a trend report, not to any of those three.

Answer: C

The correct pairing is a-iii, b-ii, c-iv, d-i, the third option. Systematic (enumerative) bibliography lists items with the minimum details. Analytical or critical bibliography investigates the physical nature of books. Historical bibliography is concerned with the art of writing, printing and binding. Documentary bibliography lists the macro and micro ideas of articles.

The other options pair at least one of these wrongly; for example, option A gives systematic bibliography the list of article ideas, and option D gives analytical bibliography the printing and binding history, which belongs to historical bibliography.

Answer: D

The correct pairing is a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii, the fourth option. Enrolment of students in a university is looked up in a directory (of universities); the weather of Denmark is a geographical source; the number of foreigners visiting the World Book Fair in 2011 is an event fact recorded in a yearbook; the number of hospitals in China is a statistical source.

Options A, B and C each send at least one query to the wrong kind of source. Option C, for example, gives enrolment to a statistical source and the hospital count to a directory, and option A gives enrolment to a geographical source.