Information Sources Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The assertion is true and the reason is false, so the answer is B.

An informative abstract gives a concise summary of the subject content, including the main findings, so it can sometimes replace the reading of the article.

The reason says that informative abstracts are title-oriented rather than finding-oriented. This is reversed: it is the indicative abstract that merely points to the subject, while the informative abstract is finding-oriented. So options A and C are wrong.

Answer: D

The keyed answer is Drexel University (printed Drexal), option D. The Internet Public Library began at the University of Michigan School of Information in 1995, and its management later passed to Drexel University, which was its host at the time of this paper.

The University of Michigan (option B) is the original home and the tempting choice, but it is no longer the maintainer according to the key. MIT (option A) and the University of Arizona (option C) are not associated with the project. The answer depends on the date, so a question on this theme asks who maintains it now, not who founded it.

Answer: B

The inclusive geographical sources among those given are encyclopaedias and yearbooks, which is option B, statements (iii) and (iv). They are called inclusive because they cover geography as one among many subjects, along with history, economics and other topics.

Maps (i) and atlases (ii) are specialised geographical sources: they exist to portray geographical information, so they are exclusive sources of geography. Options A, C and D each contain a map or an atlas, so none of them gives the right pair.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is that both statements are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion, option B. Users do have access to a large number of e-journals through subscriptions and consortia. The reason says users are not aware of using e-journals, which the key accepts as a true statement about usage, but unawareness does not explain the wide access, since access comes from licences and networks.

Option D requires that the reason explain the assertion, and it does not. Option A calls the reason false and option C calls the assertion false, but the key accepts both statements as true. The wording of the reason is loose, and the answer rests on the official key.

Answer: D

The keyed answer is that both statements are correct but the reason is not the explanation of the assertion, option D. Primary sources, such as original research reports and theses, give first-hand and most authentic information. It is also true that primary sources are largely unorganised, because they are scattered and not arranged by any scheme.

Being unorganised is not why they are authentic: authenticity comes from being the original record, so (R) does not explain (A). Option C wrongly makes it an explanation. Options A and B call one of the statements false, which contradicts the usual description of primary sources.

Answer: C

The correct order by year of origin is Library Journal, Library Literature, LISA and the Social Science Citation Index, option C, (iv), (iii), (ii), (i). Library Journal began in 1876, Library Literature in 1921, and LISA (Library and Information Science Abstracts) took its present form in 1969, with the Social Science Citation Index following at the start of the 1970s.

Options A, B and D put the citation index or LISA before Library Journal, which cannot be right because Library Journal is by far the oldest of the four titles. Option C is the only one that starts with it.

Answer: B

The correct order of first publication is Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Americana, the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology and the Encyclopaedia of Library and Information Science, option B, (i), (ii), (iv), (iii). The Britannica first appeared in 1768, the Americana in 1829, the McGraw-Hill work in 1960 and the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science in 1968.

Options A, C and D start with a specialist twentieth century work or place the Americana before the Britannica, which is wrong. Only option B has the general encyclopaedias first in their order and the two specialist ones after.

Answer: C

The match is Asian Recorder with the obituary of Dev Anand, Union Catalogue of Scientific Serials with the location of a volume of a journal, Books-in-Print with the availability of books, and Social Science Index with articles on the Green Revolution, option C, a-iii, b-i, c-iv, d-ii. The Asian Recorder is a digest of news events in Asia, so it records an obituary. A union catalogue shows which libraries hold which serial. Books-in-Print is the trade listing of books that can be bought. A periodical index covers articles on a subject.

Options A, B and D mismatch at least two pairs; for example, option A sends the union catalogue to an obituary and Books-in-Print to the location of a journal.

Answer: B

CODEN is a unique code of six characters, letters and digits, that identifies a serial title; it was devised so that periodical titles could be cited and filed in a short form, and it is widely used in abstracting services and databases. It is not used for books, which are identified by the ISBN, nor for reports, which carry report numbers, nor for grey literature in general, which has no common code. So the term is connected with serials, option (B).

Answer: A

Roget's thesaurus does not arrange words alphabetically, as a dictionary of synonyms would, but groups them by ideas in a classified scheme with an index of words, so it is a classified list of words. A book of synonyms is the usual description of an alphabetical thesaurus, a list of standard terms describes an indexing vocabulary, and a list of scientific terms is a different tool. The key gives the classified list of words, option (A).