Knowledge Organisation and Retrieval Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The keyed answer is the cow-calf principle and the whole-organ principle, option C, statements (i) and (iii). In Ranganathan's theory of classification the wall-picture principle governs the sequence of classes by the way they would appear in a picture of a wall, and these two principles are listed as its corollaries.

The principle of later-in-time (ii) is a separate principle used to arrange classes in order of time, and the key does not count it among the corollaries of the wall-picture principle. Statement (iv), all of the above, therefore fails, which rules out option D. Options A and B each include the later-in-time principle and are wrong on the key.

Answer: B

Both statements are true and the reason explains the assertion, option B. A name authority file keeps one authorised form of each author's name, with references from variants, and so a library should use it. The reason gives the purpose: all the works of an author should be collocated, brought together at one place in the catalogue, and an authorised name is what makes this possible.

Without the authority file an author could appear under several forms of name and the works would be scattered. Options A and C call one statement false, and option D calls both false, so they are wrong.

Answer: D

The keyed answer is that (A) is false but (R) is true, option D. The key accepts that classification played an important role in the manual system, where it arranged books on shelves and entries in catalogues. It treats the claim that classification plays a significant role in online retrieval as false, since online systems rely on keywords, Boolean searching and indexing.

This is a debatable position, because classification is also used for browsing and subject access in online catalogues, so the answer rests on the official key and no stronger source shows it to be wrong. Option C, both true, and option A, (A) true but (R) false, depend on accepting that classification matters online, which the key does not.

Answer: A

The keyed order is the Classification Research Group, Automated Keyword Classification, the Broad System of Ordering and Classification in Online Systems, option A, (iv), (iii), (i), (ii). The Classification Research Group was formed in 1952. The other three belong to the later period of automation and online systems, and the key places them in that order.

The dates of the middle items are less well fixed than those of the Group, so the answer rests on the official key. Options B, C and D put the Group later than the newer items. Option D also repeats (ii) at the end, as printed, and so is not a valid ordering.

Answer: C

The keyed order is option C, (iv), (iii), (ii), (v), (i): Treatment, Disease, Cholera, Medicine, India. The question asks for the index terms of the title Prevention of Cholera in India under modified chain indexing, and the key arranges the terms with the geographical term India last.

The exact basis of the key's order of the subject terms is not explained in the question, so the answer rests on the official key. Options A, B and D all put India at the first, second or third place in the string, which breaks the arrangement where the environment term, the place, comes after the subject chain. That is the only distinction by which the options can be separated.

Answer: C

The key matches Law of Parsimony with Overall economy, Principle of Osmosis with Reclassification, Paperless Society with F. W. Lancaster, and APUPA pattern with Classification, option C, a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i. The law of parsimony is about economy: choosing the arrangement that costs least overall. The paperless information society is the idea Lancaster is known for. The APUPA pattern and the principle of osmosis are Ranganathan's terms, and the key pairs them with classification and reclassification respectively.

Options A, B and D give Lancaster to the law of parsimony or the osmosis principle, and so mismatch at least two pairs. Since the Lancaster and economy pairs are the surest, they decide between the options.

Answer: C

Blair and Maron (1985) tested the retrieval effectiveness of full-text searching, on the IBM STAIRS system (Storage and Information Retrieval System) used on a large litigation database, and found that recall was far lower than the lawyers believed. The SMART experiment was Salton's study of automatic indexing, the MEDLARS evaluation was Lancaster's study of the MEDLARS service, and Cranfield II tested indexing languages. The answer is STAIRS project, option (C).

Answer: A

In descriptive cataloguing under AACR2 square brackets enclose information that is supplied from a source outside the chief source of information, such as a title page. They are not used to enclose series statements, which go in round brackets, or details of the printer and manufacturer, which go in round brackets, and they do not enclose statements of accompanying material. The answer is to enclose information taken from outside, option (A).

Answer: C

In AACR2 the rules for describing serials are in the chapter on serials, chapter 12, which falls in the first part of the code, the part on description. The paper prints this as Part-A, Section-12, and the key picks it. The options with Part-B refer to the second part, which covers headings, uniform titles and references, and has no rules for describing serials. Section-3 is the chapter on cartographic materials, not serials. The answer is option (C).

Answer: C

The key takes the relation as phase relation. In Ranganathan's Colon Classification, a phase relation exists when two or more basic subjects, each a phase, are dealt with together in one work, as in a book on the influence of one subject on another or on a comparison of subjects. Co-ordinate and hierarchical relations are the relations of classes in a scheme, the one in the same array and the one between a class and its subdivisions, so they do not describe the relation between basic subjects within a single work. The key is followed.