Libraries, Profession and Users Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The division of user studies into behaviour studies, use studies and information flow studies is credited in the key to Menzel, so the answer is B.

Herbert Menzel reviewed the studies of how scientists use information. He grouped them by what they examine: how people behave when they look for information, how particular sources and services are used, and how information moves between people and groups.

Maurice Line (A) is known for work on the national lending library and on information needs, Cronin (C) for reviews of the literature, and Voigt (D) for his three approaches of scientists to information. The key does not credit the three-fold grouping to them.

Answer: D

In 1974 Zurkowski used the term information literacy for the first time, so the answer is D.

Paul Zurkowski, then president of the Information Industry Association in the United States, used it in a proposal to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science to describe the skills of using information tools and primary sources to solve problems at work.

Digital literacy (A), media literacy (B) and computer literacy (C) are related terms that came into use separately and are not the term he introduced.

Answer: B

The definition that an information-literate person must recognise when information is needed and be able to locate, evaluate and use it effectively is by the ALA, so the answer is B.

It comes from the 1989 final report of the American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy, which is the most quoted definition of the term.

The Special Libraries Association (A), IFLA (C) and CILIP (D) have since issued statements on information literacy, but this wording belongs to the ALA report.

Answer: B

The Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation was established by the Department of Culture, Government of India, so the answer is B.

It was set up in 1972, in the year of the bicentenary of Raja Rammohun Roy, as an autonomous body under the Government's culture department, to promote public library services and to support libraries with grants.

The Indian Library Association (A), the Government of West Bengal (C) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (D) did not set it up.

Answer: A

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is a division of the American Library Association, so the answer is A.

ACRL is the largest of the divisions of the ALA and serves academic and research librarians, with its own publications, standards and conferences, but it works within the ALA.

It is not an independent association (B), it does not belong to the Special Libraries Association (C), and it is not a division of IFLA (D).

Answer: D

The one that is not an implication of the Fourth Law of Library Science is rural library services, so the answer is D.

The Fourth Law, 'Save the time of the reader', leads to measures that make finding and borrowing quick: a classified arrangement of books on the shelves (A), guides to the stack room (B) and efficient methods of issue (C).

Rural library services extend the library to people who are far from it and belong to the ideas of the first and second laws, that books are for use and for all, so it is not an implication of the fourth.

Answer: C

The recommendation that the National Knowledge Commission did not make, according to the key, is the one naming the Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation as the national co-ordination agency, so the answer is C.

The commission recommended a national census of libraries (A), greater community participation in the management of libraries (B) and the facilitation of donation and maintenance of private collections (D). It proposed the setting up of a National Commission on Libraries to co-ordinate library development.

The key treats option C as not among its recommendations.

Answer: D

The scientists' approaches according to Voigt (1961) are the current, everyday and exhaustive approaches, so the answer is D.

In Scientists' Approaches to Information, Melvin Voigt describes three ways in which scientists seek information. In the current approach they keep up with new developments. In the everyday approach they look for facts needed for their daily work. In the exhaustive approach they want all the information on a topic.

The 'catching up' or 'brushing up' approach (iv) is not one of the three, so options A, B and C, which contain it, are wrong.

Answer: B

Both statements are false, so the answer is B.

The Internet cannot replace libraries. Much scholarly material, such as books, journals under licence, archives and rare items, is not freely on the web, and libraries provide selection, organisation, preservation and help from trained staff. So the assertion is false.

The reason is also false: a search engine does not satisfy the needs of the maximum number of users, since it returns unfiltered results of mixed quality and cannot reach what is not freely online. So options A, C and D, which call one of them true, are wrong.

Answer: A

Both statements are true, so the answer is A.

The library and information profession is not generally given the same standing as the medical and legal professions. One reason is that there is no statutory body for it, comparable to the Medical Council of India and the Bar Council of India, which register practitioners and enforce standards of conduct.

The reason therefore explains the assertion, and options B, C and D, which call either false, are wrong.