Library Technology and Systems Flashcards
7 cards from real MLS - Master of Library and Information Science practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Library Technology and Systems flashcards as text
A cataloger uses FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) to describe relationships. Which entity represents a specific physical item on a library shelf?
Answer: Item
In FRBR, an Item is the single exemplar of a Manifestation — the actual physical object held by the library.
Which technology enables a library to track items throughout a building and perform automated inventory using radio waves?
Answer: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
RFID tags embedded in library materials allow contactless self-checkout, automated sorting, and hands-free inventory scanning across a range of distances.
What is the primary purpose of OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting)?
Answer: Allowing service providers to harvest metadata from repositories
OAI-PMH provides a low-barrier mechanism for repositories to expose structured metadata so aggregators can harvest and index it for discovery.
Which identifier system is used by publishers and libraries to uniquely identify journal articles and digital objects?
Answer: DOI (Digital Object Identifier)
The DOI system provides persistent, actionable identifiers for digital objects, maintained by the International DOI Foundation and widely used for academic articles.
In a library network, what role does a union catalog serve?
Answer: A combined catalog representing the holdings of multiple libraries
A union catalog aggregates bibliographic records from member libraries, enabling users to identify which institution holds a needed item for interlibrary loan purposes.
What is the function of a link resolver in a library's electronic resource infrastructure?
Answer: Directing users from a citation to the appropriate full-text resource
A link resolver uses OpenURL technology to match a citation against a library's holdings and route the user to an available full-text source.
A library implements a discovery layer. How does it differ from a traditional OPAC?
Answer: It provides a web-scale index of both local and licensed content with relevance ranking
Discovery layers like Primo, Summon, and EDS use a pre-built index of millions of records to deliver Google-like relevance-ranked search across diverse content types.