School of Library and Information Science

COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION
March 18, 2005

1. Information seekers often want answers as directly and as quickly as we can give them. Information professionals often believe that information seekers should be instructed in the process of locating the information sought, and encouraged to develop their information-seeking skills. Discuss the factors that would determine whether you would provide the information requested or work to impart information literacy skills.

2. Recently, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration urged developing countries to adopt an open-source policy and use Open Source Software (OSS). Define and describe open source software and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of adopting it in a library.

3. You are a candidate for a director's position in a library setting of your choice. You have been asked to raise and discuss three current professional issues that you will face in this position. Please describe what those issues are, explain their significance, and discuss how you will address them.

4. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of copyright laws as they currently impact collection development and collection use in libraries.

5. Discuss the issues one needs to take into account when designing a usability test. In addition, describe four methods for conducting usability tests and explain how data collected through these methods can help improve the usability of an information system or a Web site.

6. Google and several large research libraries recently announced plans to digitize millions of books. You are the director of a library that has been approached by Google to participate in this initiative. Please discuss three major issues you will explore in determining whether or not to allow your institution's collection to be included.

7. Many libraries and information centers now provide new media to their users (e.g. freely available web resources, digital collections, electronic journals, and databases). Describe three methods librarians could employ to organize digital resources and discuss the implications of these methods for users.

8. Compare and contrast two alternative user interfaces for an information system of your choice. These interfaces should include features that support the following activities: query formulation, browsing, searching, and display of results.

9. A newly revised professional code of ethics states: information professionals "become familiar with and uphold all federal, state, and local laws and statutory requirements pertaining to" information resources. Do you agree with this perspective? What types of circumstances would be well served by this clause? Do you see any circumstances where this clause would be a hindrance to the greater common good?

10. Compare and contrast the impact of the printing press and the Internet on the production and dissemination of information.