1995 Final Exams Questions

• April
• July
• November

APRIL 7, 1995

1. Define the concept of “value-added” services and cite examples in traditional library services. From the perspective of libraries in general or of a specific type of information agency, what kinds of new value added services are likely to be typical in the future as we more fully utilize information technology?

2. Imagine that you wish to describe the success of a library or information agency in terms of its effectiveness. What would be the indicators of effectiveness and how might each be utilized in improving services?

3. Historically the State has viewed information as a “public good” when structuring national information policy. That is, the state believed that it had an obligation to encourage individual citizens to inform themselves on political issues and thus moved to establish wide range of state funded information agencies that included PBS, the American public library system, and the Government Printing Office. Since 1980, this emphasis has been changing. Government now seems committed to the idea that information represents the key commodity in the modern market place, and that government should focus all of its energies on fostering the rapid growth and future dominance of the U.S. information industry. This new emphasis on the private market place as the key to national policy undermines our commitment to information as a public good and has major implications for the publicly funded library system.. Explore those implications and compare the possible ways for the profession to react to this changing climate.

4. For much of their history libraries have been oriented toward the collection, organization and housing of books, journals, et. Today there is growing emphasis on the need o provide on-demand document delivery (as an alternative to on-site collections) as a means of providing clients with access to information resources. Describe and discuss the implications of this shift in strategy has for the allocation and use of staff, resource allocation, and collection development.

5. Describe the major intellectual freedom issues facing information agencies and professionals. Discuss how the information profession is general stands on these issues.

FINAL EXAMINATION for July 14, 1995.

1. Systems of bibliographic control have evolved form idiosyncratic classification schemes, to a variety of standardized means of control (e.g., internationally-accepted cataloging systems, record exchange formats and text markup standards). Have the techniques by which we describe and provide access to information kept up with the variety and amount of information that is being produced? In your answer, identify specific problems (e.g., the evolution of new media) and opportunities (e.g., application of library networks), that have played a role in the profession’s response to knowledge growth, and describe how these have added or detracted from access.

2. Most management experts agree that organizations, including libraries, should have clearly-defined goals and objectives. Discuss the general value of goals and objectives to an organization, and describe how well-defined goals and objectives can contribute to the effective management of libraries.

3. Increasing cultural diversity places special demands on libraries and the services they offer their clients. From the perspective of a library of your choice (for instance, public, academic, special or school libraries), discuss how libraries have or could change their collections, staffing, services, etc., in order to better serve the information needs of a culturally diverse clientele.

4. What will happen if the “Fair Use” and “Educational Use” provisions of the Copyright Act are repealed by the U.S. Congress--moving more information sources into the for-profit sector? How might the repeal of those provisions affect the operations of libraries?

5. "the library world feels depayse today, and rightly so. Both of its physical entities, the buildings and the books they contain, can no longer form the basis for planning...If this is so--and can it be doubted? -- how should we train librarians, much less plan the building where they will work?" If author Richard Lanham is correct in the above assessment, concisely outline the basic considerations you feel would have to be thought through in planning a new academic library in the "digital era". Them consider the role of the librarians who will work in the academic library of the future.

NOVEMBER 17, 1995

1. Electronic Information products are increasingly important to library collections. Identify a library of your choice (e.g., school, public, academic, special) and discuss the kinds of electronic information products that are likely to be found in the library’s collection, and the issues involved in selecting, acquiring, and making those products available to users.

2. A major tenant of contemporary management theory is the concept of customer orientation as the primary focus for organizational actions and resource allocation decisions. What changes in philosophy, services, and resource allocation do libraries need to adopt in order to focus more directly toy on patrons or clients as customers of libraries?

3. The ability to conduct computer-based search using an uncontrolled vocabulary or indexing language (e.g., free text, natural language, keywords, hypertext) offers end-users (library clients) of such systems a number of advantages and disadvantages. From the perspective f the end-user of computer-based information retrieval systems, identify several important advantages and disadvantages of an uncontrolled indexing language. What can the end-user do in developing search strategies an conducting searches of computer-based information’s retrieval systems, to minimize or eliminate the disadvantages that you have identified.

4. As our nation attempts to “balance the budget,” libraries of al types (including those found in the private sector) will find it increasingly difficult to find the financial resources that they need to do everything that needs to be done. From the perspective of library of your choice (e.g., school, public, academic, special) identify and describe those library programs and services that you feel must be retained or protected, and those that you feel should be scaled back, refocused, or eliminated. In each case, indicate why you feel the identified program or service should be protected, scaled back, refocused or eliminated.

5. Designers of a library’s user education program (e.g., library instruction, bibliographic instruction, instructional services) face unprecedented challenges in today’s information environment. In terms of a library environment of your choice (e.g., school, public, academic, special), discuss those challenges and describe your vision of a "user education program" of the future.