2007 Final Exams Questions

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April 6, 2007

1. Briefly describe the five functions of management. From the perspective of a library type of your choice, identify at least one major issue in each function area faced by today's library organizations, and explain why each issue is important.

2. The demographics of the United States have changed greatly over the last few decades, and will continue to change in the future, particularly in regard to the age distribution of the population. What implications does an aging population have for future information services and information professionals?

3. Many information professionals consider the development of a society that is information literate an important national goal. What does the information profession mean by the term "information literacy," and how does it differ from older terms like “bibliographic instruction”/ What kinds of things could libraries and librarians do to contribute to the accomplishment of this goal?

4.Library collections, commercial databases, and the Internet are among the basic avenues for information retrieval. Describe the typical scope and contents of these information sources and compare methods for retrieving information from them. To what extent do they overlap? With examples, illustrate when (under what circumstances) and how (with what particular search strategies) each of the avenues can best be used.

5. The emergence of the Web has had a tremendous impact on libraries and society. The Web continues to evolve, and the literature now has many references to the "next generation web" and how it will shape the future of libraries. Describe some possible "Web 2.0" technologies (e.g., RSS, wikis, social networking, virtual spaces, mash ups) along with their possible applications in a specific library setting.

July 13, 2007

1. Self-managed teams in the management of organizations have become a major factor in participatory decision-making. First describe the major elements of self-managed teams. Then discuss issues that affect their successful or unsuccessful performance.

2. You have been given the task of developing a “privacy policy” for your employer regarding client information. From the perspective of a type of library or other information agency, identify the principles that you would consider in drafting such a policy. After describing those principles, identify the sources that you might draw upon in doing so. For example, what does the ALA Code of Ethics say about client privacy?

3. The Internet and the Web in particular, has driven an enormous amount of change in libraries over the last 15 years. From a library perspective of your choice (school, public, academic, or special), discuss the major Internet-based technological developments during this time and how they have changed the way users perceive and use libraries, the management of library resources and services, and the role of librarians. Conclude your essay by discussing any of the emerging “Web 2.0” technologies that you believe are, or will be important and how you see them as potentially useful to libraries.

4. In electronic information retrieval, the use of controlled vocabularies and natural language approaches each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Describe each of these approaches and compare them in terms of indexing documents and their subsequent retrieval by users.

5. Increasingly advertisements for reference librarian position include instructional duties in the job responsibilities. What are the general missions of reference and instructional services – how do they compare and contrast? What is achieved by combining these two distinct services into single positions, and what skills will new librarians need in order to fill them?

November 16, 2007

1. In the last two decades, there have been significant changes in modern information organization and retrieval systems by: A) the advent of the Web such as search engines and subject directories and B) the current development of Web 2.0 such as blog, wiki-type, and tagging systems. Provide primary characteristics of information retrieval systems in each of the three stages (prior to the Web; after the advent of the Web and prior to the Web 2.0; after the current Web 2.0) in the following perspectives: 1) approach or guiding principles and 2) methods and tools used in organization and access of information.

2. Library users accustomed to the simplicity of Google searching increasingly expect libraries to provide a similar type of “one-stop searching.” Thus it is important for libraries to develop an effective metasearch (also called federated or broadcast searching) of diverse electronic resources. Write an essay that discusses the following: 1) the challenges that many, unconnected electronic resources present to information seekers; 2) the standards and technologies that could be used to support the goal of metasearching; 3) the advantages and disadvantages that such an integrated, one-stop searching system might create for users; and 4) any effects metasearching might have on traditional reference service in physical libraries.

3. Should libraries be charging fees for any of their services -- “premium” or otherwise? In the case of publicly funded libraries, isn't that a kind of double-taxation, in which users pay taxes to support libraries, and then have to pay again when they use them? Conversely, do all services need to be free, or just the ones that are relatively inexpensive to provide? Provide arguments on both sides of this issue.

4. In light of increasing competition for funding as well as insistence upon documenting the connection between funding and results, strategic planning has become critical. In this context, and from a type of library of your choice, discuss how you would develop a strategic plan, who would be involved and how, paying attention to the political and public relations dimensions of your planning.

5. Select a type of library (academic, public, school, or special) and write an essay in which you discuss the relationship between that type of library and its larger host system that created it. Emphasize aspects of the relationship that are especially important to the library and identify steps and policies the library should pursue in an effort to have a satisfactory relationship with it host system.

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