Practice Exam 3

Graduate School of Library and Information Studies University of Rhode Island
Comprehensive Examination November 20,1999

INSTRUCTIONS: Put your assigned number on each blue book cover you use. Do NOT put your name. Answer ONE question from each of the THREE sections below. Indicate the Section number and the question number that you answered on each blue book cover.

PHILOSOPHY OR THEORY

1 William James, philosophy teacher at Harvard in the early 1900s, defined people who are "toughminded" as having the intellectual apparatus and toughness of spirit to adapt to change by taking the initiative to search for truth and to seek answers and thus, solve problems. Give an example of applying "tough-mindedness" in an ethical decision for the intelligent management of people, information, and/or access to information in libraries?

2. Ellen Altman, feature editor of Public Libraries, doubts "the oft-repeated statement that people would come 'if only they knew what we have to offer."' Many people, she suspects, know what libraries have to offer and are simply not interested. Assuming that she is fight, is this a matter of concern for libraries? Why or Why not?

APPLICATIONS

1. LCSH and Sears subject heading lists are controlled vocabularies. Users need to have some familiarity with them before they can use them effectively. From the users point of view, what are the advantages and disadvantages of using controlled and uncontrolled vocabularies in information retrieval systems? For a library or information setting of your choice, state whether you will use controlled or uncontrolled vocabularies in your information retrieval system and identify how you will train your users to effectively use the system you chose.

2. Reference service, the personal help given to library users by librarians, is being transformed by the new information technologies. Select one aspect of reference service (e.g., question answering, readers' advisory work, or library instruction) and discuss the opportunities and challenges to be faced in creating an ideal twenty-first century service to enable users to get the information they need.

CURRENT ISSUES

1. One of the latest censorship rows surrounds J.K. Rowling's books about a boy wizard named Harry Potter. In a recent New York Times op-ed essay, "Is Harry Potter Evil?", Judy Blume raises the question of what censors fear in children's literature. She said censors objected to her YA books because her realistic fiction was too real, while censors today object to Rowling's fantasy books at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as too fantastic or evil for a child's imagination. What do censors fear and how can a library prepare a response to these censorship challenges? What process should a library of your choice adopt to address these censorship challenges?

2. In October 1998 the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed. Prior to passage Congress debated the issue of database protection. The DMCA was passed without database provisions but the issue is sure to surface again. To what extent should databases be protected under present copyright?