1. Special collections may be relatively expensive to acquire, catalog, preserve, and service. Discuss the criteria on which library directors should base a decision to establish and/or augment an institution's holdings in special collections.

2. Using paraprofessionals to deliver reference service is often advocated by management, but resisted by professional reference staff. Review the arguments for and against using paraprofessionals in reference service, and describe possible uses of paraprofessionals in this function that you think represent reasonable compromises between the sometimes extreme positions of management and professional staff.

3. Over the past hundred years the Library of Congress has played a significant role in the development of cataloging codes and affected American cataloging practices in various ways. Describe and assess these influences of the Library of Congress.

4. In the face of budget constraints, librarians and archivists are turning to corporate and other outside funding sources. Discuss the institutional and ethical factors that librarians and archivists in various types of institutions should consider before seeking and/or accepting such support.

5. Meeting the information needs of special groups may require materials and services different from those of the general user. Choose a special user group and discuss how libraries and information centers can best meet the group's unique information needs. Include, but do not necessarily limit your discussion to, the characteristics of your group, the kind of facility and collection best suited-to its members' use, and the kinds of service they are most likely to want.

6. Some librarians are beginning to feel that the traditional Library Bill of Rights needs to be revised and extended to the electronic media. Propose a basic electronic bill of rights, explaining the necessity for each element in your list.

7. Essential to organizing effective information systems is an understanding of how people think (that is, how they classify and label objects, people, and ideas; how they make connections or links between facts and ideas; and how they filter incoming information). Defend or dispute this statement with examples.

8. Leadership in library and information science is hard to define with precision. Name three leaders you have come to admire during your course of study. What contributions to the profession do you associate with them? Drawing on the three cases you have cited, how do you define leadership?

9. There is evidence to suggest that the video cassette is a rapidly growing format in some library collections. Choose a type of library and assume that it does not have video cassettes currently in its collection although there is sufficient demand for considering the addition of this format. Discuss the factors that would need to be considered in making the decision whether to include video cassettes in the library's collection.

10. Many libraries and information centers are shifting the emphasis from ownership of collections to access to information as needed or on demand- Discuss the reasons for this change and the ways in which it might affect library service.

Return to Comprehensive Examination Questions Page