Core exam questions
From GSLISWiki
Here is a list of old Core Exam questions gathered from the past few years. This was complete as of Fall 2004 (Cameron).
Contents |
[edit] History of Libraries and Information Science
- With reference to the appropriate literature, discuss the current intellectual scope of the field of library and information science. How do you think it is likely to develop in the near future? In your answer you may want to refer to the evolution of the field and the growing interdisciplinary that seems to be driving many of the developments in it.
- With reference to the appropriate literature, produce a classification of the major components of the field of library and information science; and then show how each component can be applied to the solution of a particular problem of your choice (such as the development of digital libraries; designing community information systems and so forth).
- The development of an interdisciplinary field like LIS is characterized by heated debates about solutions to important problems in the field. From time to time the problems appear to be solved and debate dies down. For example, the card catalog, the book, even the library itself, were such solutions. However, developments in technology or in related disciplines revive or reshape old problems--or create new problems--in LIS, thus beginning fresh debates. Discuss, illustrating your answer by analyzing two or more such problems.
- The problem of managing information so that the cumulating record of knowledge held collectively by society is made communicable, retrievable and preserved for current and future use is as old as society itself. In recent times, this problem has been assuming an ever larger importance such that it is not uncommon for various kinds of experts to argue that an information revolution has occurred or that an information society has emerged or that we are experiencing an information crisis. While not entering into the controversies that the interpretation of such terminology has engendered, discuss some of the developments over the last fifty or so years that help both to define the information problem in modern society while at the same time represent approaches to its solution. Based on your analysis, discuss the emergence of library and information sciences as an interdisciplinary field with whatever strengths and weaknesses that you see as characteristic of it. In your answer discuss at least FOUR (4) of the following:
- Changing institutional arrangements for the storage and retrieval of information
- The growth and diversification of research and the industrial and commercial consequences of this
- Pressures on the systems of scientific and technical publication
- The introduction, gradual diffusion and impact of new information technologies
- The emergence of different media of recording information, changing awareness of their informative value
- The postwar development of government policy and foundation support
- The emergence of new research fields in which aspects of the study of information are undertaken
- Henry Ford was of the view that history is bunk (that is, he felt that history was irrelevant in the development of new technology). With the developments that have been occurring to create what some call an information revolution, Ford's assessment would seem to some to be particularly apt today. Do you agree? If so, why? If not, why not?
- There have been a number of influential statements about the need for universal information access in the sense of access to all of the world's information and how this might be achieved, for example the schemes of Otlet, Wells, Bush and Licklider. Discuss one or more of these schemes, indicating what is meant by information and how it is proposed that it should be organized and made available. How realistic do you think such schemes are in our current environment of the World Wide Web, and information services provided by organizations such as the Library of Congress, OCLC and the National Library of Medicine? Analyze the nature of the tensions that are created in the provision of the kind of comprehensive, generic access that these schemes seem to imply and the growing perception that given the amount and complexity of information that is potentially available, highly contextualized and flexible systems must be developed that are responsive to individual needs and uses.
- After all is said and done, technology is a human tool. How do electronic patterns of information dissemination and access--both formal and informal--repeat themselves or depart from traditional paper-based (and/or oral) forms? Illustrate your answer by examples from at least two different user populations.
- With current developments in Internet and web technology, a number of changes have taken place, in both the home and office, in terms of a) patterns of access to information, and b) processes of formal and informal communication. Discuss the nature of the most important of these changes. Then analyze the implications of those changes for people's work and social lives.
- The field of LIS has been strongly influenced by both cognitive and social approaches to understanding how people interact with information and technologies. Both perspectives have been important to the study of relevance, information seeking and use, human-computer interaction, and related research areas. Contrast the two orientations. Choose one and consider its strengths and contributions to the development of information systems.
- What are libraries? Why do we have them? Discuss the changes that have occurred in our conception of the nature and function of libraries in the last fifty or sixty years. Do they have a future? What are the core principles that structure (or should structure) library functions and how have our views of these principles changed?
- Some analysts view the internet and “the web†as constituting a radically new form of technology and community that lives and breathes on its own. For those who hold this view, the internet and web seem to attract people who operate under new cyber rules, building flexible new identities, forming new kinds of social groups, and creating entirely new kinds of work. Other analysts fail to see the novelty of the internet and web. They consider computer-mediated interactions to be essentially extensions of existing offline practices, norms and behaviors. They find some changes in how personal and work-related interactions are handled, but not in what they are fundamentally. Discuss the research that supports these two different views of the impact of the internet and web on work, community and identity.
- Discuss current and developing trends in LIS relating to at least three (3) of the following areas. In your answer, refer to and discuss appropriate sources.- the information needs and behaviors of particular user populations, such as children and young adults, student populations, different scholarly disciplines, professional groups and/or the general public
- the implications of information technology for present and future information organization and delivery
- the impact of information technology on how people work and how they exchange information
- the potential conflicts of ethics and responsibility for the information professional in both providing and limiting access to sources and materials in both the print and electronic environments the extent to which the predictions of some of the early visionaries in the field such as Bush and Licklider anticipated modern developments. Are there new developments not foreseen by them?
- Information retrieval (IR) involves the attempt to build technologies to make it easier for end users to get access to the information they want. Research in the field builds on earlier work as well as drawing on research from many other disciplines. Briefly explain how IR has benefited from this interdisciplinary cross-fertilisation in the past. Outline some promising future directions of study that could result from a closer interaction between researchers in IR and a field of your choice. Explain why you believe this would be productive and the kind of research activities that could be undertaken in other fields or areas of broader disciplines. [MT]
- What did Bush and Licklider get right in their predictions for the LIS future? What did they get wrong? What did they fail to take into consideration?
- Library and Information Science is considered to be a multidisciplinary field of study and research that supports a range of professional practices. Traditionally the field developed with the library at its core and programs of library education focused on the preparation of professional librarians. Recently, however, a number of LIS schools have removed "library" from their names. This raises some interesting and perplexing questions. In your view how important nowadays is the library to the field in terms both of professional practice and research? What has led some schools to remove the word "library" from their names? To what extent might one argue, for example, that a focus on the library holds back the development of the field both in terms of university politics and in terms of restricting the development of effective interdisciplinary relationships? On the other hand, what are some of the reasons why some Schools might want to retain the word "library" in their names? To what extent, for example, does it signify useful disciplinary boundaries and help provide identity in a field that otherwise would be somewhat unfocussed and vulnerable to takeover by other disciplines? (The examples given in this question are intended merely to suggest some lines of argument. There are others and you should discuss any and all that you think are important in answering the question in a persuasive, nuanced way.) (FALL 2003)
- Recent developments in the technologies of networked computing, the Internet and the WWW have created social and institutional changes so great that some analysts claim that these developments have given birth to a radically new and "postmodern" information society, a true break with the past. There are a number of reasonable positions one might adopt with respect to such claims. One might agree that the changes are in kind and degree such that something quite new has occurred that requires revolutionary new approaches to how we deal with information. One might argue instead that the changes, as revolutionary as they may seem, represent fundamental historical continuities which we ignore at our peril. What is your view? Explain giving examples to illustrate your points.
[edit] Intersection of Technology and the Social / Social Informatics
- Specialized document and data repositories are increasingly being developed to support the information needs of corporations, scientific communites, etc. The materials included in these repositories often support primarily formal communications within a larger network. Explain the role of informal communication networks within organizations and communities, and consider ways in which formal systems could be integrated with informal networks.
- In what senses are information systems and tools socially situated. What does this tell us about why systems fail or are successful? What kind of research does this lead to in terms of systems design and human information processing? (20%)
- Explore how research in the use of information by particular communities can be used to inform the design of information systems (technical and/or organizational) which are more effective. Illustrate by drawing on examples from at least two different communities. Example communities include particular groups of scientists, humanities researchers, children, young adults, and low-income families. You are not restricted to those examples. Consider how evolving use of the same resource by different communities can add to the design problem. For example, MEDLINE was originally developed for medical librarians in support of medical professionals, but is now widely used directly by the general public. What types of sources are appropriate and what changes in presentation are needed?
- "What is social informatics and why does it matter?"(Kling). Illustrate your answer by a discussion of relevant studies reported in the literature
[edit] Computer Supported Cooperative Work
- Explore how an interface to a computerized information system could or should be developed to serve a particular group who is typically underserved by conventional provision. Example groups might include: K-12 teachers; people in developing countries; children accessing literature in a public library; low income families seeking information about government benefits, training programs, job opportunities and tax advice; people with low literacy skills; people with visual disabilities; and the elderly
- Explore how an interface to a computerized information system could or should be developed to serve most effectively a particular group who is typically underserved by conventional provision. Example groups to choose are: children accessing literature in a public library; low income families seeking information about government benefits, training programs, job opportunities and tax advice; people with low literacy skills, people with visual disabilities and the elderly.
- The design of information systems may explicitly or implicitly reflect certain norms and information policies with respect to such issues as intellectual freedom and intellectual property rights--who has access to what information under what conditions. Once such systems are made accessible over the web, they may be used by a wide range of individuals both from the local community (who may hold a range of values) and around the globe (from countries with different information policies). Drawing on relevant literature, identify examples of tensions created by this situation and proposals for their resolution.
- Traditional libraries have supported the information needs of large numbers of people, especially by providing dependable (i.e., archived) access to typical documents such as printed books, well-known papers, etc. Small teams of people working together need support for organizing and accessing such documents, but they also need support for additional types of materials and activities. These might include managing working documents in paper or electronic formats, sharing both formal and informal information, managing tacit knowledge, etc. Give us your ideas on some information needs of small teams and how they could be met. Contrast these small-team needs and approaches to more traditional information needs and approaches supported in traditional library arenas."
- Identify a set of information needs for a particular user community. Pick one technology that might be applied to meet a key subset (or all) of these needs. What are some of the technical and social issues that would need to be addressed in order for this technology to be successfully developed and implemented?
[edit] Computer Mediated Communication
- There are many references in the literature to the problems of being "lost in hyperspace." What kinds of tools and research agendas area available for dealing with this problem. Which strategies represent the best chances of success? (20%).NOV 1998
- There has been much literature about the forms and dynamics of digital communities. How appropriate is it to speak in terms of community when discussing the Internet and the WWW? How are communities the same and different in the real and the digital world when it comes to the information communication and use? (20%) NOV 1998
- CSCW technologies, taken broadly as a class, are designed to support group work within and across organizations and institutions. They often incorporate technologies for group work: maintaining shared information spaces, jointly developing and modifying artifacts, coordinating activities, and tracking group histories. What are some of the assumptions they make about group work (as opposed to individual work)? What assumptions do they make about institutions and organizations? Draw on several examples of CSCW or other groupware systems to evaluate whether or not these assumptions are appropriate, and what kinds of problems or opportunities they may lead to.
- Over the past 100 years libraries have functioned as places where librarians can provide services to individuals and groups--reference, readers' advisory, instruction, and programming such as storytelling. As networking enlarges the population of "remote users", how might librarians draw on concepts and research findings from the literature in computer-supported cooperative work and computer-mediated communication to develop network-based services?
- Specialized document and data repositories are increasingly being developed to support the information needs of corporations, scientific communities, etc. The materials included in these repositories often support primarily formal communications within a larger network. Explain the role of informal communication networks within organizations and communities, and suggest ways in which formal systems can be integrated with informal networks FALL 1998
- Discuss the issues of disintermediation in the access of information. What are the implications for the design of information systems if they are PRINCIPALLY to be used by end users rather than skilled intermediaries? How can end-user access and the use of intermediaries be effectively and efficiently combined? Explore the problem within a particular context, such as medical informatics Sep 1998
- Design of both physical and digital libraries are often informed by studies of information use. Certain distinctions between groups have been used as a means of analysis, such as expert/novice, children/adults, general public/students/resarchers, or by discipline, profession, or research community. What are the problems with the use of these kinds of distinctions as a means of analysis? Consider how information use studies should inform the design of a digital library of your choosing. Discuss how the practices of a particular group could inform the representation and organization of information in that digital library.
[edit] Communication of Information and User Communities
- Explore how research in the use of information by particular communities can be used to inform the design of information systems (technical and/or organizational) which are more effective. Illustrate by drawing on examples from at least two different communities. Example communities include particular groups of scientists, humanities researchers, children, young adults, and low-income families. You are not restricted to those examples. Consider how evolving use of the same resource by different communities can add to the design problem. For example, MEDLINE was originally developed for medical librarians in support of medical professionals, but is now widely used directly by the general public. What types of sources are appropriate and what changes in presentation are needed?
- Building on existing models and concepts in LIS and cognate fields, propose your own model of the dynamics of information transfer among groups of people or knowledge domains. The model can be general or specific to certain groups or domains but should account for how information/knowledge grows and interacts and should be illustrated by an analysis of examples. You may include a schematic but a carefully reasoned discussion is also required
[edit] Scientific and Scholarly Communication
- Discuss how studies of scholarly communication could inform the design of new work support systems for scholars. Focus on a specific community of scholars. In your analysis include a description of specific design improvements that you propose in, for example, system interfaces, functionality, and search mechanisms. You may also wish to consider some of the following:
- Better support for the sharing of information about each others work, including work in progress
- Better support for scholars marginalized in the field (for example, by their geographic isolation, or by not belonging to a research-centric institution)
- Better support for new entrants to the scholarly community you have chosen
- Better support for doing research in the area
- Better support for collaborative authoring of papers, collaborative editing of books and conference proceedings, management of peer review, writing of grant proposals.
- It has been claimed that the scholarly journal will soon be (or perhaps already is) changing radically in order to exploit the opportunities made available by digital computers and networks. Improvements in functionality, effectiveness, cost, timeliness, and accessibility have all been envisioned. Discuss one or more possible changes that might occur, or is occurring, analyzing the relevant technologies, social structures, obstacles or difficulties, and disadvantages and advantages.
[edit] Reading, Children and Youth Literature and Services
- Reading practices vary as a result of many factors such as age, occupation, the impact of various kinds of technology and the different purposes that motivate reading. Discuss. In your answer provide examples and draw on relevant research and theory.
- Bettelheim wrote, "In a fairy tale, internal processes are externalized and become comprehensible as represented by the figures of the story and its events" (p. 25). He also wrote, "The myth is pessimistic, while the fairy story is optimistic" (p. 37). Are there mythic or fairy tale motifs or elements that are particularly appropriate--or particularly inappropriate--to use in describing changes in any area of the LIS world during the past century? Explain, using specific examples.
- Children comprise a large percentage of the U.S. population, and children's services have played an important part in the development of LIS. Discuss the relationship of children's literature, storytelling, and literacy--in a continuum from traditional to innovative forms. As part of the question, examine the way gender has affected this dynamic
- The nature of reading, the concept of literacy, and the variety of publication genres have evolved over time, shaped by both social and technological factors. Drawing on relevant literature, explore aspects of continuity and change in two of these areas (reading, literacy, publication genres) in a networked environment of electronic publications.
[edit] Information Organization and Access
[edit] Representation and Classification
- Has classification become obsolete in the world of full text and automated indexing? How might it evolve? How might users become involved in the classification process?
- Effective design of information retrieval depends critically on tailoring the feasible technology to a particular class of users and their particular needs. When the users change or the needs change, often system effectiveness decreases and the system must be redesigned. For example, medical record systems need to be redesigned as the users change from professionals (doctors) to amateurs (patients) and as the needs of the users change from acute (hospital) to chronic (home) care. Choose a particular type of information system (it need not be a medical information system) that has undergone major changes in users and needs. Describe the changes and discuss the new design requirements they entail. (25%)
- In the past only information professionals used information systems. This was especially true of online retrieval, such as bibliographic databases on Dialog, but even early OPACs depended heavily on the availability of librarians to assist users . Today, the use of information systems is dominated by the general public. The Web supports full-text search by millions of users every day, and public libraries support catalog access by the general public inside the library building or even at home. Web search systems (e.g., Netscape, Yahoo) are usable by the general public, while Dialog is not, even though both provide much the same functionality. How and why are these types of search systems different? Discuss particularly what technological features are necessary for an effective information system for the general public, what it must and must not do to be widely popular. (25%)
- A long tradition in experimental information retrieval emphasizes precision and recall as performance measures and a basis for comparison among different systems. Such measures imply that the most important goal of a retrieval system is to locate all relevant documents and to filter out all nonrelevant documents. How useful are these measures in a world populated by many different information retrieval systems (online catalogs, internet search engines, commercial online search systems such as Dialog and Ovid providing access to many different databases) used by both novice and experienced searchers? What other types of evaluation might be introduced to supplement or replace them?
- Some researchers claim that with digitization, electronic gateways, digital libraries, e-books and so on, we are rapidly approaching a situation in which there will be little or no need in most cases for libraries to be concerned with paper-based resources. Digital access to information will become the core function of libraries. When libraries additionally manage paper-based materials they will effectively be acting as museums of the book or storehouses of last resort. Discuss.
- Modern information technologies offer the potential for ever more access to information and sophisticated kinds of searching, analysis, data mining, etc. For example, government documents are now largely available on the Web, and with the growth of digital data archives we are now able to produce new data by combining or correlating different data sources. Focusing on either the technical or policy implications, explore both the desirable and undesirable consequences of these developments for who can and cannot have access to the information involved in the context of a particular use or set of uses
- It has been argued that the World Wide Web constitutes an unordered mass of documents of dubious veracity. What are the unique problems that characterize organization of information on the web compared to traditional libraries and archives? Sketch out some current or potential strategies for addressing the problems you identified.
[edit] Information Storage and Retrieval
- Precision and recall are two common mathematical measures of IR system success. Many accounts indicate a tradeoff between them: tuning a system for higher precision ultimately results in lower recall, and vice versa. Explain this tradeoff. Why would such a phenomenon occur? Is it necessarily true of all IR systems? What classes of IR system (if any) would be immune from such a tradeoff, and why?
- There is a tension between the desirable stability of classification systems and attempts to provide more flexible access mechanisms. Forces of change include a changing user population and the ability to bypass intermediaries. Another force toward flexibility is the rapid expansion of information and terminology that may not fit well into existing systems. What kind of methods and research strategies might address this?
- A long tradition in experimental information retrieval emphasizes precision and recall as performance measures and a basis for comparison among different systems. What are the problems with these measures? How useful are these measures for evaluating real-world systems? Discuss the desirability of using other types of evaluation to supplement or replace precision and recall
- No classification system is completely stable over time. Meanings of terms evolve, relationships among categories change, and so on. Why does this happen? What types of forces and conditions shape such changes? What issues does this volatility raise for sustaining and supporting information collections?
- Establishing the "relevance" of documents to information needs is widely regarded as one of the central issues of information retrieval. What is the relevance problem, why is it hard, and why is it important? What special issues arise in establishing relevance for search and retrieval in on-text collections such as music, video, images, or cultural and scientific artifacts?
- In the contemporary networked environment, users often access and interact with full-text materials without the help of formal catalogs or indexes, and the texts they retrieve are fluid, not fixed. The provenance and original state of a text may be difficult or impossible to discern, and content providers or users can easily alter the content and structure of a text. Discuss the relationship between text and context in print and electronic information systems and the implications for any or all of the following: bibliographic control, metadata, and information retrieval.
- Information retrieval (IR) involves the attempt to build technologies to make it easier for end users to get access to the information they want. Research in the field builds on earlier work as well as drawing on research from many other disciplines. Briefly explain how IR has benefited from this interdisciplinary cross-fertilization in the past. Outline some promising future directions of study that could result from a closer interaction between researchers in IR and a field of your choice. Explain why you believe this would be productive and the kind of research activities that could be undertaken in other fields or areas of broader disciplines. [MT]
- One of the arguments that is made for the role of the discipline of LIS in shaping the emerging information infrastructure is that we have a long and continuous history of dealing with the problems that are cropping up today. Describe two or more different perspectives gleaned from research in other contexts that could be usefully applied to the organization of the World Wide Web. Are these lessons being applied? Use specific examples to support your argument
- Discuss how new business models in the era of the Web might duplicate core services traditionally provided by libraries. For example, online shopping for new and used books is similar to interlibrary loan but with different economics. Question-answering services like AskJeeves can respond to some of the same questions one typically would ask of a reference librarian. Free access to Britannica Online means one does not have to go to the library to consult a high quality encyclopedia. Self-publishing by authors on the web and web-based issues of journals provided by commercial publishers give researchers access to publications from their desktops instead of going to the library. What are obstacles to successful deployment of these new models? How are they likely to shape the role of libraries in the future? Consider economic, technological, and sociological factors.
- It has been argued that the World Wide Web constitutes an unordered mass of documents of dubious veracity. It has also been claimed that in the future world of community repositories, everyone will be a bit of a librarian. There will be millions of amateur indexers maintaining collections on the Net. These people will be subject experts but may be untrained in librarianship. What are the problems that arise from these claims and that characterize organization of information on the web compared to traditional libraries, archives and museums? Sketch out some current or potential strategies for addressing these problems
- Information retrieval research has a tradition of assessing performance by using judgments about the relevance of retrieved items. The concept of relevance has been criticized since the Cranfield retrieval experiments when it was first introduced, but it continues to be important in library and information science research. Discuss how the concept has been used and the criticisms that have been made of it. To the extent that it has limitations, how should the concept of relevance be augmented or replaced in assessments of retrieval effectiveness?
[edit] Information Policy
- The design of information systems may explicitly or implicitly reflect certain norms and information policies with respect to such issues as intellectual freedom and intellectual property rights--who has access to what information under what conditions. Once such systems are made accessible over the web, they may be used by a wide range of individuals both from the local community (who may hold a range of values) and around the globe (from countries with different information policies). Drawing on relevant literature, identify examples of tensions created by this situation and proposals for their resolution.
- The process of developing and arguing policy should be more extensive than simply advocating a position or option. Illustrate how you propose it should be done, using the most important information policy issue you can think to raise. How should we conceptualize and explain the issue? That is, how should the sub-issues involved be conceptually framed, specified, and documented? Do not just advocate your preferred policy option. Rather show how the issue itself needs to be explored and what process should be followed to develop an effective policy toward it.
[edit] Policy Research in LIS
- Actively in the Courts and through a range of policy initiatives such as the Library Bill of Rights, Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks: An Interpretation of the library Bill of Rights, and the Freedom to Read Statement, the American Library Association promotes intellectual freedom and opposes censorship. Do all libraries? Discuss with examples what can happen to this core professional value in actual library practice. In your answer analyze such factors as:
- community pressures,
- competing positions and policies sometimes held by a library’s parent organization,
- policy initiatives at the local, state and national levels beyond a library’s control,
- economic constraints,
- Developments in technology.
- What is the impact of such factors on a library’s ability to promote intellectual freedom and to oppose censorship? How are the factors typically accommodated or resisted in practice? You may want to identify other factors or restrict yourself to one or more of those listed here
[edit] Intellectual Freedom and Privacy
[edit] Intellectual Property/Copyright
- Asheim's dichotomy between censorship and selection, although not an absolute measure, has provided a useful guideline for bibliographers and other selectors, particularly to those in a traditional library (print on paper) environment. Can this distinction be adapted or translated for use in an electronic environment? If so, how might this dichotomy be usefully described for this new environment? If not, why not? Use specific examples to support your argument.
- Intellectual freedom and intellectual property have been issues much debated in the history of LIS, but new challenges have arisen vis a vis technological communications. Access to porn sites in public libraries is an example of the former; ownership of faculty-created online materials is an example of the latter. Discuss some principles that have evolved from earlier debates and how those principles are useful (or not) in considering current web-based situations
[edit] Universal Access
- Some universities are considering merging their libraries and computer services into a single information services organization. What does the literature of library and information science have to tell us about the opportunities and problems that might occur with such a merger, and ways in which (depending on your preference) it might be managed more effectively, or successfully resisted?
- In the ideology of librarianship, public libraries play an important social role in the provision of universal access to information. They are to provide materials and services for all without regard to socioeconomic status, ethnic and religious backgrounds, political affiliations and the nature of the information need, among other things. Historically, public libraries have been considered to be “Arsenals of Democratic Culture,†“the University of the People,†as places for making freely available sources of enlightened recreation and opportunities for self-advancement. The struggle of the public library for effective inclusiveness has been marked by innovations in service delivery, the introduction of new kinds of materials and technologies, and by organizational arrangements of various kinds. Yet despite all of this, some argue that public libraries remain essentially capitalist institutions that serve the interests of a middle class white clientele, in part because of the legal and economic system in which they are embedded. Discuss both sides of this issue.

