Yesterday, I took my comprehensive exam in Knoxville at the school. Since I've been sick and coughing my head off, I emailed the exam committee chair earlier this week to see if there was anything that could be done so I wouldn't be sitting in a room full of my stressed out classmates and coughing during the exam. Thankfully, I was allowed to take my exam by myself (with a proctor, of course). And I still coughed my head off -- probably about 20 minutes of straight coughing. It was rough for me, but the proctor didn't even flinch. I was grateful for that.
The exam itself consisted of three sections of two essay questions each. I had to pick one question from each section and answer it. I had been really nervous about the test because even though I've learned a ton during this program, I still wasn't confident in my ability to answer the questions. I was afraid I'd blank and forget everything I learned.
Thankfully that did not happen.
I chose questions that asked about a specific theory I've learned and how I would/could apply it to an information setting of my choice. Naturally, I chose my current work situation (but I referenced it in a vague way so as to not give away myself to the review committee. I felt if I named my agency or gave specifics about my work, someone might recognize it and therefore compromise the anonymity needed for them to objectively grade my work) and Buckland's "information-as-thing" theory. I enjoyed writing that answer, truly.
The second question I chose asked about the digital divide -- which is the gap related to accessing information. Some groups experience barriers to accessing information due to discrimination (i.e., libraries instituting policies that directly ban things like having extraordinarily strong body odor, which prevents certain homeless individuals from using public libraries). Some individuals also may lack the needed skills to find information they need -- they lack information literacy. This question was also fun to answer and I am pretty confident in my answer.
The third question asked about how controlled vocabularies and user-generated content such as tagging (e.g., Delicious bookmarks) can (or possibly not) work together. It's interesting to think about how tagging could enrich metadata records if catalogers would add fields for user-generated tags. I don't think controlled vocabularies and tagging need to exist in a mutually exclusive manner.
Anyway, I only need to earn a "pass" from each of the reviewers in order to pass the exam. And if I pass, then I get to graduate! I think I did well enough to earn a pass, but I won't find out my result until around April 17th, when the results are due to the Graduate School. Although getting through the test itself has reduced my stress level a whole lot, I will still be anxious as I wait for my result and then still until I get through the hooding ceremony. It's just how I am.
